Turbo Charge Your Retirement

Q:Hey, Credit Union Guy, I'm in my 40s and haven't saved nearly enough to prepare for retirement. How can I 'turbo-charge' my retirement savings to catch up?

 A: The good news is that you still have a lot of peak earning years ahead of you. Many people don't hit their professional stride until they reach their 40s, 50s and 60s, and they have their best earning years, by far, late in life. If you qualify for a traditional pension, so much the better, because many systems use your highest-paying three or five years to calculate your benefits. These traditional pensions, however, are getting quite rare.

   

The bad news is this: Interest rates are at or near record lows. That's great for borrowers, but it makes things a lot harder on savers. Chances are, you will need to save a lot more money to generate a given level of retirement income than your forebears did a generation or two ago.

Here are some ideas: 

Rein in spending sharply. Learn to enjoy cooking, rather than eating out. Cut back on cable TV packages and take up exercise instead. The lower your monthly expenses, the more free cash flow you will have available to invest. All solutions to your problem start with this one step.

  

Pay down consumer debt and credit card debt. With credit card interest rates in the high 20s for some people, this is often the very best return on your investment you can get. Every dollar you pay down in credit card debt sooner or later nets you a return on investment equal to the interest rate on the card - with no risk, and no taxes due. Pay it off early and keep your future dollars.

  

Next, make sure you are making the most of your tax-advantaged retirement savings opportunities. Are you working for someone else? Increase your 401(k) contributions. Maximize your IRA or Roth IRA contributions if you are eligible.

Do you own your own business? Can you start one? If so, you have some additional options: You can form and contribute to a SEP IRA, or simplified employee pension plan. This plan allows you to contribute up to 25 percent of your income from the business into a SEP IRA, or up to $49,000 per year, tax deductible. No taxes are due until you take the money out. Some businesses may be better off forming a SIMPLE IRA or Solo 401(k), depending on the specifics. Consult a qualified financial advisor with experience in retirement planning to find out which alternative is most appropriate for you and which will enable you to maximize your contributions.

  

Want more ideas? If you are self-employed and have your own business, you have few or no employees and a steady stream of cash flow, you can make nearly unlimited tax deductible contributions to an insured pension fund, under Section 412(i) of the Internal Revenue Code. (Make sure you have an experienced advisor working with you on these. This might not be a job for your nephew who is just getting started in the life insurance business).

Have you spoken to your investment advisor about the growth in your account? How much risk can you honestly accept? The saying is the higher the risk the higher the yield. Is that risk and the stress worth the yield? A good advisor will set you up with some options that can mitigate or modify your risk. 

  

Are you renting? It might be time to buy. That may sound expensive now, but interest rates are extremely low as of this writing. Even if rates rise to five percent or more, it would still be historically low. If you're in your 40s, you will have that 30-year mortgage paid off in your 70s. At that time, you may want to convert the equity in your home to a stream of income via a reverse mortgage. It's not for everyone, but if you rent rather than buy, you won't have that option. You can make that decision when you get there.

  

Above all, save money. Squirrel money away every way you can. Cash is still king, and there's no substitute for healthy cash reserves in your credit union account, whether in checking, certificates or other conservative savings options. You might not get a great return, but it's safe, secure and steady. Most of your success is going to come from controlling spending decisions, rather than from making brilliant investment decisions. Set things up so you don't have to be brilliant to succeed, just prudent.

  

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Meriwest’s Spring Pre-Owned Car Sale is this Weekend!
Sat-Sun: April 12th and 13th
Chesbro Financial Center, San Jose, CA

Sale Hours:

• Saturday, April 12th:
  9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Sunday, April 13th:
  10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Event Location:

Chesbro Financial Center
5615 Chesbro Avenue
San Jose, CA 95123

Take advantage of this special event!

• Low auto loan rates
• Huge selection of over 200 quality vehicles
• Up to 100% financing available for qualified buyers*
• Fast and friendly service
• Trade-ins welcome

Plus PRIZES and more!

Setting Financial Goals...And Reaching Them!

Are your financial goals set in concrete or can they be blown away as easily as a dandelion? 

Achieving your dreams and creating the financial future you want always begins with one important first step: a goal. Whether you're looking to help your child set goals so she achieves academically or have your own financial or self-improvement goals for the New Year, there IS a science to setting and meeting them.

A 2010 study in Applied Psychology followed college students who went through a multi-step goal setting program. Those who followed it completely showed significant improvement in their grades compared to those who did not.

While New Year's resolutions are notoriously short-lived, a clear process will put any objective you've set for yourself within reach. No matter what you have in mind, you can apply these steps to whatever goals are important to you, and the whole process should take less than 90 minutes.

1. Take a few minutes to write about the financial future you'd like to achieve. It's okay to start with a vague idea, but include as many specific details as possible.

2. Looking at the financial future you've envisioned for yourself, pick six specific and attainable financial goals that could help you achieve that future.

3. Number your goals according to their order of importance.

4. Look at each goal and write a paragraph about how achieving that specific step will benefit you.

5. For each financial goal, break it into smaller more manageable steps.

6. Identify obstacles that may get in the way and come up for a strategy for overcoming them should you need to do so.

7. Write about your commitment to reaching these ultimate financial goals.

That's it. Sound easy? Perhaps. But by taking the step of committing your goals to paper and working through these steps, you've laid the groundwork for success.

A goal is simply a dream with a deadline....may all your dreams come true!

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Reality Based Budgets for Teens and College Students – Jan. 16^th

Our next Financial Education Workshop will be Reality Based Budgets for Teens and College Students. It is a post college simulation of renting an apartment, buying a car, and developing a spending and savings plan. It is a fun and interactive session for the whole family and really opens the door to discussions about managing money. If this is something you or a member of your family needs, please feel free to join us. These workshops are open to the public.

Reality Based Budgets

6:30pm January 16^th at our Chesbro Main Office Location

5615 Chesbro Ave, San Jose CA 95123

Please RSVP with Gmeyer@meriwest.com.

Increase Wealth and Decrease Tax by Planning Your Tax-Deferred Withdrawals

Want to preserve more of your money while decreasing your exposure to tax? The best way to do that is by strategically planning how you withdraw money from your tax-deferred accounts like your 401K’s or Traditional IRA’s.

For most accounts - including savings accounts and investment portfolios - you are required to pay taxes during the year that you receive income (from interest or dividends, for example). But with a tax-deferred account, you put off the payable tax until you withdraw the money from your account. You're not taxed on the money you've earned in the account. Instead, you're taxed on the money you take out of it.

A savvy accountholder will time their withdrawals to reduce the amount of tax they owe and thus increase the amount of money they get to keep. They do this by withdrawing money during a year when their income is low (such as during a period of unemployment or retirement). This puts them into a lower tax bracket so they pay less tax on their withdrawals.

Compare this to someone who is earning six figures and withdraws money from their tax-deferred account. Because they are already in a higher tax bracket, their withdrawal adds more money to their taxable income.

The only time to consider taking the higher taxes is when you can put that money to work in an investment that will earn back far more than you expect to lose from the added tax. But, there are times when we don’t have a choice in taking money out of our retirement accounts. I am referring to the Required Minimum Distribution.

With a Traditional IRA or a 401K, one thing to consider is that at one point in your future, you will have to start taking money out of your retirement fund. This is referred to as the RMD or Required Minimum Distribution. Uncle Sam will not allow us to keep our money earning deferred interest forever! He giveth the tax deferred account and he taketh away our taxes. How? At age 70.5, or seventy and a half, you will be required to take a minimum amount out of your retirement accounts on an annual basis regardless of whether you are retired. How is that amount calculated? Well, the best way to find out your minimum distribution would be to check on IRS Publication 590, “individual Retirement Arrangements” (hard) or you can contact your IRA custodian/administrator and ask them (easy). The RMD rules also are enforced for other retirement plans such as the 403B, SEP IRA’s, and Basic Retirement Plans. Each has very specific rules so contact your retirement custodian/administrator and ask them about your specific situation.

You work hard for your money and saving for the future in a tax-deferred account is smart. Protect your wealth and reduce the taxes you owe by making sure your withdrawals coincide with times when you are in a lower tax bracket.

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Our next Financial Education Workshop will be taking place in our main office next week: 

Sept. 26^th 6:30pm – Credit Myths and Repair – Learn the top ten myths of credit management, how to access your credit report for free, and how to address information on your reports that is inaccurate, invalid, or out of date. Thousands of South Bay residents have benefitted from this workshop over the past five years. Please contact me to RSVP for the workshop. Gmeyer@meriwest.com or 408-365-6328.