by alyssa.margioras | Dec 21, 2016 | Retirement Planning
As Karlan Tucker reviews tax strategies he keeps in mind that taxes are our greatest lifetime expense. This means we should do all we can every year to reduce what we owe Uncle Sam so we get to keep more of our hard earned money.
Almost daily Karlan Tucker reviews prospective client’s portfolios to assist them in developing retirement income plans. Taxes are corrosive to both earnings and principal.
Here are ten strategies that will save you tens of thousands to millions in taxes over your life depending on your annual income.
- Fund Roth IRA’s – Tax free income
- Fund Life insurance then borrow the cash value tax-free. The death benefit will pay of the loan resulting in tax-free income.
- Fully vested Bonus Annuities will pay up to 50% of the taxes in your traditional IRA’s using the bonus the Insurance Company gave you in exchange for managing your money. This also stops up to 50% of your RMD’s at age 70.5 and beyond.
- Move to a state with no state income tax
- Invest in rental properties to take advantage of the tax deductions
- Purchase tax free municipal bonds
- Purchase a QLAC annuity – They don’t have RMD’s reducing your taxes
- Own life insurance – The death benefit is tax free – your heirs then can use it to pay the taxes in your tax infested IRA’s they just inherited.
- Keep all your tax deductible expense receipts then deduct them from your income. Every year people pay taxes on income they didn’t get to keep as a result of poor record keeping
- If you collect Social Security prior to your full retirement age, which for many is age 66, and continue to work, your wages will cause your Social Security income to get taxed. Be careful to coordinate when you take SS with when you actually quit working.
For the full details of every strategy above please call us to schedule a complimentary visit.
Retirement Architects Solutions 303-734-1234
Karlan Tucker has been helping his clients save taxes and be prepared for retirement for the past 35 years.
by alyssa.margioras | Dec 5, 2016 | Retirement Planning
Karlan Tucker, CEO, Retirement Architects Solutions
By Karlan Tucker
If something you thought to be true turned out to be exactly the opposite, how soon would you want to know about the actual truth? It was once believed that the world was flat, and that the earth was the center of our solar system. It was also believed that atoms were the smallest particles in existence. These once-held truths are hardly given a second thought today. Our “new” way of thinking is the result of many years of advanced discoveries and facts being passed from generation to generation. But imagine how hard it must have been to grapple with the idea that one could actually sail around the earth rather than falling off the edge of it. People were mocked, ridiculed, and even persecuted for an idea so preposterous as the sun being the center of the solar system instead of the earth.
Fast-forward several hundred years. Although it now seems almost laughable to reflect on this way of thinking, we must not forget the human process of wrestling with truth, particularly when it goes against what we have been taught for much of our lives. Decisions become exponentially harder to make when they go against ingrained thought patterns.
Investing is no exception to this rule. When it comes to choosing our investments, the same mental challenges are present that were there hundreds of years ago. When choosing the best vehicles to invest our retirement funds, what we have been taught may or may not be true. We owe it to ourselves to perform the proper due diligence and consider the best place to invest our money in this ever-changing economic environment. Below are three suggestions that will help serve as catalysts to begin this process:
- Do not let your emotions get in the way of your investing. While this may be easier said than done, it is vital to making the best financial decisions. You need to base your financial choices on factual, sound evidence and not conventional wisdom. When you notice your emotions beginning to dictate your decisions, take a step back for as long as you need to gain composure. Remember, it was conventional wisdom that sent stocks down almost 50% during the great recession.
- When doing research, avoid publications that are clearly biased. When a magazine is littered with advertisements from mutual fund companies, it is probably going to be a pro-mutual funds publication. Not everyone is a financial expert – just because someone has a slew of letters behind their name doesn’t mean they know everything. Be aware of extreme language. When people start describing investments as a sure thing, bullet-proof or the worst idea ever, it could be a sign of a biased point of view.
- Perfection does not exist. If an investment existed that was entirely safe, 100% liquid and could outperform the market all the time, there would be no need for diversification. Everyone would simply place all of their money in this type of investment. This perfect investment vehicle simply does not exist. So remember: If something appears too good to be true, it probably is.
by alyssa.margioras | Dec 1, 2016 | Retirement Planning
By Karlan Tucker
Most Americans that accumulate retirement nest eggs have their assets in three categories. The first category is their long-term speculative investments that are generally in employer-sponsored retirement plans like a 401k or 403b or a Roth or Traditional IRA. The second category of assets are liquid investments, like CDs and Savings Accounts that have 6 months to one year’s worth of expenses set aside. The third category is the long-term guaranteed assets that include Social Security Income, Fixed Indexed Annuities and Pensions.
The harsh new economic reality that most Americans are facing is that many of their pension plans, which account for approximately 19% of their retirement nest eggs, according to the Social Security Administration’s Income of the Aged Chartbook, 2010, are being systematically cut in cities around the nation. What was once touted as an untouchable 
asset given to employees in exchange for their years of service at lower wages than their private-sector counterparts is now being greatly reduced or not offered.
What does this mean if you are a resident of Detroit, Michigan, San Bernardino, California or Chicago, Illinois? While you cannot count on receiving full pension benefits, you can count on working longer before receiving fewer benefits than you were promised. You can also be assured of experiencing marked decreases in overall benefits, up to 30% according to, “We Are One”.
What should you do? Consult with an income specialist immediately to come up with an amicable course of action to offset the amount of funds that your pension would have provided you in retirement, and discuss the opportunities that you have to maximize your Social Security income to help offset your decreased pension pay-outs.
https://money.cnn.com/2013/12/04/retirement/government-retirees/index.html?iid=HP_River
by alyssa.margioras | Nov 21, 2015 | Retirement Planning
Many people find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to retirement. This means, quite simply, that before you retire, you are probably only seeing the retirees in a very limited capacity. You see someone enjoying their financial freedom. You see a person who dresses in golf attire every day, enjoying AARP benefits and movie theater discounts.
However, when you reach the age at which you plan to retire, there are personal feelings and desires that you must deal with. These are things you probably don’t notice too much, because the majority of them are internal. To assist you with your retirement planning, let’s take a look at some of the positives and negatives of what you might go through leading up to your retirement, and afterwards.
Positive: Passion
In today’s age, many retirees are utilizing their time to reinvent themselves. Maybe you have a passion that you’ve been forced to curtail due to your job. Now is the time to delve into that passion and have fun with it. That could be anything from rebuilding an old clunker to starting a book club. Or, thanks to technology, that could mean creating your own website and blogging on a daily basis about a subject you’re passionate about. And for some retirees, this is a time to reinvent themselves by embarking on a new career. Now that they are no longer shackled to their jobs, many see this as a period of self-discovery and improvement in a professional sense.
Negative: Pent-up Anger
There’s a good chance that you’ve felt some anger from time to time as you’ve progressed through life. Anger is a very natural reaction when things go wrong. Retirement is definitely no exception. For example, many retirees still feel a great deal of anger over the effects caused by the Great Recession. Despite the fact that it reportedly ended three years ago, Americans are still feeling its affects daily. They might also find themselves angry over rising health care costs or the years they spent working and saving to have their retirement accounts depleted. If you find yourself holding onto this anger, you need to find ways to cope with it. Anger can quickly become a debilitating problem. It’s best to get rid of it now.
Positive: Vast Opportunity
Many individuals have a successful retirement because they’ve worked tirelessly for years and saved opportunity along the way. Now that those days are over, you have a fantastic opportunity to improve other aspects of your life. Many retirees in this situation decide to improve their family relationship. They connect with lost relatives, invest more time with their children and spouse, and even spend a great deal of time working on relationships that might have been a bit forsaken while they were working so hard to create a strong retirement.
Negative: Petrifying Fear
This can be a big issue. Although “petrifying” might be too strong a word, the fact remains that a lot of people fear what is waiting for them throughout their retirement. They see older retirees, maybe their own parents, and have taken note of what they go through. They watch while others have health problems and become dependent on family and friends. This is a life that frightens them immensely. In addition to this, many also fear being unable to cope with no longer having a purpose in life, despite how incorrect that statement might be.
Although not the answer to all retirement problems, a strong and well managed porfolio can help alleviate many of these fears by offering peace of mind that you will be protects from life’s inevitable storms.
by alyssa.margioras | Nov 6, 2015 | Retirement Planning
Believe it or not, today’s retirees are experiencing what you might call a Golden Age. This means that current retirees, at least many of them, are living rather comfortably. They have enough money to last throughout their retirement, their health care is secure, and they don’t have to worry about working in order to supplement their income.
Unfortunately, many believe that those days are over. The new batch of retirees are discovering that they might not have it as easy as many of their older counterparts. Let’s take a look at some of the facts concerning this possible death of the Golden Age of Retirement. (https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47063385/ns/business-personal_finance/#.T6fb1dVDNnU?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_broadcast=b36d5902-4b3c-4a11-a419-425dd223acc4)
Fact #1: Older Baby Boomers will have an easier time than their younger brethren.
Baby Boomers who are enjoying retirement right now are doing exactly that: enjoying it. Many of these lucky millions are well off thanks to such things as company pensions, sizable inheritances, the equity in their expensive homes, and a number of other luxuries. Unfortunately, the same is not true for people who are currently approaching retirement, including the younger portion of the Baby Boomer clan. These new retirees are not in the same financial circumstances that their older peers are. This is why many are saying that this marks the end of the Golden Age.
Fact #2: Spending has not stopped.
Spending has always been a problem for millions of Americans. We want what we want, and many of us are likely to buy items that we desire even when we can’t afford it. This is especially true for a number of Baby Boomers, because many of them were quite comfortable with their finances, and had the money to spend. They were never afraid to spend their cash, because more was always on the horizon. Spending money isn’t a crime, of course, but if you choose to do so, then you need to also make sure that money is being put away for your future. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be happening as much as it should. (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/business/americans-savings-rate-drops-again-puzzling-experts.html)
Fact #3: The recent financial crisis is partly to blame.
Four and a half years ago, we entered an era dubbed the Great Recession. Since then, millions of Americans have either lost their jobs, seen their financial portfolio dwindle, or both. Officially, this Great Recession ended in 2009, but the effects have proven to be long-lasting. Many people approaching retirement are still reeling from their own financial collapse, whether that may be due to a severe decrease in inheritance, a lack of a company pension, or some other similar reason. Of course, people need to realize that the financial crisis isn’t the only reason they’re experiencing problems.
Fact #4: The recent financial crisis isn’t the only issue.
While many people have blamed the financial crisis for their troubles, and rightfully so, a number of individuals approaching retirement have caused their own problems. The most important of these is also the simplest … they are, flat out, not saving for retirement. They are procrastinating each and every year, and all this will do is ensure that their retirement doesn’t exactly go as planned. Some of these individuals may have been hurt by the financial crisis as well, but their actions are not helping things to get better. No one is going to save for your retirement for you. It’s all up to you. Future retirees have a difficult road ahead, and if you don’t take steps to avoid the pitfalls, you may find yourself looking back with regret.
As Karlan Tucker reviews tax strategies he keeps in mind that taxes are our greatest lifetime expense. This means we should do all we can every year to reduce what we owe Uncle Sam so we get to keep more of our hard earned money.
asset given to employees in exchange for their years of service at lower wages than their private-sector counterparts is now being greatly reduced or not offered.
Many people find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to 
Believe it or not, today’s retirees are experiencing what you might call a Golden Age. This means that current retirees, at least many of them, are living rather comfortably. They have enough money to last throughout their