OCTOber 2014
“We are what we
repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a
habit.”
- Aristotle
GOLF TIP How can you stop
hitting it fat?
Often this occurs because you are dropping your right shoulder (or your left, if
you are a lefty) on the downswing. That can happen if you move your hips toward the
target as the downswing starts. To help correct this hitch, focus on starting your
downswing with your arms, or alternately on keeping your forward shoulder
down.
BRAIN TEASER Weight-Weight,
Don’t Tell Me! Frank weighs half
as much as John. Hubert weighs three times as much as Frank. Their combined weight
is 720 pounds. How much does each man weigh?*
DID YOU KNOW?
A truly lofty achievement
Redwoods (found only in northern California and southern Oregon) are
the tallest trees on earth. At present, there are 50 redwoods taller than 360’
high. The tallest pine tree ever measured was 268’ high, the tallest tanoak 162’
high.4
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STRATEGIC WITHDRAWALS MAY HELP YOU SUSTAIN YOUR SAVINGS
Deliberate, orderly
withdrawals from retirement accounts may be a key to stretching out your
retirement dollars. You likely have retirement savings in both taxable and
tax-advantaged accounts. Given this, there are some prudent steps that might
make income planning easier as retirement begins.
Figure your income needs
and weigh them against your latest retirement account statements. If you are
70+, will RMDs from workplace retirement plans and traditional IRAs provide
enough? If you aren’t yet in your seventies, can you live on cash and income
from CDs and money market funds for 6-24 months to start? (That will give your
tax-deferred accounts more time to grow and compound.) If the answer to these
questions is “no”, it may be wise to sell taxable assets
– those with a higher cost basis
first, then ones with a lower cost basis. Ideally, you tap your tax-advantaged
accounts last (drawing down Roth accounts last of all).
Finally, all retirement
income withdrawal strategies are influenced by three factors: your age, your tax
bracket, and whether transferring highly appreciated assets to your heirs will
be the best choice from a tax
standpoint.1
LOOKING FOR A PART D PLAN?
If
you are shopping for a plan that can give you access to Medicare’s prescription
drug benefits this fall, you have 1,001 choices before you. Literally. So says the
Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Fact Sheet, a 4-page
guide providing an overview of Part D options. Medicare recipients in all 50 states
will have at least 24 stand-alone drug plans to choose from this
quarter.
KFF research shows that 55%
of Part D plans will offer enhanced benefits in 2015. It finds that 58% of plans
will come with a deductible; 44% of those will charge the full allowed amount of
said deductible ($320).
A little shopping around
during the 2014 enrollment period (Oct. 15 – Dec. 7) may lead to some savings on
prescription drug costs in 2015. If you have a Part D plan and you are content
with it, you aren’t alone. The KFF says that 70% of participants in Part D plans
from 2006-10 elected to stick with their current plan.2
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Here’s hoping history repeats: 2015 represents
the third year of a presidential term, and according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, U.S. stocks have risen an average of 12% in such calendar years during the past
century.3
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