The Financial Lab

The Senior Citizens League says if you’d retired in the year 2000 with a total income of $100,000, you’d now need $156,000 to be able to afford the same standard of living.  That’s thanks to inflation, which – by the way – has been rising much faster than usual lately.  We’d like to think that we’ll be able to replace our current income in retirement, but it appears we’re losing ground.  What’s the answer? 

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How often do you check your retirement account?  If it’s been a while, IRA expert Ed Slott says you might be surprised at how much it’s grown! some big tax changes coming out  way, so what can we do about this “big bag of tax” … do we have any options? 

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Travis discusses the first steps to recovering from Ida - starting with filing a claim with your insurance, contacting FEMA and more. Hear Travis give a step-by-step account to getting back on your feet. 

Contact Travis and David Shepherd today at 225-465-1065 for more info! 

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President Biden wants to hire more people at the IRS with 80 million and he says it is a investment and the guys talk about how they can help people invest more into keeping our money if government wants to invest more into taking our retirement money! 

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Transamerica has agreed to a $5 million court settlement … for not giving its employees enough investment choices in their retirement plan.  Isn’t that one of the benefits of doing a rollover – because it gives you more options for what to do with your retirement assets? 

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The most common retirement fear is running out of money.  So, the Go-Banking-Rates website came up with a list of some of the causes of that. David and Travis go down and list and discuss a few of these mistakes that could cost you BIG TIME and how they can help you avoid them. 

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RMDs – or required minimum distributions – are back for 2021.  Best-selling retirement author Patrick Kelly says many retirees are surprised to learn that they’ll have to withdraw this money from their accounts, whether they want to or not! For those listeners who don’t need that money right now, what are some “tax friendly” options for what they might want to do with it when they take those RMDs?

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Now that President Biden is trying to raise the inheritance tax, CNBC says some people are considering life insurance as an estate planning tool.  Is that really an option?

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Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are all over the news, with some people bragging about making huge profits in a very short period of time.  But Morningstar’s Dan Kemp says you’ll want to think twice before investing any of your retirement assets in crypto - hear David and Travis weigh in on what they're telling clients about this!

Market Watch had an interesting take on tax planning:  They said you shouldn’t change your financial behavior just to avoid taxes.  A good tax planning strategy is one that allows you to keep doing what you want to do … while reducing your tax liabilities, in the process.  David and Travis discuss their approach to dealing with the tax issue as we plan for retirement?

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You may have seen that Census Bureau story about Texas and Florida being the fastest-growing states, population-wise.  Coincidentally, both of those are considered to be low-tax states.  Jimmy Patronis, who is CFO of the state of Florida, tells Fox Business that’s a big attraction for people who are tired of paying high taxes… but what if I’m happy right here?  Do I really have to move, just to lower my tax bills in retirement?  

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