First, the alternative minimum tax, was patched so that middle income senior citizens are not caught paying an incremental tax bill. For 2010, the AMT exemption amounts will be $47,450 for unmarried individuals and $72,450 for married individuals filing jointly. For 2011, the amounts will be $48,450 and $74,450, respectively.

Next, the bill extends the benefit of senior citizens using IRA funds to make charitable donations.   Seniors age 70½ and older can continue to contribute up to $100,000 directly from their IRAs to charity. The IRA charitable withdrawal isn’t deductible, but it is not included in taxable income for the year.  This is a very significant advantage to most senior citizens whose tax on social security and health expense deduction depend on keeping their reported income down.

The withdrawal counts toward the IRA owner’s required minimum distribution — the amount retirees age 70½ or older are required to withdraw every year.

If you have already taken a distribution from your IRA in 2010, you cannot use the provision to give to charity. But if you haven’t taken your 2010 required minimum distribution, you have until Jan. 31, 2011 to make a contribution directly to charity and have it count toward your 2010 required minimum distribution.

Last, there is a break on estate taxes, an issue of concerns to senior citizens who may have significant estates.  Rather than the $1 million exemption and 55% rate that would have applied to estates for 2011, the new law reduces these factors to an estate tax rate of 35% and an estate tax exemption of $5 million ($10 million for couples with proper estate planning).

So even though senior citizens can lament the fact they won’t get an increase in 2011 social security benefits, they did pretty well with this Congress.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

Now through December 31, 2010, Lending Club IRA users can receive up to a 3% cash bonus when they make an additional transfer and investment through their Lending Club IRA.

Rollover, transfer, convert or contribute an additional:

* $5,000 and receive a 1.5% cash bonus
* $25,000 and receive a 2% cash bonus
* $50,000 and receive a 2.5% cash bonus
* $100,000 and receive a 3.0% cash bonus

* To receive your bonus, all funds must be newly transferred between the date you enrolled in the program (but not earlier than November 15, 2010) and December 31, 2010, continuously maintained in your Lending Club account and fully invested on the Lending Club platform by January 31, 2011. Existing account balances and transfers prior to your program enrollment date will not be counted towards satisfaction of the necessary transfer amount to earn this bonus. Your bonus, if any, will be deposited into your account or mailed to your address on file by February 15, 2011. Program may be discontinued at any time without notice. Failure to fully invest the new funds by January 31, 2011 will result in your not qualifying for this bonus. Transactions in the secondary market (the trading platform operated by FolioFN) do not count as “investing funds” towards earning the bonus. This bonus payment, if earned, is taxable so please consult with your personal tax advisor. You are responsible for any taxes related to this offer. Void where otherwise prohibited. This offer may not be combined with any other offer.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

Trilogy, is offering modern, active adults an online personality assessment that is aimed to provide participants with deeper insight into their personality types and how those relate to where they would like to live. The survey, at www.trilogylifescape.com , is a fun, interactive way to engage baby boomer participants while also giving them an opportunity to learn more about themselves.

To make the free Lifescape quiz easily accessible, Trilogy is introducing it through numerous online outlets that are relevant and best represent baby boomers’ interests. The six-section personality quiz includes visuals of various living communities and settings, questions about travel and entertainment preferences, and even inquiries as to the quiz taker’s interests and causes – with a goal to dig deeper into what the 55+ active adult population truly desire in their lives at a time where they may be searching to gain new experiences.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

This isn’t about retirement but it is a good deal so I decided to share it with you.

• 0% intro APR on balance transfers for a full 12 months, then the Regular APR
• 0% intro APR on purchases for a full 6 months, then the Regular APR
• Get $100 Cashback Bonus when you make $500 in purchases within 3 months
• 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like travel, gas, groceries, restaurants, home improvement stores and more
• Up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on all other purchases
• No Annual Fee

Apply Now!

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

You may have noticed that the posts disappeared from this site for a couple days last week. I’m not sure how it happened but my database was corrupted and had to be restored. Luckily, my host was able to fix it. If not I would have had to restore it from a rather old backup. I learned my lesson there and am now having a backup emailed to me daily.

I also hired someone to make the comment link appear even when there are no comments. I know some people complained before that it was difficult to figure out how to leave comments. This should cure that problem. If there are any other blog features you would like to see let me know and I might implement them.

Of course the most important thing on a blog is content. I have been neglecting this blog lately but I plan to rectify that. Now that the site is back up and running there should be at least two posts a week. Feel free to suggest any topics that you would like to see covered.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

The winner of the book The New Three-Legged Stool: A Tax Efficient Approach to Retirement Planning is Will P. If you didn’t win you will have another chance to win. I will be giving away a different book next week. Thanks to everyone for entering.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

This week’s book giveaway is for the book, Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market. The purpose of this book is to help readers understand the basics of stock market investing. Material covered includes the difference between stocks and businesses, what constitutes a good business, when to buy and sell stocks, and how to value individual stocks. The book also includes a chapter covering four case studies as well as a supplemental chapter on the pros and cons of real estate versus stock market investing.

To make this giveaway a little sweeter I am also going to include a copy of the 2010 New Yorker Desk Diary. To enter the contest just leave a comment. The winner will be chosen at random Friday June 18,2010. Limit one entry per person. Entrants with U.S. mailing address only please in order to keep my shipping costs down. I reserve the right to make other rules in the interest of fairness. Thanks and good luck!

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

A Target Date Retirement Fund seems like an easy way to save for your retirement.  You just invest your money in the fund that matches your planned retirement date and you are all set.  Of course, investing for retirement is not that easy.  There are several questions you should ask when deciding to use a target-date retirement fund to save for your retirement.

1. How risky is the fund? -  Not all target-date retirement funds have the same level of risk.  Two funds with a target date of 2025 could have wildly different proportions of equity and fixed-income investments.  You need to decide what is an appropriate level of risk for your goals.
2. What are the fees? -  Funds also differ on the fees they charge.  Paying too much in fees can seriously affect the performance of your target-date retirement fund.  Make sure you are not paying too much in fees.
3. How much should you invest?  -  These funds will not tell you how much you need to save for retirement.  You need to figure that out on your own.
4. Do you have other retirement savings? -  These funds are designed to be your sole retirement investment vehicles.  If you have other retirement savings that will change your investment allocation and you need to adjust accordingly.
5. What happens when you hit the target-date? – Some of the target-date funds are designed to end when you hit the retirement target-date while others are designed to continue and hopefully provide you with an appropriate return on your money while retired.  Whichever is the case with the target-date retirement fund you choose you need to make sure that your investment will provide you with a sufficient income during retirement.

These five questions are a good starting point when choosing a target-date retirement fund.  Be sure to investigate a prospective target-date retirement fund thoroughly before using it to save for your retirement.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

There are many risks to your retirement savings. Here are five of the more common ones.

1. Starting too late -  When you are young it seems like retirement is far way.  However, by starting to invest for your retirement while you are young it will be much easier to save enough for a comfortable retirement.




2. Not saving enough -  Just saving enough to get your 401k match is better than doing nothing but it probably won’t add up to enough for you to be able to retire.  Even the conventional 10% figure probably isn’t enough.  Another bonus to saving more is the ability to retire early.




3. Lack of diversification – It is possible to be over diversified but most people’s savings suffer from a lack of diversification.  Putting all your money into your company’s stock is a common example.   That didn’t work to well for Enron employees.  You should have your retirement savings in several investments.




4. Taking too little risk -  People are naturally adverse to losing money.  The stock market slide in 2008 has made even more people risk adverse.  Saving your money in a money market paying 1% isn’t going to allow you to retire.  You need to take some risk.




5. Taking too much risk -  Examples of this would be betting all your money on one stock or one sector.  This could have a huge return but it could also cripple your chances of retirement.  You also need to move more of your money out of stocks and other riskier investments and into fixed income investments as you get closer to retirement.

That is just a brief overview of potential risks to your retirement savings.  Now that you have an idea of what the risks are you can do further research and educate yourself to avoid or minimize these risks.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements

You have probably seen several news reports quoting statistics from the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Some of the more interesting figures from the survey are that 43% of Americans have less than $10,000 in retirement savings and 27% say they have less than $1000 in savings. Also only 16% have confidence in their ability to save enough for retirement.

These statistics may not be as bad as they seem. The statistics do not include the value of primary homes or defined-benefit pension plans. Also, you need to consider that some of the survey respondents are still in their 20’s and haven’t had much time to accumulate much in savings.

Even taking these factors into account though it is clear that most Americans need to be doing more in preparation for retirement. They survey showed that many people are unaware of how much they need to save for retirement or how to calculate how much they need to save for retirement. I think it is also clear that without the safety net of Social Security there will be millions of Americans that are never able to retire.

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Retirement: News, Appraisals, Information, Research, Advice – Everything Life Settlements