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The launch of a new decade is a great time to assess your financial status, and just as important, to focus on your financial future with a total makeover. This is especially true today when so many of us are still reeling from the battered economy and record unemployment. But regardless of your current financial circumstances, there is always room for improvement and step one is to create a list of goals.
To help you, take a look at the key priorities that are the backbone of any financial plan.  You have to know where you are starting from in order to know where you are going.

•    Establish your net worth: Add up the value of your assets- your home, investments, retirement accounts, savings, etc. Then add up your liabilities- mortgage, credit cards, personal loans, etc. When you  

As a financial planner, I have always urged my clients to do their taxes twice a year. And though I’ve grown accustomed to hearing the grumbling about the hassles, after they realize how great an impact it can have on reducing their tax burden, they are always glad I suggested it.

Why file twice a year? Obviously the first tax return is for the purpose of filing before the April 15 deadline. The other “filing”  is actually a mock return done before the end of the calendar year so that I can assess where they stand tax wise. This gives me the needed time and flexibility to “change the score” of  

Regardless of what survey you read or what poll you listen to one thing is very clear,  people  today are living longer, largely a result of modern pharmacology’s ability to convert an acute illness into a chronic illness.  As a result they will now require  many additional months and years of custodial or skilled care  costing additional billions of dollars .  However despite the fact that  over 50% of our adult population   according to the American Medical Association will require some  sort of long term care , lasting on average 3 years , less than 8% of the population has thus far purchased a traditional Long term Care  insurance product..

Make no mistake about it as people live longer there will be an ever increasing  need for  more custodial , intermediate and skilled  care required by  our aging population. However what seemed to stand  in most  

There has been a lot of press lately about the high cost of divorce. Not the legal fees (although those alone can be staggering enough to be deterrents) but the unanticipated expenses. Apparently there can be many surprises along the way.

According to Ron Lieber, who writes the YOUR MONEY column for “The New York Times”, the obvious first decision is whether to use traditional legal channels to resolve the major financial and custodial issues  

Every year at this time, I urge clients to give some thought to moves they could make between now and the end of the year to reduce their tax burden. It always surprises them that they have so many options. Here are some possible tax-reducing opportunities to consider:

Deferring Income: If you are expecting a year-end bonus, for example, and can take it in 2010 instead,  

Upon the death of a loved one, there are always questions among surviving family members. Whether their questions concern legal, financial, business or personal matters, the uncertainty of how to proceed can leave a mourning family in great distress. Worse still, without having specific guidelines to follow, conflicts can lead to feuding and law suits, or at a minimum, unnecessary ill will. Surely this is not what the deceased  

One of the most significant improvements on 403(b) plans is the requirement that employee/participants have several choices on where to invest their individual accounts. The downside is that many people don’t feel qualified to evaluate the merits of their investment options and need professional guidance. Districts would be well served to offer the services of expert, trustworthy advisors. Meanwhile, here are some important considerations for assessing retirement plan options:

Think Conservative The old rule of thumb was that the closer you were to retirement age, the more  

Important First Steps for School Districts

• Review current policies, contracts and management procedures for 403(b)s and other benefit programs

• Develop a list of all current benefit providers that details benefits, offered, fees charged and services provided

• Review compliance practices as they relate to the new 403(b) requirements

Very soon, Joe, the plumber, will say good-bye to his twenty minutes of fame and return to his real calling, unclogging drains and fixing leaky pipes. Joe’s absurd rise to notoriety made me think of the real unsung heroes in our communities who earn their living working with their hands and their hearts. Their voices are rarely heard, but their observations about life could provide some of our greatest wisdom.

Starting a new job is very exciting, but the transition brings with it a lot of confusion regarding benefits, particularly retirement plans such as a 401k. If you have just recently made a job switch, or are in the process of doing that, know your rights and your options.

First, 401k accounts are portable- you will take the money with you through a process called a rollover. Essentially you take the distribution of your vested balance- the total amount you accrued from your own  

The old adage about turning lemons into lemonade may turn out to be true with investment portfolios. While we all struggle with the down market and the possibility of further decline before it bottoms out, now may be a good time to gift a portion of your assets to beneficiaries, thereby reducing your taxable estate. (This is for federal taxes only. State laws on transfer taxes vary and may or may not apply).

      The key advantages are:

          o Lowering your property transfer taxes (for gifts and estates)
       

Many public corporations issue stock purchase plans for their employees. Others have a match program where for each percentage that the employee contributes, the company will deposit an equal percentage of company stock into their retirement account, sometimes at a discounted rate.

In years past, we have all heard the tall stories about the average Joe getting to retire rich on company  

It is not only students who have much to learn this year. With all of the changes taking place in the world of 403bs, teachers and administrators are going to have to also be very diligent in keeping up with their studies.  With all of the plans and protocols in a state of flux, it has never been more important for you to understand your options as well as have the right tools to evaluate your options.

As you attempt to build your financial life over the coming months and years, consider that if you are not working with a trusted financial advisor, you should make this priority number one. I have been a certified financial planner for the past thirty years and have always reminded clients that good financial advice doesn’t cost, it pays in more measurable ways than you can imagine.

But today, never has this been more true. Given the current world financial collapse, it has been the watershed event that proves that no one  

If you are still doing your taxes once a year, you are losing out on a valuable opportunity to reduce your burden. A smart approach is to do a test run mid-year so that you can take advantage of strategies while there is time for them to make an impact before you submit your actual return. Here are some possible tax-saving ideas that are worth knowing more about, should they apply to you.

If you are a first time homebuyer this year, you will definitely want to look into the tax break that is