Savings Needed For Retirement Rule Of Thumb

An article recently appeared in  the  Columbus Dispatch  and  the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. The original article  was  written by Donna Gehrkee-White. The primary point of  the article  was  to  give savers a rule of  thumb to  help  determine how much money they need to  have saved prior to  retirement.  Whats nice  about  the approach is it doesnt assume  that everyone has  the  same  number. Of course everyones stlye of living and  retiring is differen, therefore their personal savinggs need is also going to  be  different. The  suggested  rule of  thumb is this.  You  should have 8 Years worth of income saved in order to plan on a comfortable retirement. In other  words if your last years income was 40,000  then 8 x 40,000  = $320,000 and if  your inccome was $150,000 then  you  should  have $1,200,000 in savings.  This  serves as a starting point. If a retiree has a large pension lifetime income stream  they may be able to  reduce the saving $ needed to  secure a safe  retirement. If  they dont they may  want  to  increase the amount they  save  before they retire. 

You  can  also work a  few extra  years to  increase  saving and  decrease  the  amount of  savings needed. Remember  this also increases their  Social Security income for life. We have  available a Social Security Calculator that  lets a client determine the optimum age to begin their Social Security Income benefit and if they are married helps to strategize how and when to begin taking SS income. This is just one of the services we offer to our retirement clients.  We also  help to increase their retirement income WITHOUT MARKET RISK.

Polaris Financial Services
614-264-3864

How safe are Moneymarket Funds?

The Washington Post recently published some interesting comments quoted from Mary Shapiro who just happens to be the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Many people park funds in these Moneymarket accounts believing that they are both Safe and Liquid.
Just how Safe are they?
Remember What happened in 2008 when Primary Reserve Fund share prices fell below $1.00
you could Google it or search newspaper archives. Students of history suggest that History repeats itself

Mary was quoted as saying - investors "have been given a false sense of security"
"Funds remain vulnerable to the reality that a single moneymarket fund fund breaking the buck could trigger a broad and destabilizing run"
She went on to say that in a crunch investors may face limits on withdrawals

I am not telling anyone to buy or not to buy these products.
I just found the comments by Mary to be extremely interesting and maybe even a little bit unsettling!
What do you think??

There are financial products available that have no market risk. There are other financial products that include various amounts of market risk. Understand what you are buying! Everyone needs to understand the diference between what I like to call Safe Money and Risk Money. For most people there needs to be a combination of both! What is your comfort level between the two?

I believe it was Wil Rogers the intellectual cowboy who once said "I'm more concerned with the return of my money, than the return on my money"

Hope to Receive A State Pension Read This

Just read an aticle talking about State funding of their pension Liabilities. 16 state are seriously underfunded. They have reserves in their pension funds covering only 75% of their obligations. f That is down even more than the 77 % of their pension obligations when evaluated just two years ago. Looking for a state funded pension. What does this shortfall mean?

There are only four possible alternatives.
First,These states can increase taxes significantly on all taxpayers to correct this deficiency.
Second, the state can try and reduce the value of the pensions for current or future retirees.
Third, states can combine one and two.
or Last, they can stick their heads in the sand and pray it will resolve itself.

What do you think will happen?.
I think these states will try a combination of options one and two. They may also increase the retirement age.

There is a message here for state employees. You need to be looking for ways to cover a possible pension shortfall with your own savings or retirement assets. We can help! We specialize in Safe Money Financial Alternatives.

Are Your Retirement Savings Adequate?

Many people Today are very concerned that they have not saved enough money for their retirement. Unfortunately most of them are right! They have not yet saved enough for a comfortable retirement. A lucky minority have already saved enough for retirement. We can still help this group by protecting their assets from market risk or market loss.

If you have not saved enough for your retirement that means one of two things will happen. Both alternatives are very bad. First, you can run out of money while you are still alive. Many people fear this even more than death! Second you will have to significantly cut back on you cost of living which will make retirement a very unpleasant experience, at best. This group REALLY needs professional help. There are financial products that help accomplish two critical goals. They protect you from all market risk. They can guarantee you an income stream that you can not outlive. Sounds nice doesn't it!

To find out which category you fall in we have found a very nice Retirement Calculator. By the way its FREE! Its on the MSN Money website and I am giving you the link. Check it out!

http://money.msn.com/retirement/retirement-calculator.aspx?GT1=33013

After you have checked it out if you would like some help protecting you assets or increasing your saving for retirement let us know if we can help.

Safe Money and Safe Money Places

We were reading industry finance information and found a really interesting web Site. We decided to share it with you our readers. It is http://www.safemoneyplaces.com/default.asp
It talks about the concept of Safe Money defining it as money you cannot afford to loose and the places where you should consider holding your safe money assets. It basically identifies three major categories and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The three broad types of safe money products identified are, Insured Deposits in FDIC Insured Banks or S&L Associations, Treasury Securities, and Fixed or Fixed Indexed Annuities. It talks about the levels of protection each entails including FDIC Insurance, Taxing power of the US Government and the State Insurance Guaranty funds. All three are identified as very secure places for your funds.

Of the three the one which probably can deliver the greatest rate of growth is the top Fixed Indexed Annuity products. None of our clients have ever lost even one dollar of their money to market risk while those funds were under our care.

We can help you to meet your twin goals of safety of principal and optimum growth rates.

How can we help you Grow your assets?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Failure

Both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are expected to go into US federal Receivership. The cost for the US Taxpayer is expected to top $25 B. The current value of Mortgages owned or guaranteed is over $5.3 Trillion. They are the two largest guarantee holders or owners of US mortgages. Beside the Taxpayer cost what is the expected cost for US investors. The Columbus Dispatch on Sunday indicated that the Shareholders are expected to loose virtually everything! Ouch! Talk about Market Risk! Many financial analysts, brokers or writers have historically considered Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to be safe investments. I think I have heard that before! I wonder what the shareholders are thinking tonight!

We specialize in Safer Money Alternatives without market risk. Sound interesting? Want to learn more? If you are looking for safer ways to position your assets or part of your assets for your future we might be able to help you.

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Earn a 12 percent Bonus

If someone said that they would give you a 12% bonus when you decided to save money would you talk to them? Lets say you decided to save $20,000 for the next 10 years or longer. Your day one account balance would be $22,400. Would that get your attention? Every time you decided to put money aside for the next 5 years you can get an immediate 12% bonus. This works for your long term needs whether it is for your retirement or for college saving. This is in a ten year or longer saving vehicle, with a surrender charge if you decide to take your money and run before the surrender charge period expires. It does permit penalty free access to a portion of your funds annually.

You get a tax deferred growth strategy. No IRS 1099 form is generated until you withdraw money. You have a chance to make about 7% in an average year and the possibility of double digit gains of up to about 20 % in a great year. In a really bad year when many people are loosing 10-25% you won't lose a nickle! Each years gains are 100% vested. You have zero market risk of loss of principal. This is one option available from one of the top financial companies in the world. Oh by the way how about the ability to create lifetime income that you cannot outlive!

This is not too good to be true. It is available now but not for long. Numerous other products are available with similar features. A brief discussion can determine which is right for you.

Has your local bank offered you this? Probably not but maybe a toaster! Maybe 3-4.5%.
How about your local broker? Have they ever lost some of your money? If you are ready for diversification with safety we should talk. I am not saying do not put any money in a bank or a brokerage account. I have both. Banks pay low rates and brokers generally sell risk! Where is your safe money? Thats where we can help!

How can we help you!

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com