The SECURE legislation — which stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement”  was signed into law by President Trump earlier this month as part of the government’s spending bill. In this second installment, we will discuss another provision that can have a positive impact in your retirement planning. Before the SECURE ACT, there was no parity between account holders of company retirement plans and account holders of IRAs in regard to making contributions after the … [Read more...]

The SECURE ACT (The Act) legislation — which stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement”  was signed into law by President Trump earlier this month as part of the government’s spending bill. Over the next three weeks, we will talk about three key changes that may impact you and your retirement planning. In this article,  we want to talk about the new required minimum distribution (RMD) rules. Before the SECURE ACT, required minimum distributions for … [Read more...]

I'm sure you've heard of downsizing in retirement, but have you ever considered using retirement as the time to finally get into the home of your dreams? Some would say that you would need to sell your home in California and move to a much less expensive location in order to accomplish this without having a mortgage payment. In actuality, upsizing may be possible in the same neighborhood that you actually live in right now. You may have seen the previous article about using the HECM for … [Read more...]

In the past, Allianz has been a company that I have gone to time and time again for income annuities. In particular, they have the strength for income annuities that have increasing income over the years. Recently, Allianz caught my eye again for a different tool they have rolled out. This investment does not have any income benefits, rather it is used for growth only. What I like about the tool is that it has four investment options that can be mixed and matched depending on the level of … [Read more...]

It's not uncommon during the early years of retirement to be in a low income tax bracket. There is little to no work income and much of your Social Security benefits may only be partially taxable. This creates a unique opportunity to use Roth IRA conversions. Money that is converted from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is taxable in the year of conversion. But if you are in a low income tax bracket for that year, you may be able to pay extremely low historical rates on these Roth conversions. … [Read more...]