Friday May 9, 2008 - Mother's Day: Tax Planning
Yes there is still such a thing as tax planning. There are tax breaks your parents can take advantage of. Take a look at their tax returns for the last three years and if this job is beyond you hire someone to do it for them.
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Thursday May 8, 2008 - Mother's Day: Insurance Planning
Finding the insurance policies is the just the first step. Now you need to review them to be sure you have the latest policy and the premiums are paid. It would not be unusual to find that mom & dad have many expired policies in their file.
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Wednesday May 7, 2008 - Mother's Day: Is There Enough Money?
Does mom have enough money to maintain her current lifestyle? Tough question to ask, but one that may be necessary. Can mom and dad continue to maintain their life style, stay in the same house? Has poor investments eroded their nest egg?
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Tuesday May 6, 2008 - Mother's Day: Organizing Her Stuff
I talk about getting organized so often that my reputation as the Money Diva has diminished and I am now the Organization Queen. I know our listeners have heard it before but life is so much better once you have all of the paperwork organized! Less stress! And the bonus is if you need to help mom and dad from a distance it will be so much easier!
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Monday May 5, 2008 - Mother's Day: Helping Mom
With Mother’s Day next Sunday I thought this would be a good week to discuss our elders. Ask your mom what she would like for Mother’s Day and she will probably tell you; your time. As moms get older they especially want to spend time with you.
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Friday May 2, 2008 - Kids & Money: Grown Up Kids
Talking to your adult child about money is harder than talking to a 10-year-old about money. If the adult child brings up the subject its often because they want to borrow money from you or have you co-sign a loan for them. I strongly recommend thatyou do not co-sign a loan unless you have the cash available to pay for whatever they are purchasing.
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Thursday April May 1, 2008 - Kids & Money: Credit Cards
College students are graduating with more than a diploma these days, they have accumulated on average over $3,000 of credit card debt. This is not debt because of tuition or books, but debt due to the late night pizza runs, the concerts, the clothesand the CDs.
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Wednesday April 29, 2008 - Kids & Money: Allowances
I do believe kids should get an allowance and I also believe it should not be tied to work that they do around the house. All children should be expected to help around the house, setting the table, folding their laundry, and putting it away, takingout the trash, cleaning up after dinner etc.
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Tuesday April 28, 2008 - Kids & Money: Teach Children To Save Day!
The American Bankers Association is sponsoring a Teach Children to Save Day. Today! Participating banks are sending bankers into the schools today to talk to the students about saving.
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Monday April 28, 2008 - Kids & Money: Lessons
Kids don’t know enough about money. Where it comes from, how it gets earned, spent or saved. For the most part there is not enough money education in the schools. Here in Massachusetts that is beginning to change.
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Friday April 25, 2008 - Spring Cleaning: What Should You Keep, How Long, Where?
Most of us keep too much of the paper that comes into our homes. Common sense should prevail about what to keep and how long. A warranty for a clock radio that is 10 years old is really just a keepsake and can be tossed.
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Thursday April 24, 2008 - Spring Cleaning: Estate Planning
Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die! We are on a roll this week. It’s time to review your estate planning.
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Wednesday April 23, 2008 - Spring Cleaning: Where are the Insurance Policies?
Insurance is a financial tool. We buy protection for a catastrophic situation we don’t have enough money of our own to cover. And even Donald Trump buys insurance to protect what he’s got.
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Tuesday April 22, 2008 - Spring Cleaning: The Paper Shuffle
The paper shuffle is not the newest dance on Dancing with the Stars! It’s all of that stuff that comes in the mail each day that you do open and most times look at. But then it gets tossed in a pile.
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Monday April 21, 2008 - Spring Cleaning: Organizing Your Stuff
The warmer weather causes the spring-cleaning genes to awaken. We look around and want to get rid of the winter clutter. You’ve been raking your lawns, sweeping the sand out of the garage, washing windows, putting away boots and winter clothes. Now its time to work on the financial clutter you have hanging around.
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Friday April 18, 2008: Mutual Funds - Your Statement
Your mutual fund company sends out an annual statement the end of January. And you should have received your first quarterly statement for 2008 by now.
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Thursday April 17, 2008: Mutual Funds - When to Sell
All investors need to have a sell strategy as well as a buy strategy. Most do not. Which is why people are beginning to panic in today’s market.
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Wednesday April 16, 2008: Mutual Funds - Benchmarks
A benchmark is a standard used for comparison. And when investing you need to be able to compare your results with a standard in order to evaluate your portfolio.
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Tuesday April 15, 2008: Mutual Funds - Picking the Right Funds
Taxes are due today! If they are not done do not rush the job, file for an extension! With thousands of mutual funds to choose from, you need a disciplined process to whittle down the number to something that is manageable.
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Monday April 14, 2008: Mutual Funds - Building a Portfolio
I have been hearing from listeners who want to jump ship right now. They are worried about their portfolios. You want to build a portfolio based on your goals and time horizon so you can ride out the ups and downs of the stock market.
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Friday April 11, 2008 - Boomers on My Mind: The Pot Holes in Retirement
This is about the potholes of life not the ones on route 9 (which are nasty this spring). These potholes have a way of messing up the best-laid plans of the retiree. Some you can plan for, some you can avoid and others just happen!
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Thursday April 10, 2008 - Boomers on My Mind: Retire or Rehire
So is working part of your retirement plan? You are not alone if it is!
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Wednesday April 9, 2008 - Boomers on My Mind: Retiring Early
In doing research for one of my books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Retiring Early, I found that early for most people was retiring at 55. The oldest boomers are turning 62 this year and the youngest are 44. Some have already begun their Social Security benefits.
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Tuesday April 8, 2008 - Boomers on My Mind: When, What & Where?
There are three questions every pre-retiree needs to be thinking about. When are you going to retire? What are you retiring to? Where are you going to retire?
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Monday April 7, 2008 - Boomers on My Mind: How Much Income Will You Need?
You cannot pick up a magazine or newspaper today without a reference to Boomers and retirement. So I thought I would add my two cents to the subject.
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Friday April 4, 2008: Social Security Primer: The Mary Poppins Tax
Do you need to pay the Mary Poppins Tax? When you employ someone to work in your home such as a nanny or a housekeeper you need to be thinking about paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on their wages.
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Thursday April 3, 2008: Social Security Primer: What Women Need to Know
Women represent almost 60 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries age 62 and older and approximately 71 percent of beneficiaries age 85 and older.
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Wednesday April 2, 2008: Social Security Primer: Your Benefits
In order to get benefits from Social Security, you must work and pay taxes into the system. An exception would be an at-home spouse or a child of a worker, who could collect benefits as a dependent or a survivor.
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Tuesday April 1, 2008: Social Security Primer: Is It Doomed?
Is Social Security doomed? I don’t think so!
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Monday March 31, 2008: Social Security Primer: History
I heard from listeners last week who wanted to know more about Social Security and what it does for them. The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1935. This act created a social insurance program designed to pay retiredworkers age 65 or older a continuing income after they retired.
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Friday March 28, 2008: Self-Employed: Disaster Planning
There are close to 24 million small businesses in the US right now and close to 80% of them have one employee-the owner. Most small businesses, especially ones run from home, have not given enough thought to planning for disasters, natural or man made.
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Thursday March 27, 2008: Self-Employed: Retirement Plans
Let’s start with the simplest plans first. IRAs are available for the self-employed. You can contribute up to $5,000 this year and if you are over 50 you can use the catch up provision and put away an additional $1000.
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Wednesday March 26, 2008: Self-Employed: Section 179 Deductions
Normally if you purchase capital equipment for your business you don’t get to expense the total cost of the equipment the year you buy it. You depreciate the equipment over its useful life, which could be anywhere from three to seven years, expensing a portion each year on your tax return.
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Tuesday March 25, 2008: Self-Employed: Deductions
So what can you deduct if you are self-employed? A lot! Let’s start with your car.
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Monday March 24, 2008: Self-Employed: On Your Own
There are a lot of self-employed individuals and small business owners. Census data says there were over 19 million one-person firms and another 5 million small businesses in 2006. I figure that number is low for there are many folks out there not reporting their income from self-employment.
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Friday March 21, 2008: The IRS is Sending Money: Pay it Forward
Pay it forward. Give it away. Now I don’t want you to do this unless you can afford to. Albert Einstein said and I quote “It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it."
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Thursday March 20, 2008: The IRS is Sending Money: Invest in Yourself!
Your largest asset is your ability to earn a living. Think about how much money you can earn over your lifetime. Let’s say you earn an average of $50,000 a year over your working career and you start at age 20 and work until you are age 67. That’s $2.35 million!
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Wednesday March 19, 2008: The IRS is Sending Money: Invest in Your Retirement
Retirement planning should start with your first job. But retirement planning is usually the one thing people put off because retirement seems so far away when you are 30 years old. If you are guilty of slacking off use your tax refund to increase your retirement savings.
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Tuesday March 18, 2008: The IRS is Sending Money: An Emergency Fund
Another good use of the windfall is to earmark the money for an emergency fund. Everyone needs a rainy day fund! I like to refer to it as a Cash Stash. This is savings set aside for an emergency. Grandma had it right when she stashed her extra savings into the cookie jar or the coffee can each week.
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Monday March 17, 2008: The IRS is Sending Money: Get Out of Debt
The IRS and Congress have money for you. It wants to send us all a special economic stimulus payment. If you file a tax return you will not need to do anything more to receive your check this spring. A couple could be eligible for to $1,200 and an individual $600.
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Dee Lee is a Certified Financial Planner who received a diploma in Financial Planning from Boston University and her MBA from Simmons College. She is a member of the Financial Planning Association and served on their national Board of Directors
