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Examining the Retirement Account Shortfall

Why aren’t we saving as much as we should?

We know that qualified retirement plans and IRAs are prime long-range savings vehicles; we use them to accumulate assets and invest for the future. So why aren’t some of us amassing the retirement nest eggs that we should?

Why did retirement account balances decline from 2010-13? Looking at Federal Reserve data, the influential Center for Retirement Research at Boston College noticed something unsettling. In that period, the average 401(k)/IRAs balance of a household headed by someone aged 55-64 fell $9,000.1

Wait a minute – haven’t we just witnessed a raging bull market? How could this be?

Moreover, why was the average aggregate 401(k)/IRAs balance of such a household just $111,000 at the end of 2013? These were baby boomers nearing retirement age.1

During 2010-13, the S&P 500 jumped 56%. On that factor alone, the average total retirement account balance for these households should have swelled to at least $187,000 from the 2010 starting point of $120,000.1

That wasn’t the only factor in play, however. The CRR’s Alicia Munnell – a nationally respected authority on retirement accounts and retirement saving – has pinpointed some reasons for the shortfall.

Leaks, loans, fees, interruptions & foreignness. At MarketWatch, Munnell looked at a mock 60-year-old who could have enrolled in a 401(k) plan in 1982. (That was when those retirement accounts first emerged.)  This hypothetical boomer was plainly average, earning Social Security’s average wage for 31 years while deferring 6% of salary into the account.2

This boomer’s investment allocation? Right down the middle, a 50/50 mix of equities and debt instruments. Throw in a 50% employer match during those 31 years, run the numbers using real-life returns across those 31 years, and our theoretical boomer should have amassed $373,000 by the end of 2013. That is 3.36 times as much as the household average noted by the Fed in its 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances – and for an individual aged 55-64, the average total 401(k)/IRAs balance was even lower at $100,000.2

Even over 31 years of saving, a $273,000 disparity in retirement assets is too large to attribute simply to the lack of an employer match or a portfolio’s allocation. Munnell sees other dynamics promoting the gap.

Do investment fees come into play? Oh, yes. In Munnell’s example, fees are the big culprit. Investment expenses (based on data from the Investment Company Institute) eat up $59,000 of the potential balance over these 31 years. So that takes $373,000 down to $314,000.2

Loans and other withdrawals exert an effect. The CRR finds that 1.5% of retirement plan assets “leak out” annually. Putting that 1.5% to work in the example, these leaks cut the mock boomer’s total 401(k)/IRAs balance further to $236,000.2

Too many people don’t (or can’t) contribute steadily to retirement plans, so Munnell calculates a 30% non-participation rate into the equation. (Since 2000, Vanguard has consistently reported that level of non-participation in its workplace retirement plans.) That leaves $165,000.2

Finally, there is foreignness. It took a while for IRAs and 401(k)s to be fully embraced as default retirement savings vehicles; in the 1980s, contribution rates were lower as a byproduct. Munnell chalks up $65,000 of lost gains to that historical factor to arrive at the average individual total 401(k)/IRAs balance of $100,000 cited by the Fed.2

Hasn’t auto-enrollment worked? Thanks to federal law, many employers have been able to automatically enroll workers in qualified retirement plans at a 3% contribution rate since 2006. The downside of auto-enrollment is that some of the auto-enrolled “set it and forget it,” never increasing that contribution rate through the years. This could also factor into the lower-than-expected account holdings.1

One asterisk about all this. The CRR only studied working households that held both IRAs and 401(k)s. It didn’t incorporate households headed by retirees or households that may have rolled over workplace retirement plan assets into IRAs into its dataset.1

Regardless of these numbers, we all have to fund our retirements. Some economists and financial professionals are highly critical of the current retirement savings vehicles, but whether they like them or not, it is certain that these retirement accounts offer remarkable potential to grow wealth in the long term through equity investment and compounding. While the Center’s findings are disconcerting, the takeaway here is that consistent and early contribution, lower fees and avoiding withdrawals can make a big difference in retirement account balances.

Warmest Regards,

april-signature

Citations.

1 – fortune.com/2014/09/16/401k-balances-drop/ [9/16/14]

2 – blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2014/09/25/why-arent-401k-and-ira-balances-bigger/ [9/25/14]

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That First RMD from Your IRA

What you need to know.

When you reach age 70½, the IRS instructs you to start making withdrawals from your Traditional IRA(s). These IRA withdrawals are also called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). You will make them annually from now on.1

If you fail to take your annual RMD or take out less than what is required, the IRS will notice. You will not only owe income taxes on the amount not withdrawn, you will owe 50% more. (The 50% penalty can be waived if you can show the IRS that the shortfall resulted from a “reasonable error” instead of negligence.)1

Many IRA owners have questions about the options and rules related to their initial RMDs, so let’s answer a few.

How does the IRS define age 70½? Its definition is pretty straightforward. If your 70th birthday occurs in the first half of a year, you turn 70½ within that calendar year. If your 70th birthday occurs in the second half of a year, you turn 70½ during the subsequent calendar year.2

Your initial RMD has to be taken by April 1 of the year after you turn 70½. All the RMDs you take in subsequent years must be taken by December 31 of each year.3

So, if you turned 70 during the first six months of 2014, you will be 70½ by the end of 2014 and you must take your first RMD by April 1, 2015. If you turn 70 in the second half of 2014, then you will be 70½ in 2015 and you don’t need to take that initial RMD until April 1, 2016.2

Is waiting until April 1 of the following year to take my first RMD a bad idea? The IRS allows you three extra months to take your first RMD, but it isn’t necessarily doing you a favor. Your initial RMD is taxable in the year it is taken. If you postpone it into the following year, then the taxable portions of both your first RMD and your second RMD must be reported as income on your federal tax return for that following year.2

An example: James and his wife Stephanie file jointly, and they earn $73,800 in 2014 (the upper limit of the 15% federal tax bracket). James turns 70½ in 2014, but he decides to put off his first RMD until April 1, 2015. Bad idea: this means that he will have to take two RMDs before 2015 ends. So his taxable income jumps in 2015 as a result of the dual RMDs, and it pushes them into a higher tax bracket for 2015. The lesson: if you will be 70½ by the time 2014 ends, take your initial RMD by the end of 2014 – it might save you thousands in taxes to do so.4

How do I calculate my first RMD? IRS Publication 590 is your resource. You calculate it using IRS life expectancy tables and your IRA balance on December 31 of the previous year. For that matter, if you Google “how to calculate your RMD” you will see links to RMD worksheets at irs.gov and free RMD calculators provided by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Kiplinger, Bankrate and others.2,5

If your spouse is at least 10 years younger than you and happens to be designated as the sole beneficiary for one or more IRAs you own, you should refer to Publication 590 instead of a calculator; the calculator may tell you that the RMD is larger than it actually is.6

If you have your IRA with one of the big investment firms, it might calculate your RMD for you and offer to route the amount into another account that you specify. Unless you state otherwise, it will withhold taxes on the amount of the RMD as required by law and give you and the IRS a 1099-R form recording the income distribution.2,5

When I take my RMD, do I have to withdraw the whole amount? No. You can also take it in smaller, successive withdrawals. Your IRA custodian may be able to schedule them for you.3

What if I have multiple traditional IRAs? You then figure out your total RMD by adding up the total of all of your traditional IRA balances on December 31 of the prior year. This total is the basis for the RMD calculation. You can take your RMD from a single IRA or multiple IRAs.1

What if I have a Roth IRA? If you are the original owner of that Roth IRA, you don’t have to take any RMDs. Only inherited Roth IRAs require RMDs.2

It doesn’t pay to wait. At the end of 2013, Fidelity Investments found that 14% of IRA owners required to take their first RMD hadn’t yet done so – they were putting it off until early 2014. Another 40% had withdrawn less than the required amount by December 31. Avoid their behaviors, if you can: when it comes to your initial RMD, procrastination can invite higher-than-normal taxes and a risk of forgetting the deadline.2

Warmest regards,

april-signature

Citations.

1 – irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Retirement-Plans-FAQs-regarding-Required-Minimum-Distributions [7/3/14]

2 – tinyurl.com/ktabwnv [3/30/14]

3 – schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/retirement_and_planning/understanding_iras/withdrawals_and_distributions/age_70_and_a_half_and_over [9/11/14]

4 – bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-brackets.aspx [9/11/14]

5 – google.com/search?q=how+to+calculate+your+RMD&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb [9/11/14]

6 – kiplinger.com/tool/retirement/T032-S000-minimum-ira-distribution-calculator-what-is-my-min/ [1/14]

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Adjusting to Retirement

What people don’t always realize about life after work.

If you have saved and invested consistently for retirement, you may find yourself ready to leave work on your terms – with abundant free time, new opportunities, and wonderful adventures ahead of you. The thing to keep in mind is that the reality of your retirement may not always correspond to your conception of retirement. There will inevitably be a degree of difference.

Some new retirees are better prepared for that difference than others. They learn things after leaving work that they wished they could have learned about years earlier. So with that in mind, here are a few of the little things people tend to realize after settling into retirement.

Your kids may see your retirement differently than you do. Some couples retire and figure on spending more time with kids and grandkids – they hang onto that five-bedroom home even though two people are living in it because they figure on regular family gatherings, or they move to another state to be closer to their kids. Then they find out that their children didn’t really count on being such frequent company.

Financial considerations come into play here as well. Keeping up a big home in retirement can cost big dollars, and if you move to another area, there is always the chance that a promotion or the right job offer could make your son or daughter relocate just a few years later. The average American worker spends 4.6 years at a given job, and less than 10% of U.S. workers in their twenties and thirties stay at the same job for a decade.1

Medicare falls short when it comes to dental, vision & hearing care. Original Medicare (Parts A & B) will pay for some things – cataract surgery and yearly glaucoma tests for people at risk for that disease, for example, as well as dental procedures that are deemed necessary prior to another medical procedure covered under Medicare. These are exceptions to the norm, however, and as people’s sight, teeth and hearing become more problematic as they age, it can be frustrating to realize what Medicare won’t cover.2

You may lose the impulse to work a little. These days, most retirees at least think about working part-time. Actually doing that may not be as easy as it first seems. It is a lot harder to get hired at age 65 than it is at age 45 – no one is denying that – and part-time work tends toward the mundane and unfulfilling. If you are able to earn income as a consultant or through other types of self-employment, you may be truly satisfied by the work you do and be able to set your own schedule, too.

Retirement income comes with income taxes. While retirees anticipate (and certainly appreciate) distributions from an IRA or an employer-sponsored retirement plan, few retirees map out a sequence or strategy intended to let them take distributions from retirement and investment accounts with the least tax impact. Generally speaking, you want to draw down your taxable accounts first, then the tax-advantaged accounts, and lastly your tax-free accounts. This way, you are giving the retirement money that is taxed least more time to compound.

Under the typical model withdrawal scenario, this sequencing a) offers the potential to reduce the tax bite from all these distributions, b) promotes greater longevity for retirement savings. The wealthier the retiree is and the higher the projected rate of return for his or her portfolio, the more sense the strategy usually makes. If a retiree has very low taxable income or large unrealized gains on taxable assets, it may not be wise to follow this rule of thumb. Health and longevity factors also influence withdrawal strategies, of course.3

Retirees also need to know something about the IRS rules for retirement accounts – if the assets are withdrawn too soon or used for an inappropriate purpose, penalties can result and tax advantages can be lost.

Retirement is a transition, but it isn’t a solution. There are people that are really eager to retire, people that come to believe that retirement will wipe away all that is dull and restrictive from their lives. Retiring often leads to a rewarding new phase of life, but it won’t solve health issues, family dilemmas or business or money problems.

You may have plenty of time on your hands. If you and/or your spouse have routinely worked 50-60 hours a week, it can be tough to come down from that once you are retired. Your urge to be productive will persist, and sooner or later, you will find ways to stay busy, contribute and make a difference. Thinking about how you will spend your time in retirement before retirement is wise, as you don’t want to risk staring at (or climbing) the walls.  

Adjusting to retired life takes a bit of time for everyone. Adjustment can become easier with a candid recognition of certain retirement realities.

 Warmest regards,

 april-signature

Citations.

1 – marketwatch.com/story/americans-less-likely-to-change-jobs-now-than-in-1980s-2014-01-10 [1/10/14]

2 – ncoa.org/enhance-economic-security/benefits-access/how-to-get-help-for-dental.html [4/17/14]

3 – tiaa-crefinstitute.org/public/institute/research/trends_issues/ti_taxefficient_1006.html [10/06]

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Bad Spending Habits That Can Be Corrected

A little frugality may lead to a lot of financial progress.

Americans have a great deal of disposable income relative to many other nations, yet our free spending can take us further and further away from the potential for financial freedom. Some people fall into crippling spending habits and injure their finances as a consequence.

Bad habit: failing to save. Saving – saving even $50 or $100 a month – isn’t that hard under most financial conditions. Even so, some households don’t put much of a priority on building a cash reserve of some kind, a portion of which could be used for equity investment.

When you don’t make saving a goal, you don’t have any money to withdraw in a pinch – so if you need to get ahold of some money, where do you find it? Basically, you have three options. One, turn to friends or Mom or Dad. Two, divert money that would go toward a core need (food, rent, the heating bill) toward the sudden crisis. Three, charge your credit card. (There are other options, but they are best not explored.)

Good habit: save just a little, then a lot. You can start a savings campaign by saving “invisibly” – that is, just spending $10 or $15 or $20 less on a regular expense each month. Maybe two or three, even. That’s less than a dollar a day per expense. When your earnings climb further above your financial baseline, you can increase the amount you save/invest.

Bad habit: buying things on a whim. The correlation between impulsive spending and credit card use isn’t too hard to spot. Spending money you don’t have on material items that will soon depreciate doesn’t put you ahead financially.

Good habit: set a budget when you shop. As you arrive at the market, the mall or the local power center, arrive with a limit on what you will spend on that shopping trip and stick to it. Take an hour (or a day) to mull over any big buying decisions – are you buying something you really need? Lastly, use cash whenever you can.

Bad habit: living on margin. Living above your means, charging this and that credit card – this is a path toward runaway debt. You may look rich, but you’ll carry a big financial burden that risks being “out of sight, out of mind” in between credit card statements.

Good habit: strive for lasting affluence, not temporary bling. Possessions symbolize wealth to too many Americans. Real wealth is measured in accumulated assets. They aren’t usually visible, but you can count on them in the future, in contrast to ever-depreciating luxury goods.

Bad habit: buying unnecessary services. Cable subscriptions, extended warranties, service contracts for highly reliable items, health club memberships that translate into little more than an alternate place to shower – they all add up, they all siphon some of our dollars away each month. In many cases, we pay for options rather than necessities.

Good habit: evaluate who benefits most from those services. Are they benefiting the provider more than the consumer? Are they entrees to a “main course” – a steady, long-range financial exploitation?

Go against the norm – it might leave you a little wealthier. In April, Gallup found that 62% of Americans liked saving money more than spending it. Just 34% liked spending more than saving. This appreciation of frugality is relatively new. As recently as 2006, 50% of Americans told Gallup that they enjoyed saving more than spending with 45% preferring spending.1

If we love saving money, a key statistic doesn’t reflect it. According to the Commerce Department, the typical U.S. household was saving 4.8% of its disposable personal income in May. The personal savings rate for 2013 was 4.5%, the least in any year since 2007. Compare that to 6.7% across the 1990s, 9.3% across the 1980s and 11.8% during the 1970s.1,2

Perhaps many of us want to save but can’t due to financial pressures. Perhaps the economic rebound is encouraging personal consumption over saving. Whatever the reason, Americans on the whole don’t seem to be saving very much. That’s the status quo; going against it might help you build wealth a little more easily.

Warmest Regards,

april-signature

 Citations.

1 – gallup.com/poll/168587/americans-continue-enjoy-saving-spending.aspx [4/21/14]

2 – bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm [6/26/14]

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Why Do We Save So Little?

 What’s good for the economy isn’t necessarily good for our future

Our parents & grandparents saved much more than we do. Most people who have read up on the economy for any length of time have heard of the personal saving rate (PSAVERT), which the Commerce Department calculates as the ratio of personal saving to disposable personal income. The January personal spending report released by the Commerce Department in early March showed the PSAVERT at 4.3%.1

As recently as January 2013, households were saving just 2.3% of their disposable incomes – so this can be labeled a short-term improvement. It still pales in comparison to the way Americans used to save.2

The “greatest generation” had a culture of saving. Its thrift was reinforced further by hard times and a call for personal sacrifices as the economy endured the Great Depression and stateside rationing during WWII. The Commerce Department began measuring household saving in 1959, and as unbelievable as it may seem today, households saved 10% or more of their disposable incomes through nearly all of the Sixties. In May 1975, the personal savings rate reached a historic peak of 14.60%.1,2

From 1959 to the present, the PSAVERT average has been 6.84 percent – but the 21st century shows evidence of a significant decline. The savings rate fell into the 1-3% range, dropping to a record low of 0.8% in April 2005.

To some analysts, a declining personal savings rate signals a stronger economy. It implies more spending, and consumer spending has the biggest impact on GDP. You can’t have it all, however; more spending means less saving, and Americans are plagued by insufficient retirement reserves.

Are credit cards the problem? We borrow greatly, but there are other factors in play. You may have heard about America’s “shrinking middle class.” That is no exaggeration.

The most recent Census Bureau data shows the median U.S. household income for 2012 at $51,017. By comparison, median U.S. household income in 1989 – when adjusted for inflation – would work out to $51,681 today. From 1989-2012, annualized consumer inflation was mostly in the 2-4% range. All this illustrates a slow but notable erosion of purchasing power.3,4

During the same time frame, the cost of college went up dramatically, health care costs increased, and real estate values fluctuated. People saved less and borrowed more, and not simply on impulse; they wound up borrowing more to maintain a middle-class standard of living.

Real incomes aside, we are often lured into unnecessary spending. Advertising can convince us that we have unmet needs and desires, and that we must respond to them by buying goods and services. Urges, emotions, ennui, living without a budget – these can all lead us to spend more than we really should, especially given how much money we will need to adequately retire.

Our parents and grandparents really knew how to pay themselves first – and while economic pressures make it harder for many of us to do so today, that doesn’t make it any less of a priority. 

It might be useful to think about future money when you think about making a discretionary purchase. Are those dollars you are spending at a mall or restaurant today better off saved or invested for tomorrow?

Think about your big dreams and goals, the ones you have looked forward to realizing for years. How many dollars are you putting toward them? Is your spending aligned with them, or in conflict with them? Could you spend less here and there and devote more money to those priorities?

Sometimes we have to borrow and spend more than we would like, but often we have a choice – and the choice we make may affect our ability to retire sooner or later.

Warmest Regards,

 april-signature

       

Citations.

1 – research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/PSAVERT/ [3/3/14]

2 – tradingeconomics.com/united-states/personal-savings [3/6/14]

3 – billmoyers.com/2013/09/20/by-the-numbers-the-incredibly-shrinking-american-middle-class/ [9/20/13]

4 – tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi [3/7/14]

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Why Does Family Wealth Fade Away?

A lack of vision is often the answer to that question.

Many are the stories of family wealth lost. In the late 19th century, industrial tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed the equivalent of $100 billion in today’s dollars – but when 120 of his descendants met at a family gathering in 1973, there were no millionaires among them.1

Barbara Woolworth Hutton – daughter of the founder of E.F. Hutton & Company, heiress to the Woolworth’s five-and-dime empire – inherited $900 million in inflation-adjusted dollars but passed away nearly penniless (her reputed net worth at death was $3,500).1,2

Why do stories like these happen? Why, as the Wall Street Journal notes, does an average of  70% of family wealth erode in the hands of the next generation, and an average of 90% of it in the hands of the generation thereafter? And why, as the Family Business Institute notes, do only 3% of family businesses survive past the third generation?1,3

Lost family wealth can be linked to economic, medical and psychological factors, even changes in an industry or simple fate. Yet inherited wealth may slip away due to a far less dramatic reason. 

What’s more valuable, money or knowledge? Having money is one thing; knowing how to make and keep it is another. Business owners naturally value control, but at times they make the mistake of valuing it too much – being in control becomes more of a priority than sharing practical knowledge, ideas or a financial stake with the next generation. Or, maybe there simply isn’t enough time in a business owner’s 60-hour workweek to convey the know-how or determine an outcome that makes sense for two generations.  A good succession planner can help a family business deal with these concerns.

As a long-term direction is set for the family business, one should also be set for family money. Much has been written about baby boomers being on the receiving end of the greatest generational wealth transfer in history – a total of roughly $7.6 trillion, according to the Wall Street Journal – but so far, young boomers are only saving about $0.50 of each $1 they inherit. If adult children grow up with a lot of money, they may also easily slip into a habit if spending beyond their means, or acting on entrepreneurial whims without the knowledge or boots-on-the-ground business acumen of mom and dad. According to online legal service Rocket Lawyer, 41% of baby boomers (Americans now aged 50-68) have no will. Wills are a necessity, and trusts are useful as well, especially when wealth stands a chance of going to minors.1,4   

Vision matters. When family members agree about the value and purpose of family wealth – what wealth means to them, what it should accomplish, how it should be maintained and grown for the future – that shared vision can be expressed in a coherent legacy plan, which can serve as a kind of compass.

After all, estate planning encompasses much more than strategies for wealth transfer, tax deferral and legal tax avoidance. It is also about conveying knowledge – and values. In the long run, nothing may help family wealth more.

Warmest Regards,

 april-signature

 

Citations.

1 – tinyurl.com/qblyk6v [3/8/13]

2 – investorplace.com/2013/08/woolworths-heiress-outspent-a-near-billion-dollar-fortune-died-penniless/#.Us8-D7SLXs8 [8/2/13]

3 – fa-mag.com/news/why-wealth-disappears-8227.html [9/7/11]

4 – forbes.com/sites/lawrencelight/2013/11/22/how-to-inherit-wealth-without-screwing-up/ [11/22/13]

  

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Tax Perks of Year-End Charitable Gifting

Help the causes you care about & help your finances in the process.

An opportunity for you to give & save. As 2013 ends, you may be considering making one or more charitable gifts. In most instances, they are tax-deductible with benefits for the donor as well as the recipient.

As you make any charitable gift, keep three things in mind. One, the organization must be a qualified charity. An Internal Revenue Service letter certifies this status. Some charities post such letters on their websites; others don’t, but will produce one for you if there is any question in your mind. You can check up on a charity yourself at irs.gov, using the IRS Exempt Organizations Select Check. (For the record, the IRS considers churches, mosques, temples and others houses of worship de facto charities; they may not be on the Select Check list, but they are eligible to receive charitable gifts. If there is any question at all, simply ask.) 1,2

Two, remember that charitable contributions are only deductible if itemized on Form 1040, Schedule A (lines 16-19). They are deductible in the tax year that they are made.1,2

Three, you will want a receipt or some form of bank record – a credit card receipt, a canceled check – plainly denoting the name of the charity and the date and amount of the donation. You don’t have to file these receipts with your 1040, but you should have them in case of an audit. The IRS now requires written evidence of cash donations to charities, regardless of amount.1,2

How should you contribute? There are a few popular options.

You could make a cash gift. The potential tax savings depends on your tax bracket. For example, if you write a check for $10,000 to a qualified charity, you could save $3,500 in taxes if you are in the 35% bracket and $1,500 if you are in the 15% bracket.3   

Can you make a “cash” donation with a credit card? Of course – and as long as the charge is captured by the end of 2013, the donation is deductible for 2013. If you write a check dated in 2013 and mail it before January 1, that contribution will be deductible for 2013 even if it isn’t cashed until next year.2

You could donate appreciated stock. In this bull market, many investors hold stocks and funds with major unrealized gains in taxable accounts. If you have owned stock (or other appreciated assets) for more than a year, you can donate that stock to charity and take a deduction equal to its fair market value while avoiding the capital gains tax you would incur by selling it.2,4   

An example: you are in the 33% federal tax bracket, and instead of writing a $10,000 check to a charity, you gift $10,000 in appreciated stock you purchased years ago. Let’s say the fair market value is $10,000 and the cost basis is $2,000. Under this scenario, your gift offers you a route to $3,300 in income tax savings plus an opportunity to avoid $1,200 of capital gains tax and $304 of Medicare surtax on net investment income.3

An important note: if you gift property worth more than $5,000 to a qualified charity, you are required to get a qualified appraisal of that property’s fair market value. This applies to myriad forms of non-cash property, not just appreciated securities. You must also fill out Form 8283. (See irs.gov/taxtopics/tc506.html for additional requirements on non-cash charitable gifts.) 1,2

You could make a charitable IRA gift. To some traditional IRA owners, the annual Required Minimum Distribution is an annual financial nuisance – an unwanted chunk of taxable income. If you feel this way, and have put off your RMD until the last minute (more or less), you may have an alternative.

If you turned 70½ this year (or were already older than 70½ when 2013 started), there may still be time for you to arrange a charitable IRA rollover before the year ends. You may donate up to $100,000 of IRA assets to a qualified charity through a trustee-to-trustee transfer arranged by the IRA custodian. (That is, the money cannot pass through the donor’s hands.) The gifted assets must be transferred before the end of 2013. There is no resulting federal income tax deduction, but the distribution of IRA assets to charity can count toward the annual IRA withdrawal requirement and isn’t included in the donor’s adjusted gross income. Your IRA custodian must send you a 1099-R in January reporting the gift.5

Finally, some fine print. There are some limits to annual charitable gifting, especially if your charitable contributions exceed 20% of your adjusted gross income. Should that occur, you may find that you can only deduct cash contributions up to 50% of your AGI. Similarly, you may also only be able to deduct non-cash assets up to 30% of AGI and appreciated capital gains assets up to 20% of AGI. Should you exceed those limits, you can carry the deduction forward for up to five years. In addition, single filers with AGI above $250,000 and married joint filers with AGI above $300,000 face losing a portion of their itemized deductions in 2013.2,3

 

Warmest Regards,

  april-signature    

 

 

Citations.

1 – irs.gov/taxtopics/tc506.html [4/15/13]

2 – forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/11/01/making-your-gifts-count10-smart-tips-for-charitable-giving/ [11/1/13]

3 – wellsfargoadvisors.com/market-economy/financial-articles/estate-planning/charitable-giving-stock-cash.htm [12/12/13]

4 – cbsnews.com/news/when-making-charitable-donations-give-stock-not-cash/ [11/25/13]

5 – forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/11/01/the-dollars-and-sense-of-giving-ira-assets-to-charity/ [11/1/13]

 

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It Isn’t Too Late to Save for Retirement

If you’re 40 or 50 and haven’t begun, you must make the effort.

 Some people start saving for retirement at 20, 25, or 30. Others start later, and while their accumulated assets will have fewer years of compounding to benefit from, that shouldn’t discourage them to the point of doing nothing.   

If you need to play catch-up, here are some retirement savings principles to keep in mind. First of all, keep a positive outlook. Believe in the validity of your effort. Know that you are doing something good for yourself and your future, and keep at it.

Starting later means saving more – much more. That’s reality; that’s math. When you have 15 or 20 years until your envisioned retirement instead of 30 or 40, you’ve got to sock away money for retirement in comparatively greater proportions. The good news is that you won’t be retiring strictly on those contributions; in large part, you will be retiring on the earnings generated by that pool of invested assets.      

How much more do you need to save? A ballpark example: Marisa, a pre-retiree, has zero retirement savings at age 45 and dedicates herself to doing something about it. She decides to save $500 each month for retirement. After 20 years of doing that month after month, and with her retirement account yielding 6% a year, Marisa winds up with about $225,000 at age 65.1

After 65, Marisa would probably realize about $10,000 a year in inflation-adjusted retirement income from that $225,000 in invested retirement savings. Would that and Social Security be enough? Probably not. Admittedly, this is better than nothing. Moreover, her retirement account(s) might average better than a 6% return across 20 years.1

The math doesn’t lie, and the message is clear: Marisa needs to save more than $6,000 a year for retirement. Practically speaking, that means she should also exploit vehicles which allow her to do that. In 2014, you can put up to $5,500 in an IRA, $6,500 if you are 50 or older – but you can sock away up to $17,500 next year in a 401(k), 403(b), Thrift Savings Plan and most 457 plans, which all have a maximum contribution limit of $23,000 for those 50 and older.2

If Marisa is self-employed (and a sole proprietor), she can establish a solo 401(k) or a SEP-IRA. The yearly contribution limits are much higher for these plans. If Marisa’s 2013 net earnings from self-employment (after earnings are reduced by one-half of self-employment tax) work out to $50,000, she can put an employer contribution of up to $10,000 in a SEP-IRA. (She must also make similar percentage contributions for all “covered” employees, excepting her spouse, under the SEP IRA plan.) As a sole proprietor, Marisa may also make a combined employer-employee contribution of up to $33,000 to a solo 401(k) this year, and if she combines a defined benefit plan with a solo 401(k), the limit rises to $47,400. If her 2013 net earnings from self-employment come out to $150,000, she can make an employer contribution of as much as $30,000 to a SEP-IRA, a combined employee salary deferral contribution and employer profit sharing contribution of up to $53,000 to a solo 401(k), and contribute up to $96,300 toward her retirement through via the combination of the solo 401(k) and defined benefit plan.3 

How do you save more? As you are likely nearing your peak earnings years, it may be easier than you initially assume. One helpful step is to reduce some of the lifestyle costs you incur: cable TV, lease payments, and so forth. Reducing debt helps: every reduced credit card balance or paid-off loan frees up more cash. Selling things helps – a car, a boat, a house, collectibles. Whatever money they generate for you can be assigned to your retirement savings effort.

Consistency is more important than yield. When you get a late start on retirement saving, you naturally want solid returns on your investments every year – yet you shouldn’t become fixated on the return alone. A dogged pursuit of double-digit returns may expose you to considerable market risk (and the potential for big losses in a downturn). Diversification is always important, increasingly so when you can’t afford to lose a big portion of what you have saved. So is tax efficiency. You will also want to watch account fees.

If you start saving for retirement at 50, your retirement savings will likely double (at least) by age 65 thanks to consistent inflows of new money, decent yields and compounding.4

What if you amass a big nest egg & still face a shortfall? Maybe you can reduce expenses in retirement by moving to another city or state (or even another country). Maybe you can broaden your skill set and make yourself employable in another way (which also might help you before you reach traditional retirement age if you find yourself in a declining industry).

If you haven’t begun to save for retirement by your mid-40s, you have probably heard a few warnings and wake-up calls. Unless you are independently wealthy or anticipate being so someday, the truth of the matter is…

If you haven’t started saving for retirement, you need to do something to save your retirement.

That may sound harsh or scary, but without a nest egg, your vision of a comfortable future is in jeopardy. You can’t retire on hope and you don’t want to rely on Social Security, relatives or social services agencies for your well-being when you are elderly.

Warmest Regards,

april-signature

 

 

 

Citations.

1 – money.cnn.com/2012/08/15/pf/expert/late-start-retirement.moneymag/ [8/15/13]

2 – irs.gov/uac/IRS-Announces-2014-Pension-Plan-Limitations;-Taxpayers-May-Contribute-up-to-$17,500-to-their-401%28k%29-plans-in-2014 [11/4/13]

3 – forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2013/11/01/retirement-savings-for-the-self-employed/ [11/1/13]

4 – forbes.com/sites/mitchelltuchman/2013/11/21/financial-planning-for-late-starters-in-five-steps/ [11/21/13]

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Temporary Tax Provisions Set to Expire in 2014

Some may be renewed, others may not be. 

At the end of every year, certain federal tax breaks face a sunset. Some are renewed, some expire. As 2014 will soon start, here is a list of some of notable tax provisions that may go away next year – offering some opportunities that you may want to take advantage of this year.   

Qualified tuition deduction. For 2013, an individual taxpayer has the chance to claim an above-the-line deduction for tuition and fees. This applies only to qualified higher education expenses. This deduction is set to expire at the end of this year; it may or may not be extended.1,2    

Mortgage insurance premiums deductions. Are you paying for private mortgage insurance (PMI)? This year, you can treat qualified PMI premiums as home mortgage interest, but the deduction only applies if your adjusted gross income is no greater than $109,000. This tax break could go away in 2014; it is available only for mortgages entered into during 2007-13.1,3,4

Mortgage debt relief. In 2013, canceled mortgage debt of up to $2 million (or $1 million, in the case of married taxpayers filing separately) can be excluded from taxable income. The debt must be forgiven on a qualified principal residence (i.e., a taxpayer’s primary home) due to the borrowers’ financial condition or a decline in value of the residence. You can thank the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 for this. The tax break is set to sunset at the end of 2013, though – and if it does, then any such debt forgiven next year will be taxable income.2,5

State & local general sales tax deduction. 2013 might be the last year individual taxpayers can choose to deduct state and local general sales taxes as opposed to state and local income taxes. This option is set to expire at the end of the year.1

Educator out-of-pocket expenses deduction. Classroom teachers/instructors, counselors, principals and aides who work in grades K-12 have enjoyed a special deduction of up to $250 in out-of-pocket costs above the line in 2013. As for 2014, this deduction is still a question mark.1

Qualified charitable distributions from an IRA. If you are over 70½, you have through December 31 to make a tax-free transfer of assets from an IRA directly to a qualified charity. While you can’t deduct the amount as a charitable contribution, it does count toward your annual required minimum distribution (RMD). Will this option be extended into 2014, or be made permanent? No one knows just yet.1

Increased expensing & bonus depreciation allowances. This year, the Section 179 deduction is set at $500,000 while the qualifying property limit is $2 million. In 2014, these limits are slated to drop dramatically: a Section 179 deduction of $25,000, a qualifying property limit of $200,000. In 2013 you can expense off-the-shelf software under Section 179; not so in 2014. This year, you can amend or irrevocably revoke a Section 179 election; next year, a Section 179 election will generally be irrevocable with IRS consent. While you can claim the Section 179 deduction on up to $250,000 of qualified real property this year, 2014 may offer you no such chance. For 2013, qualified leasehold and retail improvements and qualified restaurant property were given a 15-year straight-line recovery period; in 2014 the straight-line recovery period becomes 39 years. Congress may act to preserve all these current allowances.1,2

Currently, 50% special depreciation is permitted for qualified property additions placed into service in 2013, only long production-period property and certain kinds of aircraft will are slated to qualify to special depreciation in 2014. Again, Congress may preserve the current allowance.2

Electric vehicle credit. If you bought (or even leased) an electric car this year, you may be eligible for a tax credit of up to $7,500 (variable based on the size of the battery pack used by the vehicle). This tax perk is set to sunset in 2014. If you bought a qualifying 2-wheel or 3-wheel plug-in electric vehicle this year, you are eligible for a federal tax credit of up to $2,500.2,3

Personal energy property credit. Since 2006, there has been a $500 lifetime tax credit available to taxpayers who remodel their homes for energy efficiency. If you haven’t remodeled enough to claim the full $500 credit yet, a heads-up: it is set to expire at year’s end.1,3

R&D tax credit. This credit is admittedly hard to figure, but it can bring about major savings and can be carried forward or back. Up to 20% of R&D expenses (above a base) may generally be used as a credit against tax owed. Who knows, it may not be around for 2014.6

Transit benefits. In 2013, the exclusion for transit passes and/or vanpooling, provided by an employer, is $245 monthly; this is the same as the exclusion for employer-provided parking. Next year, the benefit for public transportation falls to $100 per month (with adjustment for inflation) while the exclusion for employer-provided parking stays at $245 per month.2,3 

One more thing to keep in mind. The IRS will delay the start of the tax-filing season by at least a week, a consequence of October’s federal government shutdown. It had planned to accept tax returns on January 21; that date will now be January 28 or later, with the final determination coming in December. The April 15 deadline for filing returns or requesting extensions still applies.7

 

Warmest Regards,

april-signature 

 Citations.

1 – accountingtoday.com/gallery/disappearing-tax-deductions-67830-1.html [10/30/13]

2 – tinyurl.com/k4pgc8f [11/5/13]

3 – dailyfinance.com/2013/11/05/8-tax-breaks-expiring-year-end-2013/ [11/5/13]

4 – inman.com/2013/08/20/dont-count-on-private-mortgage-insurance-deduction-in-2014/ [8/20/13]

5 – efile.com/home-foreclosure-mortgage-forgiveness-tax-relief-exclude-canceled-debt/ [11/14/13]

6 – inc.com/gene-marks/take-advantage-of-tax-breaks-before-december-31.html [10/31/13]

7 – bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-22/irs-delays-start-of-2014-u-s-tax-filing-citing-shutdown.html [10/22/13]

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Dividend Reinvestment & Compound Interest

Their combined power must be recognized & appreciated.

Why reroute dividends back into your investments? Isn’t taking the income the preferred outcome when a dividend is produced?

Retirees and pre-retirees are eager for dividend income in this era of historically low interest rates. Even so, the choice to buy more shares has merit for the long run.

Reinvestment & compounding may have profoundly positive effects. As a hypothetical example, let’s say you own 100 shares of a stock with a $10 share price. For the sake of mathematical convenience, let’s say that this stock maintains that share price while providing you with a 3% annual dividend. That 3% payment breaks down to a 0.75% quarterly dividend ($7.50 per quarter going to you). You choose to reinvest these payouts, buying more shares each quarter. So after one quarter, you own 100.75 shares of that stock (valued at $1,007.50), and a year later, you own 103.034 shares (valued at $1,030.34). Your annual yield effectively improved from 3% to 3.34%.1

That’s after one year. The big picture, even with such a simple example, is easily grasped here. While past performance is no indicator of future results, some recent stock market history illuminates the power of dividend reinvestment and compounding further.

Bears reference the “lost decade” of the 2000s, but dividend trends from that era certainly put stock market investing in a more positive light. Even with the 2000-02 bear market and 2008 downturn, S&P 500 firms increased their dividends by an average of 5.46% in a 10-year stretch that witnessed both those market setbacks. In the same ten-year period, DJIA companies boosted their dividends by an average of 7.07% per year, while NASDAQ firms bumped up theirs by an annual average of 45.38%! If an investor put $100,000 into a hypothetical investment that performed similarly to the DJIA on January 1, 2000, simple price appreciation would have taken its value north to more than $105,000 by January 1, 2012. Yet across the same 12 market years, that hypothetical $100,000 invested with dividends would have grown to approximately $141,000 by the start of 2012.2

Over 80% of S&P 500 firms pay dividends. In September 2013, 83% of stocks in the index were issuing dividend payments – the most in 15 years – with dividends from 99 firms at 3% or better. Some firms paid them out even as they lost money.3,4

Think about DRIPs. About 1,000 publicly traded firms offer dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs), and you can get into them for the price of a single share. DRIPs let you buy partial shares using your reinvested dividends – often without a fee. (You can also open a DRIP using a broker, but commissions and transfer charges may apply.) This is really another form of dollar cost averaging – slow and steady investment with the potential for a considerable long-term benefit. Multiple DRIPs mean multiple 1099s and some shareholders lose track of DRIPs over time, but they offer you a nice way to broaden your portfolio.5

Do you work for a big company that offers a DRIP? While you expose your portfolio to too much risk by assigning too much of it to one company’s stock, the reinvestment and compounding potential of a no-fee DRIP certainly warrants your attention.

Here is another hypothetical example. Say you go to work for the Rewarding Corporation and you invest an initial $1,000 in its employee DRIP, buying 100 shares at that price. You make $100 monthly contributions to the drip for the next 20 years while the shares appreciate 5% annually over that period and the dividend yield averages 2.3%. (We’ll factor in unchanging capital gains tax rates of 15% as well.) Twenty years later, your investment grows to $52,790.80. If your consistent monthly contribution to the DRIP is $250 rather than $100, you end up with $126,221.11 under the same conditions.6

Keep investing consistently, with compounding & reinvestment in mind. It may make a huge financial difference for you over time – a difference that might even let you retire earlier instead of later.

Warmest Regards,

april-signature 

 

Citations.

1 – beta.fool.com/cacody/2012/09/02/compound-interest-the-8th-wonder-of-the-world/10945/ [9/2/13]

2 – tinyurl.com/pftknyj [3/26/13]

3 – factset.com/dividend [9/16/13]

4 – 247wallst.com/special-report/2013/10/02/the-highest-yielding-dividends-that-are-safe-to-hold/ [10/2/13]

5 – consumerreports.org/cro/money/personal-investing/drip-your-way-to-growth/overview/index.htm [10/11]

6 – hughchou.org/calc/drip.php [10/17/13]