Better Financial Education

Look Beyond Absolute Wealth to Focus on Your Relative Wealth

 

 

 

 

Welcome 

Our focus ... to get you to, and through, retirement.

How to structure yourself so you may outlive your money.

How we see personal finance depends on what you want to do with your money and time. Our job is to help you become efficient and effective with both. Below is how you and I view money through the lens of what you are trying to do with it.

What is important to us is ... how do you see money? Everyone sees money differently, so the first thing is to be sure we understand you by narrowing the examples below to just those that are important to you. How this is done is described on the next page.

 
 
 The fundatmental question we help you answer: How do you accumulate, manage and ultimately live on your hard earned resources over your lifetime?
 
 
Website organization ...
 
The website pages are organized to help you answer the following:

 

1) The basic pages, like this one, cover the type of information you see "Above the Surface" a visual presentation of the topic.

2) The second type of page covers information in deeper detail and are labeled on this website as (BTS) for "Below the Surface" ... for more written details on the topic.

3) The third type of page provides the background and resources for those who want to learn more about the topic. Whenever you link to another website you are going deeper, by going to an outside reputable source, for a much better understanding of that specific topic (example: Featured Links page).

 

How we work together.

 
Calculators

Cost of Retirement

Use this calculator to estimate how much income and savings you may need in retirement.

Mortgage Refinancing

Determine whether you should consider refinancing your mortgage.

Roth IRA Conversion

This calculator can help you determine whether you should consider converting to a Roth IRA.

Home Affordability

Estimate of the maximum amount of financing you can expect to get when you begin house hunting.

More Calculators →

Newsletters

What Kind of Investor Are You?

Although most Americans seem to understand that investment involves risk, there is a wide spectrum in how much risk each investor is willing to assume. Among the factors to consider are comfort level, time horizon, and net worth. This article helps investors to consider their appropriate level of risk.

HOT TOPIC: The Federal Estate Tax Is Back and May Be Here to Stay

The estate tax has been reinstated after being allowed to lapse in 2010. The new estate tax provisions are the most generous in decades — but they are temporary. A far more stringent estate tax is slated to take effect after 2012. Fortunately, a properly structured trust may help some families reduce their potential exposure to the estate tax.

Another Year, Another AMT Patch

The 2010 Tax Relief Act adjusted AMT exemption levels for 2010 and 2011 to help prevent an estimated 21 million middle-income taxpayers from being subject to the alternative minimum tax. Will Congress enact another patch for 2012?

Roth IRA Conversion Mistakes Can Be Costly

One popular way to fund a Roth IRA is by transferring assets from a traditional IRA or an employer-sponsored retirement plan. This type of transaction, called a Roth IRA conversion, is simple in theory but can be complicated in practice. If you make certain mistakes, you could lose some key advantages.

More Newsletters →