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What is a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)?

Whether you’ve been married five years or 25 years, divorce presents many challenges - including financial issues. This is likely a difficult time as you navigate uncharted waters. 

Friends and family may try to give you helpful information, but having a trusted attorney, tax professional, and financial advisor are essential to protect what you have and help you make informed decisions.

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Does Taking a Lump Sum From My Pension Make Sense?

This post was last updated on July 30, 2022, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

If you’re trying to save for retirement, it helps to have an employer-sponsored plan so that you’ll have access to funds once you stop working. Although 401(k) plans are the most common option today, some companies still offer pensions. Now you're probably wondering what the outcome of a pension vs. 401(k) is, don't worry; we cover this a bit later on.

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Don't be Spooked About This in Retirement

Below is a fantastic guest from Certified Coach, Samantha Lane. We hope you enjoy and be sure to reach out to either Samantha or me with any questions. Happy Halloween!

There can be a lot of spooky things when change is on the horizon. Rather than goblins, mummies, or ghosts looming around the corner, it’s often anxiety, perfectionism, and despair rearing their ugly heads. 

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What Should I Do If My Investments Are Losing Money?

When the stock market takes a sudden turn downward, it can be easy to get worried about your investments. Market turmoil can cause even seasoned investors to take pause. Watching the value of your investments go down can certainly be disheartening.

In fact, a 2018 study found that Americans are more stressed by money issues than by personal relationships or work. Stock market volatility is nothing new so finding the best way to cope with the swings will help give you peace of mind. Getting your finances in order will help you weather the inevitable ups and downs of your investment portfolio.

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Financial Planning 101 - Do You Need a Financial Advisor?

For many of us in life, regardless of what it might be, we typically try to figure how to do things by ourselves. It could be fixing the car, something around the house, or as we’ll be covering here, managing your own investments and finances.

At some point in our life, though, lack of time and knowledge becomes an issue. Most of us can figure out the basics of investing and financial planning, but eventually, you simply don’t know what you don’t know if it’s not your profession.

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How You Can Utilize Airbnb or VRBO to Supplement Your Retirement Income

If you’re approaching retirement and looking for ways to beef up your monthly income, there are many strategies to consider. You could pick up part-time work or start a side hustle like tutoring or delivering groceries. Or, you could just rent out your home or part of your home for cash and travel the world.

If you think that final suggestion is intriguing, you’re not alone. Thanks to technology brought to use by companies like Airbnb and VRBO.com, it’s more common than ever for senior citizens or anyone approaching retirement to use their home as an income-producing asset so they can do…well….whatever they want.

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How to Determine Your Budgeting Category Percentages in Retirement

If you are retired or getting close to retirement, chances are you are familiar with budgeting. There are many techniques for budgeting out there, but the basic idea is to balance your income and expenses. One way to do this is to think about your expenses as percentages. 

Budget percentages, as made popular by radio personality Dave Ramsey, help you understand where your money is going. The goal is simple: keep your expenses in each category within a certain percentage of your income. Most people who follow this method adhere to 10 common categories.

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What Are 401(k) Matching Rules?

The business world uses the term 401(k) often. Many employers offer their employees these retirement accounts as a benefit to working there. 

Some employers even offer 401(k) matching. This benefit is exactly as it sounds. An employer matches the amount of money that you contribute to your 401(k). So, you put money into your 401(k), and then your employer does the same. 

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17 Countries Where You Might Be Able to Live on Social Security Alone

Retirement should be fun, and make life a bit more simple. You shouldn’t be struggling to live off of the money you have. 

How do you expect to get by after retiring? You may only rely on a small income from your social security. 

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How Much Can a 401(k) Loan Actually Cost You?

Only 32% of Americans are investing in 401(k) plans. Even though 59% of American companies offer these plans to their employees, many U.S. citizens opt out of one. If you work for a company that offers a 401(k), it is in your best interest to sign-up, especially if you want to live comfortably after you retire. 

While having a 401(k) is a great investment, people go through rough patches and need additional financial support to help pay for expensive situations. If you have a 401(k), you can get a loan to help you with your finances. Before applying, we want you to know how much a 401(k) loan will actually cost you. 

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Our Favorite Solo 401k Calculators

Saving for retirement is a big deal. The average American will spend nearly a million dollars between the time they retire and their death. Social Security payments won’t cover those expenses, so having savings and investments is essential. 

One of the most common retirement plans is the 401(k). It’s a benefit that some jobs offer. You and your employer generally get some sort of tax advantage, which makes it a popular choice.

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What’s the Difference Between a 403(b) and an IRA?

No matter how old you are, it’s never too early to start planning for retirement. While you should start saving as soon as possible, one of the best ways to build a substantial nest egg is to work somewhere that offers employer contributions, like a 401(k). However, for those working in nonprofit organizations, a 401(k) plan is not usually an option. 

Fortunately, many of these entities may offer what’s called a 403(b) retirement account. In this article, we’ll discuss the finer points of a 403(b), as well as compare it to an alternative, the individual retirement account (IRA). Here are the details you need to know. 

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How Much Should I Be Saving for Retirement?

When it comes to retirement, one of the most valuable questions you can ask yourself is, “how much is enough?” Unfortunately, it can be challenging to determine the right amount because there are many variables to consider. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss the finer points of saving for retirement so that when it arrives, you can feel secure in the size of your nest egg. Ideally, you shouldn’t have to limit your lifestyle or cut down on expenses during your golden years. So, the more planning and preparation you can do now, the better off you’ll be later on. 

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The Freedom of Mortgage-Free Living in Retirement

This post was last updated on January 15, 2021, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs. 

When you retire, you deserve to enjoy years of relaxation and stress-free time doing the things that make you happy with the people you love. One of the best ways to make sure this happens is by paying off your mortgage before entering your retirement years. In this article, we’ll show you the freedom that not having a mortgage in retirement brings, and we’ll also tell you how to get there.

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What’s the Difference Between a Trust and a Will?

As you begin estate planning, you will face difficult choices, further complicated by the current pandemic. However, it’s essential that you have a plan in place to protect your loved ones financially. There are many different ways you can do so. 

Today, we’re going to discuss two of them. Wills and trusts are both estate planning tools, meaning they help you control who inherits your assets after you pass away. The similarities between the two end there, though.

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Does My Company Need a Safe Harbor 401(k)?

For many workers, the benefits package a company offers is almost as important as the salary that goes along with it. One of the benefits that workers are most interested in is the retirement plan. People want to know that they are going to be okay after they stop working, and in most cases, they are relying on their employer to help make that a reality when it comes to saving. 

Many companies offer retirement plans such as a 401(k). However, these plans can come with bureaucratic red tape and regulatory loopholes to jump through – which can make them more difficult to implement. Because of these difficulties, some companies choose to opt out of plans like 401(k)s altogether.

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Common Questions for Safe Harbor and Profit Sharing 401(k) Plans

Planning for retirement brings forth many questions. Which type of account is best? How much should I be saving? 

Everyone’s unique situation brings a different answer. However, the more you know about planning for retirement, the better off you will be in the future. 

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Can Life Insurance Be Used as a Retirement Plan?

The idea of using life insurance as a retirement plan may seem, at best, counterintuitive. At worst, it sounds vaguely fraudulent if you’re not familiar with the intricacies of the life insurance industry. As far as most people are concerned, life insurance is there to support your family after you pass away, not to help you after you retire.  

What if you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s policy? Could you use the death benefit you receive for retirement then? Hypothetically, yes.

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Do You Know the Fees in Your 401k?

We all love our retirement accounts. Saving for the future gives us something to look forward to and reminds us how our hard work will pay off down the road. 

A 401(k) is one of the most popular and common types of retirement plans we have access to today.. By diverting money from our paycheck into our 401(k), the goal is to save enough so that by the time we retire, we can live comfortably without a change in lifestyle.

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5 Ways to Become a Millionaire

This post was last updated on January 20, 2021, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

Full Disclosure: This article is not a get-rich-quick scheme of how to become a millionaire in no time. Rather, it's a list of sound principles and practices that you can put into place to become a millionaire at some point in your life. Becoming a millionaire and/or achieving financial independence takes discipline, hard work, and savings. I can assure you it WILL NOT happen overnight.

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