Articles and Videos

What’s My Stock Allocation in Retirement? – Season 3: Episode 6
Managing Your Financial Future

What’s My Stock Allocation in Retirement? – Season 3: Episode 6

August 5, 2020

Retirement income calculators are everywhere online.  What’s more, they’re fairly simple in nature: plug in some current income and savings, expected rate of return, an inflation factor, and eventually it’ll spit back a number that you should aim to have in your portfolio that’s supposed to give you the income you need.  The trouble is – they’re often way off the mark. They may tell you that if you need, say, $100,000 of income to retire at age 65, then that number will rise to perhaps $230,000 or more by the time you’re age 95 because of the inflation factor. But from our experience, this just isn’t practical in the real world.  As retirement goes on, spending (and income needs) tend to go down over those years – not up. 
You’ll Spend Less in Retirement Than You Think – Season 3: Episode 5
Managing Your Financial Future

You’ll Spend Less in Retirement Than You Think – Season 3: Episode 5

July 28, 2020

Retirement income calculators are everywhere online.  What’s more, they’re fairly simple in nature: plug in some current income and savings, expected rate of return, an inflation factor, and eventually it’ll spit back a number that you should aim to have in your portfolio that’s supposed to give you the income you need.  The trouble is – they’re often way off the mark. They may tell you that if you need, say, $100,000 of income to retire at age 65, then that number will rise to perhaps $230,000 or more by the time you’re age 95 because of the inflation factor. But from our experience, this just isn’t practical in the real world.  As retirement goes on, spending (and income needs) tend to go down over those years – not up. 
401(k) Rollover Decision Kit – 7 Vital Factors to Consider
Articles

401(k) Rollover Decision Kit – 7 Vital Factors to Consider

July 23, 2020

While our grandparents may have worked one job their entire lives and retired with a company pension, those days are long gone. It’s more likely that you’ve worked for a variety of different companies throughout your career, leaving a trail of old 401(k)s that you really don’t know what to do with. Do you leave them where they are?  Do you move it into your personal account, or to a traditional IRA or Roth IRA (a “rollover”)? What about the tax implications? Before you make a decision about what to do with your old 401(k) or 403(b) accounts, or whatever retirement plan you have at work, you need to understand what your options are. To help you out, we’ve created a free decision kit that addresses these (and other) issues. In this e-booklet, we talk about what we believe are the Seven Vital Factors you need to consider when you’re trying to figure out what to do with the money that’s in your old company retirement plans. Whether you’re headed into retirement, or you’re moving on to a different job, either way, you’ve got some important decisions to make. Allow us to give you some guidance.
A Long-Term Care Insurance Plan That We Really Like
Lucia Capital Group Weekly

A Long-Term Care Insurance Plan That We Really Like

July 2, 2020

As you may have heard, the costs of long-term care (LTC) keep going up, with no end currently in sight.  And along with those costs of care, the premiums for LTC insurance have also risen tremendously over the past 15 years, just to keep up. Did you know that your long-term care insurance premiums can rise even when you’ve already got a policy in force?  And what if you never even need to use that policy?  In the minds of many, long-term care insurance seems like a potential waste of money. With the uncertainties of costs, and not knowing if you’ll ever need the policy in the first place, planning for what could be a huge expense out of your nest egg is difficult at best.  Nobody wants to have their retirement savings decimated by the cost of long-term care. Yet this is exactly what often happens to people who don’t prepare for those expenses.  Since planning is ultimately about finding potential solutions to problems down the road, we have what we believe may be just the right answer to these LTC issues.

Let’s Manage Your Taxes — While There’s Time- Season 3: Episode 1
Managing Your Financial Future

Let’s Manage Your Taxes — While There’s Time- Season 3: Episode 1

June 30, 2020

We’ll say it right up front: taxes are NOT fun.  Nobody likes to think about them, much less actually do them every year.  For most, it’s a matter of either turning them over to a professional and letting them deal with it, or trudging through it alone and hope you don’t miss anything important. But while they’re not fun to think about, they’re also a necessary evil. This is why it’s really important to give your tax situation some thought during the actual tax year, when you may be able to do something about them, rather than waiting until it’s too late. The middle of the year may be the perfect time to do some tax evaluation, because doing so could potentially save you some real money when it comes time to file next year. 
A College Education Credit You May Have Missed
Lucia Capital Group Weekly

A College Education Credit You May Have Missed

June 25, 2020

ou probably don’t need us (or anyone) telling you that college costs are high, and going higher each year.  When you consider tuition, fees and housing, and add in various supplies and more, even the cheapest local university can cost more each year than a new car.  So what can you do? To be frank, there’s not much anyone can do about these expenses by themselves, so if your child or you have decided to go the college route, you’ll either have to pay them in full, or hope the school administrators give you a break.  But there’s a little-known way that you may be able to recoup some of those costs, thanks to the federal government’s American Opportunity Tax Credit.  

Keeping Calm During Turbulent Markets
Lucia Capital Group Weekly

Keeping Calm During Turbulent Markets

June 19, 2020

Is this a time of crisis?  Many would probably say that it is, especially in terms of public health and the economy.  These days it may seem as if things will never get back to “normal,” whatever normal might be, and that any improvement in our situation is happening much too slowly. Time, of course, has historically been the great healer.  This has been true of just about everything, including the stock market.  We’ve been through times of crisis so often in the past that it’s easy to forget exactly how often we’ve had to overcome difficulty.  With each event in history, though, the markets have reacted with volatility; and so far, they’ve always come back. In this week’s edition of Lucia Capital Group Weekly, “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP discusses these game-changing events in history, and how the markets reacted both during and afterward.  How do you keep calm when everything around you is chaos?