Turn Retirement Dreams into Reality

Have dreams about retiring early? We have some tips on how to make that dream a reality.

According to the Michigan Association of CPAs, retiring early takes meticulous planning and more than a tidy sum of money, but for the truly committed, early retirement is possible. Here is what you need to do if you desire an early escape from the work world.

Envision Your Retirement Years—One of the biggest challenges that retirees face is determining how much they need to save by the time they hope to retire. The further away you are from retirement, the more difficult the task. CPAs and other experts say you need somewhere between 70% and 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living. This rule of thumb is helpful for starters, but it doesn’t consider that the amount of money you’ll need in future years depends, to a great extent, on the retirement lifestyle you plan to lead.

Make The Most of Retirement Savings Opportunities — Perhaps the best way to prepare for an early retirement is by taking full advantage of 401(k) plans or other employer-sponsored, tax-deferred retirement plans. These plans make it possible for you to invest pretax money for retirement directly from your paycheck and, as an added bonus, many companies will match part, or even all, of your contributions.

If you’re self-employed, you can create your own retirement plan by opening a Keogh account. Even if you work for another company and are covered by a retirement plan, you can use a Keogh plan to shelter self-employment income you may earn from consulting or freelance work.

Traditional and Roth IRAs offer additional opportunities to build your retirement nest egg. Eligible workers can contribute to an IRA even if covered by a 401(k) at work. In certain cases, your IRA contribution may be tax deductible and, in all cases, there is no tax on earnings inside an IRA until the money is withdrawn.

Reduce Expenses to Build a Surplus — Retiring early is an aggressive act that requires not only intense saving, but a serious willingness to live below your means during the wealth accumulation phase of your life. Are you willing to replace expensive restaurant meals with dinners at home? Are you ready to lower your housing costs by trading down to a smaller home? The more fat you can trim from your budget, the more you can invest toward achieving early retirement.

Become an Astute Investor — It’s important to be vigilant about the allocation of the assets in your investment account. The biggest mistake you can make with retirement savings is to play it too safe. The longer you have before you retire, the more you should invest in stocks which offer growth potential. Stocks may be considered risky because they are more volatile in the short term but, over time, stocks typically outperform other investments. Your challenge is to achieve a reasonable balance between risk and reward.

Consider Your Future Insurance Needs — Right now, you probably have health, disability, and life insurance coverage under your employer’s group policy. In fact, your employer probably pays some of the cost of this coverage. When you retire, at the very least, you will need to replace your health insurance with a new policy that will carry you to age 65 when Medicare kicks in.

Enlist Help — Retiring early necessitates far more than a desire to call it quits before reaching your normal retirement age. It requires a knowledgeable look at the lifestyle you envision and the resources you have to fund your future. A CPA can be a valuable resource for would-be early retirees. He or she can help you work out a spending and investment plan that considers your retirement goals, current resources and investments, and future sources of income, as well as taxes, inflation, interest rates, and other components that factor into your plan. The sooner you make an appointment with your CPA, the sooner you’ll be on your way to achieving early retirement.

This article was submitted by the Michigan Association of CPAs.

Preparing Your Car for Winter

From a mechanical aspect, winter conditions – wet, cold and icy weather – present the greatest challenge to your vehicle’s operating efficiency. Since these conditions cannot be avoided, prepare for winter by performing a complete vehicle checkup in the fall. Check, or have your mechanic check, the following items:1. Electrical System

1. Battery – Have your alternator or generator, voltage regulator and drive belts checked also.
2. Ignition System – Damaged ignition wires, a cracked distributor cap or worn spark plugs can make starting difficult or may cause a sudden vehicle breakdown.
3. Lights – Make sure all your lights and lenses are clean and functioning properly. Grime on headlight lenses reduces their effectiveness by as much as 90%.

2. Brake System – Have your breaks checked regularly and do not delay any necessary maintenance or repairs.

3. Tires – Make certain your tires are properly inflated and in good condition. While it is best to purchase tires in sets of four, if you only purchase two, mount them on the rear wheels.

4. Exhaust System – Have a mechanic check your exhaust system for leaks in order to minimize the chances of carbon monoxide poisoning. If your car is stuck in the snow and you have the engine running, open a window slightly and clear snow away from the exhaust pipe.

5. Heating & Cooling System – Make sure your vehicle’s cooling system contains enough antifreeze to prevent freezing in cold weather. Keep the mixture fresh by changing it regularly and having the entire system checked for leaks.

6. Windshield Wipers, Washer, Glass & Vehicle Exterior – Clean windows offer optimal visibility. An antifreeze washer solvent should be used in the water reservoir bottle.

It is also recommended that you have a winter driving kit in your vehicle. The following items will be invaluable should an emergency develop:

• Bag of abrasive material (sand, salt or cat litter)
• Small snow shovel, snow brush and ice scraper
• Traction mats
• Flashlight & extra batteries
• Window-washing solvent; cloth or paper towels
• Booster cables; warning flares or triangles
• Gloves or mittens and blanket
• Cell phone

Compliments of AAA.

Tips for Shopping for a Vehicle for Your Teen

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), auto accidents are still the leading cause of death for American teenagers. However, due to safer vehicles graduated license laws, the numbers have decreased 65% from 8,748 teen deaths in 1975 to 3,023 in 2011.

Regardless of statistics and new vehicle safety precautions, automakers still haven’t come up with a vehicle that can drive itself when the weather gets bad, when a tire blows out or when another driver becomes distracted and wanders into your lane. Seasoned drivers rely on their experience and split-second-decision-making abilities to negotiate these perilous moments. Teens don’t have that experience.

Automobile crash experts cite inexperience, low seat belt use, driving with too many passengers in the car, inattention, drugs and alcohol and excessive speeds as the reasons why teens are involved in so many fatal crashes.

Another culprit is the size and type of vehicle they drive. In an emergency situation, because a young driver has little or no driving experience to draw on, he’s forced to rely on the structural integrity of his vehicle to see him through a collision. The kind of car a teen drives could mean the difference between injury and death.

Does that mean you should rush out and buy a brand new car with all the latest safety options?

Not necessarily. However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recommends newer models. They do better in crash tests than older cars and have extra safety features like air bags, anti-lock brakes and passive restraints.

How a vehicle does in a frontal impact depends on its structural integrity and its crumple and crash zones. Crumple zones absorb energy on impact, and since their collapse is controlled, the energy that would otherwise damage a passenger area gets channeled to different parts of the vehicle.

Bigger vehicles have longer crumple zones, providing more protection to the passenger areas. However, they’re not an ideal fit for everyone. Consider a young petite woman. If she can’t comfortably reach the gas pedals or see over the steering wheel, she’s not going to have good control of her car. Consider, too, the rollover issue with sport utility vehicles. Because they have a high center of gravity, they are more prone to rollover than cars. Experts cite speed and inattention — two culprits behind teen crash fatalities — as the causal factors in rollovers.

NHTSA conducts front and side crash testing on vehicles predicted to have a high sales volume, vehicles that include a new safety feature or have been structurally redesigned. The agency also assigns vehicle rollover resistance ratings. They publish their results on their website. Before you begin to research your automobile’s crash test scores, take a moment to look at the website’s “Frequently Asked Questions” page. You’ll glean insight into the different kinds of tests they perform, under which conditions they perform them, and the factors they use to rate performance. Another source for crash test information is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

If you’re in the market for an older model, experts recommend buying a sturdy and reliable — but not overpowered — sedan. Your teen won’t be able to drive at excessive speeds, but if he loses control of the vehicle, he won’t face the increased rollover risk he would if he was in a high profile vehicle. Make sure the car’s tires and brakes are in excellent shape. Examine seatbelts for loose or fraying fabric and make sure they attach and retract properly. Consider having the car thoroughly checked out by a trusted mechanic.

New Financial Habits in the Post-Recession Age

If you’re like many, you’ve spent the past few years scrimping and saving. These are great habits to keep, even if your financial situation has improved. 

If you still haven’t taken those steps, you might want to think about making these changes:

Restart your finances with a thorough financial plan. If you’ve lost a job or have been struggling to get control of your debt, savings or investments, plan a visit now with a Certified Financial Planner™ professional. At the meeting you can also examine spending patterns and the emotional drivers behind many of your financial decisions. If you don’t have a planner in mind, the Financial Planning Association has a website where you can search by location and specific planning issues.

Create a budget. If you’ve never tracked your spending before, make a commitment to do so for at least two months as you pull together financial statements, income sources and your bills. Start separating all your expenses into both fixed (amounts that don’t change) and variable (amounts that may change, such as restaurant meals, gasoline expenditures and entertainment expenses). Take into account any major expenses that are coming up within the year. Total your monthly income and expenses and then start identifying the expenses that you can trim and figure out whether you can direct the money you save to spending or debt. Congratulations! You’ve created your first budget. Also, don’t ignore planning for perks and vacations and make sure you plan ahead for big expenditures, such as cars and retirement.

Go cash or debit. Return credit cards to their correct status—a way to afford emergencies. Debit cards with a bankcard logo are typically welcome at most stores where credit cards are accepted. This way, you pay cash without carrying cash. If you don’t have such a card, you can probably get one from your bank or credit union to replace your traditional ATM card, but remember to tell them to limit your buying power to the cash balance in your account. Also check to make sure what protections exist on that card if it is lost or stolen and if they will forgive the balance in the event of the cardholder’s death. Be aware that some banks freeze your underlying checking account for your debit card until a dispute regarding an item purchased with a stolen card is resolved.

Live off lists. Yes, everyone makes shopping lists from time to time so they don’t forget to bring home milk and bananas. But the advantage of making very detailed shopping lists for everything—preferably on one page—is that it’s really a good way to keep impulse spending down. If, for example, you have a week of unexpected expenses (car repair, home repair, unexpected fees for your child at school), you can see what real priority items are and what you might be able to do without.

Set a schedule for checking your credit report. This is not so much a spending issue as a way to monitor the ongoing safety of your accounts and your borrowing status. You have three credit reports to check—TransUnion, Equifax and Experian—and you have the right to get all three of these for free once a year. The best way to do this is to request each report at staggered points during the year at annualcreditreport.com, which is the only guaranteed free site to order these reports. If any credit report site requests a credit card number before it surrenders a report, chances are good that you’ll be paying for that “free” report. Why should you stagger your reports? Because the same information travels between each agency and if there is an error or security breach, you may catch it faster if you’re checking throughout the year rather than at one time only.

Comparison shop at your desk. Shopping online has its own risks, including paying expensive shipping fees and overspending with a simple click among them. However, using the Internet to browse and compare prices can save time, gasoline and money. Websites like eBay, Amazon or mySimon.com can help you determine general price ranges for gifts you need that are sold online. Once you have those ranges, get on the phone and determine whether you can buy the same items more affordably at retailers close to home.

Don’t shop without coupons and discount codes. You don’t have to buy a newspaper to get coupons anymore. If you know particular stores where you’ll shop, sign up for their email lists. You’ll start receiving coupons and news of specials on a regular basis. If you buy particular products regularly, go to the manufacturer’s website and see if you can sign up for regular discounts online and in the mail. Also, if you do shop online, sites like BradsDeals.com and CouponCabin.com have promotional codes that you can type in for discounts before you hit the “total” button on an order. Usually, these codes will cover free shipping, but they might also buy additional discounts on an order. Never complete an online order without searching for a promotional code.

This article was submitted by the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community. FPA members are dedicated to supporting the financial planning process in order to help people achieve their goals and dreams. Submission of this article does not imply an endorsement or recommendation of the Financial Resource Center site.