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By Robert Powell

RISMEDIA, November 13, 2010–(MCT)–There are seven keys to a lot of things in life. There are seven steps to heaven and seven types of intelligence and seven habits of effective leaders.

Now we have seven steps to retirement planning courtesy of the Society of Actuaries, which just released a 64-page report with the not-so-consumer-friendly title “Segmenting the Middle Market: Retirement Risks and Solutions Phase II Report.”

“Retirement financial planning requires a methodical approach that identifies and quantifies each important component that affects the asset accumulation, income management and product selection/investment decision processes,” according to the report, which was sponsored by the society’s committee on post-retirement needs and risk and written by Noel Abkemeier of Milliman.

Not surprisingly, Abkemeier says this approach is especially important for middle-income Americans who likely have less than $100,000 set aside for retirement. So what are those steps?

1. Quantify assets and net worth.
The first order of business is taking a tally of all that you own — your financial and non-financial assets, including your home and a self-owned business, and all that you owe. Your home, given that it might be your largest asset, could play an especially important part in your retirement, according to Abkemeier.

And at minimum, you should evaluate the many ways you can create income from your home, such as selling and renting; selling and moving in with family; taking out a home-equity loan; renting out a room or rooms; taking a reverse mortgage; and paying off your mortgage.

Another point that sometimes gets lost in the fray is that assets have to be converted into income and income streams need to be converted into assets. “When we think of assets and income, we need to remember that assets can be converted to a monthly income and that retirement savings are important as a generator of monthly income or spending power,” according to SOA’s report. “Likewise, income streams like pensions have a value comparable to an asset.”

One reason retirement planning is so difficult, according to SOA, is that many people are not able to readily think about assets and income with equivalent values and how to make a translation between the two. Assets often seem like a lot of money, particularly when people forget that they will be using them to meet regular expenses.

Consider, for instance, the notion that $100,000 in retirement savings might translate into just $4,000 per year in retirement income.

2. Quantify risk coverage.
Take stock of all the insurance that you might already have or need — health, disability, life, auto and homeowners. In addition, consider whether you might need long-term-care insurance, especially in light of the cost associated with long-term care and the very real possibility that you might need some assistance at some point in your life.

According to the report, those households with limited assets — say, less than $200,000 in financial assets — may need to spend down their assets and rely on Medicaid, while those with more than $2 million in financial assets can cover long-term-care costs out of pocket. But those households with assets in between $200,000 and $2 million should include long-term care insurance in their plan, according to the SOA. And the best time to buy such insurance is in the late preretirement years.

The SOA also notes in its report the possible need for life insurance, the death benefit of which can be used for bequests or to provide income to a surviving spouse. Life insurance premiums can be expensive if you’re getting on in years. That’s why the SOA report suggests that you continue “existing preretirement coverages during the retirement period.”

Of note, there will soon be many policies that combine long-term-care insurance with life insurance and annuities.

3. Compare expenditure needs against anticipated income.
The thing about retirement is that it’s filled with expenses, which according to the SOA report “can be thought of as the minimum needed to sustain a standard of living, plus extra for nonrecurring needs and amounts to help meet dreams.” What’s more, those expenses are likely to change over time.

So to make your retirement plan work in reality, you first have to make it work on paper. You need to compare whether you’ll have enough guaranteed income to cover your essential living expenses, including food, housing and health-insurance premiums, at the point of retirement and then compare what amount of income you’ll need to cover your discretionary expenses, such as travel and the like (if those are indeed what you might consider discretionary expenses).

Your guaranteed sources of income include Social Security and possibly a pension and annuity. Not so guaranteed: earnings from work and income from assets such as capital gains, dividends, interest and rental property.

No doubt, as you go about the process of matching income to expenses, you might find yourself having to revise your discretionary expenses, especially if there aren’t enough guaranteed sources of income to meet essential expenses.

4. Compare amounts needed in retirement against total assets.
So here’s where your math skills (or your Google search skills) might come into play. Besides calculating your income and expenses at the point of retirement, you need to figure out whether your funds will last throughout retirement. In other words, you need to calculate the net present value of your expenses throughout retirement.

Now, truth be told, finding the present value of your expenses is a bit tricky, especially since there are many factors that can affect how much is really needed, including the date of your retirement, inflation rates, gross and after-tax investment returns, and your life expectancy.

But the bottom line is this: If, after crunching the numbers, the present value of your expenses is greater than the present value of your assets, you’ve got some adjustments to make. And the good news is that there are plenty of adjustments that you can make.

You could, for instance, delay the date of your retirement. You could return to work or work part-time. Those actions might be enough to offset the difference. In addition, you might consider trimming your expenses or consider a more tax-efficient plan to draw down income.

5. Categorize assets.
The SOA also recommends that assets be grouped to fund early, middle and late phases of retirement. Thus, assets for early retirement should be liquid, while mid-retirement assets should include intermediate-term investments such as laddered five- to 10-year Treasury bonds, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, laddered fixed-interest deferred annuities, balanced investment portfolios, income-oriented equities, variable annuities and the like. And late retirement assets include longevity insurance, TIPS, balanced portfolios, growth and income portfolios, laddered income annuities, deferred variable annuities and life insurance.

6. Relate investments to investing capabilities and portfolio size.
This should come as no surprise. The SOA recommends that you invest only in things that are suitable, relative to your risk tolerance, investment knowledge and the capacity of the portfolio to accommodate volatility. “In short, a retiree should not invest beyond his investment skills, including those of his adviser,” the SOA report stated.

7. Keep the plan current.
This too might be a bit obvious, but retirement-income plans must not be built and set on a shelf. The plan is a point-in-time analysis that must be reviewed on a regular basis.

Consider, for instance, just some of the things that could change in one year, according to the SOA. Health status or health-care costs could change; your life expectancy might change; your investment returns and inflation might be quite different than your assumptions; and your employment status and expected retirement date might change.

What’s more, you might suffer the loss of a spouse through death or divorce, or perhaps you might not be able to live independently any longer, or perhaps you might need to sell your house or unexpectedly care for dependents, or change your inheritance plans.

Said Abkemeier: “You want to keep your plan current. You need to tie everything together and go back to the start of the process each year. You want to enjoy retirement, but you don’t want to be at rest.”

(c) 2010, MarketWatch.com Inc.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com or  http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney. For a free copy of my blog titled  “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures.

RISMEDIA, April 14, 2010—Some 89% of Americans said they were at least fairly well organized or better when it comes to their important financial documents, but nearly one-quarter had either lost or forgotten about critical paperwork, according to a nationally representative poll by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

Worse, 16% had lost money or incurred a charge because of the poor organization of their paperwork. The survey also revealed that 40% of Americans think they can find a document at a moment’s notice, and 49% can do so with little looking.

Married and domestic couples agree as to which sex is more organized: 58% of the women surveyed said they had a better idea of where their most important documents were than their spouses did; only 30% of the married men thought they had a better idea.

But some of the respondents may not know as much about their partner as they think – 5% admitted they had hidden accounts from a spouse or significant other.

“Good record keeping is essential and makes regular events like tax time or unexpected emergencies like the passing of a loved one go smoother. If you’re disorganized about your paperwork, you can lose a significant amount of money on late fees and interest charges,” said Mandy Walker, sr. project editor, Consumer Reports Money Advisor (CRMA).

Consumer Reports Money Adviser’s experts say that to help avoid identity theft, people should shred anything they plan to throw away that contains personal data. More than 50% of the people surveyed said they put documents through a shredder, 26% tear them up, 15% claim to burn them, and 5% admit to doing nothing before they trash them. Consumer Reports recommends consumers look for a crosscut shredder rather than a strip one, which leaves long paper bands that can be reassembled.

Tax season is the perfect time to start tackling the paper piles. The act of filing (or gathering your information for a tax preparer) forces you to become reacquainted with your finances. You can divide nearly all of your financial records into four categories: papers that you need to keep for the calendar year or less; ones that can be destroyed when you no longer own the items they cover; tax records, which you should save for seven years; and papers to keep indefinitely.

What to keep for 1 year or less:

CRMA’s experts advise people to set up a place to keep bills until they’re paid. As soon as a bill comes in, put it in a folder labeled “bills to pay.” Then set an electronic calendar reminder when you’re going to pay them. Documents that you have no long-term need to keep include:

Bank records. Keep deposit and ATM receipts until you reconcile them with your monthly statements.

Credit card bills. You don’t need to keep them after you’ve paid them unless they support a deduction you’ll be taking on your taxes, such as for a charitable donation (in which case you should file the bill with your current-year tax records). If an item you’ve charged is under warranty, keep the bill until the warranty expires.

Investment statements. You can shred your monthly and quarterly statements from brokerage, 401k, IRA, Keogh, and other investment accounts as new ones arrive. But hold on to annual statements until you sell the investments.

What to keep for a longer period:

Documents relating to investment purchases, loans, and other items that expire can be stored in an out-of the way file cabinet. But try to go through them once a year and toss out papers below including:

Household furnishings paperwork. Keep receipts, warranties, and instruction booklets for major appliances and electronics.

Loan documents. Keep closing documents for mortgage, vehicle, student, and other loans in a safe-deposit box. You can get rid of them after the loan is paid off.

Savings bonds. Hold these in a secure place until you cash them in. Or you can convert them to electronic form using the Treasury’s SmartExchange program.

What to never toss:

Hold on to essential records such as birth or death certificates, marriage licenses, and divorce decrees. Social Security cards and military discharge papers should be kept in a safe-deposit box. Other documents to hold on to forever:

Defined-benefit pension documents. Keep pension-plan documents from your current and former employers. Store them in your file cabinet.

Estate planning documents. Keep copies of wills, trusts, and powers of attorney in your safe-deposit box. You should also make sure your attorney and your executor have copies.

Life insurance policies. For permanent life insurance- policies that have a cash value or investment component- keep documents and a list of the companies that issued them and their phone numbers in your safe-deposit box.

For more information, visit www.consumerreports.org.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional I encourage any questions or comments or the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted.

Contact me at chance@ballard-company.com  www.myspace/chancegates

RISMEDIA, March 3, 2010—With the U.S. federal income tax filing deadline of April 15 now just weeks away, taking time to review your tax situation and plan for any needed action will save you time, stress and, quite possibly, money.

With the economic recession impacting so many Americans in 2009, many people will have complicated filing situations this year, says Jeff Staley, president of Freedom Tax Relief, LLC. “This is the time to prepare, review your tax obligations and evaluate your alternatives for payment if you find you may have difficulty in paying your tax bill this year.” Staley recommends taxpayers follow these steps now in order to be ready for April 15:

1. Make a plan for filing. Make plans now to ensure that you will be able to file your income tax return on time. If that is impossible, file an extension. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is more forgiving of those who follow the rules than those who skip filing. Even if you cannot pay your tax debt in full on April 15, filing the required forms will result in smaller penalties.

2. Understand tax on unemployment benefits. Unemployment income is taxable. If you received unemployment benefits during 2009, you should have received a Form 1099-G providing the total amount received. If your employer paid separate unemployment compensation, that income should be reported on your W-2 form as income. Note that the first $2,400 of government benefits received in 2009 is exempt from tax, thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

3. Prepare documentation for tax credits. Review your 2009 expenses to know whether you qualify for credits. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (e.g., stimulus package) included many tax credits, ranging from an expanded health coverage tax credit to new education benefits.

4. Maximize deductions. If you made donations to nonprofit organizations in 2009, make sure you obtain needed appraisals or valuations to list these contributions accurately in your tax forms, per IRS guidelines.

5. Contribute to your retirement plan. If you plan to contribute to a retirement plan, you can still make tax-deferred contributions for 2009 until April 2010.

6. Estimate your payment. You can estimate your tax obligation by reviewing a copy of last year’s tax form, completed with your 2010 data. If you purchase tax return software, you can use that. Or go to www.irs.gov and download a PDF version of your form to fill out.

7. Plan for payment. If it looks like you will have a larger tax bill than you can afford to pay in full by April 15, the IRS suggests taxpayers find any means possible to pay that bill, including bank loans, cash advances on credit cards, using savings, borrowing against retirement or life insurance, or using equity in assets (such as a home) to pay. However, if you are in dire financial circumstances, exchanging one debt for another will not make things easier, and putting a home at risk is almost always a bad idea. Consult a tax and/or financial adviser before making a decision.

8. Evaluate your alternatives. If you will absolutely be unable to pay your tax bill, contact the IRS. The agency sometimes gives some leeway to taxpayers who contact them directly or pay a late bill voluntarily. The IRS might waive penalties for those who cannot pay because of a death in the family, serious illness, financial records lost in a natural disaster or another “reasonable cause.”

Another alternative is tax debt resolution. Tax resolution specialists can often negotiate directly with the IRS on behalf of consumers who owe $10,000 or more. These specialists usually are attorneys, enrolled agents or certified public accountants with special training and experience. They can navigate the maze of IRS forms and calculations, help consumers understand what the IRS wants, and help them resolve their tax debt.

“As the April tax filing deadline looms, it is time to face up to the demands of the IRS and determine a payment strategy for your tax bill,” says Staley. “In these economic times, it is good to know that help is available for those who need it.”

For more information, visit www.freedomtaxrelief.com.

Chance Gates does welcome any questions or comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or on any articles that may be posted.  Send your  emails  to  chance at ballard-company.com