2012 | Page 59 of 61

The 4 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself in Today’s Economy

Jan 28 2012

Some days it seems like our economy is improving, then you turn the page and major world problems (Mideast, Europe, Korea, etc.) are just getting worse.

So what if you are a baby-boomer (or older) and are starting to think that your retirement isn’t going to be as joyful as you expected? Or maybe you are younger than that but wonder about your ability to take care of your parents, put your kids through college, and ever have enough money to retire yourself?

To evaluate yourself financially you need to answer four basic questions:

Are you living within your means?

Why You Shouldn’t Invest Your Self-directed IRA in Real Estate

Jan 26 2012

You might ask yourself, “With housing prices and interest rates so low, isn’t it a good time to invest my IRA in real estate?”

Think twice before you do. There are a lot of disadvantages when purchasing real estate with your IRA funds even if you think property prices have bottomed out and you feel strongly that real estate is a good investment.

Higher tax rates – When you sell real estate within an IRA, any gain distributed is taxed at ordinary income tax rates. This rate can be much higher than the capital gains rate you would pay on …

The Best Options For Paying For a Funeral

Jan 24 2012

After recently attending a funeral of a close family friend, I started thinking about end of life planning. Clearly there are steps we should take to lessen, even a little, the hardship facing loved ones at the time of one’s death. Confronting such issues is certainly not the easiest thing to do; however, just like other major milestones, there may be significant benefits to planning ahead, including allowing surviving members to grieve properly and relieving them of some of the stressful decisions they have to make during such a difficult time.

Much has been written about estate planning, which entails, …

The 6 Worst Pieces of Financial Advice

Jan 23 2012

As part of your wealth building strategy, you should have a third party give you feedback on your personal financial plan. That could be a friend, relative, or a paid financial professional. There is no guarantee that the advice or suggestions that you receive will work out and you need to use your own common sense and analysis to figure out the right thing to do. Unfortunately all humans are unique and we all come with different tax brackets, risk tolerance, and financial goals. That is why it is so difficult to commoditize financial advice. No matter how hard …

A Must Read Before You Set-up A Self-Directed IRA

Jan 19 2012

With the market fluctuations of late, investors are growing increasingly concerned and tired of watching their portfolio holdings lose value by the day. This is causing a lot of buzz in the area of Self‐Directed IRAs. Investors feel that by having more control over their investment options, they will see their investments grow rather than dwindle.

What is a Self‐Directed IRA?

Self‐Directed IRAs are retirement accounts in which you, the investor, decide what types of assets to hold. Traditional, Roth and SEP IRAs as well as 401k plans have the ability to have self directed status. In traditional accounts of …

Archive - 2012

What is a Self‐Directed IRA?