The Complete Retirement Planner Blog

If you’ve ever spoken with a financial adviser about retirement, they probably suggested running a Monte Carlo simulation program to help determine how financially prepared you are. These programs randomly combine historical market outcomes for a variety of time periods (many even using the Great Depression, how helpful!) with personal financial data to arrive at a probability of success (i.e. that you won’t run out of money in retirement). Telling clients that the program runs thousands of scenarios to arrive at this information sounds like it is a very thorough, and, therefore, accurate, process. But there are a few problems. To begin...

Each year, the Federal tax brackets and the Standard Deduction amount are usually adjusted for the following year. This typically happens later in the year, effective for the following year, and is announced by the I.R.S..This year, a new government bill was passed in July that will affect your 2025, current year, tax filing (and beyond)! There are still a few other updates expected in the Fall (Medicare costs, 401k/IRA contribution limits, etc.), but here is a brief re-cap of what has already changed: The I.R.S. Federal Standard Deduction amounts for each Filing Status have increased, effective for 2025:  • $31,500 for Married...

Retirement planning, and financial planning in general, involves a lot of moving parts. You are already well-acquainted with many of them - income, expenses, and taxes are the most obvious - but once you start moving into the retirement phase, or at least planning for it, you have to be a bit more careful and diligent about what you think might happen going forward. When you are still working, if things don't go as planned, you have options: work longer, possibly get a promotion/raise or make bonuses to bring in more income, or even cut expenses and save more. Once...

Who needs a financial planning tool? If you're reading this, you do, and you're not alone. The majority of households don't have a comprehensive financial plan (they should), primarily because they don't have a planning tool capable of helping them to create one. This means that they are relying on guesses, assumptions, and/or generic benchmarks and rules of thumb for their financial planning. That's not good. Would every household benefit from having a financial plan? Absolutely. There is no better way to understand what you can, should, and should not do to achieve financial security, and to be as prepared...

For 401k and IRA accounts, the current annual contribution limit is $23,500 and $7,000 respectively. If you are age 50 or older, you also have the option to make "catch-up" contributions of an additional $7,500 to a 401k (for a total of $31,000), and an additional $1,000 to an IRA (for a total of $8,000). In addition, the 401k contribution limit for those between the ages of 60 and 63 increases another $3,750, ($34,750 total). Many people will be fortunate just to save the initial contribution amounts, but the question is, if you have the financial ability to also make...