R E T I R E M E N T  I N  S I G H T
Presented by «RepresentativeName»

 

MONTHLY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE RETIREES 

OCTOber 2014  

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
      

- Aristotle  

GOLF TIP
How can you stop hitting it fat? Often this occurs because you are dropping your right shoulder (or your left, if you are a lefty) on the downswing. That can happen if you move your hips toward the target as the downswing starts. To help correct this hitch, focus on starting your downswing with your arms, or alternately on keeping your forward shoulder down. 

BRAIN TEASER
Weight-Weight, Don’t Tell Me!
Frank weighs half as much as John. Hubert weighs three times as much as Frank. Their combined weight is 720 pounds. How much does each man weigh?^* 

DID YOU KNOW?
A truly lofty achievement   

Redwoods (found only in northern California and southern Oregon) are the tallest trees on earth. At present, there are 50 redwoods taller than 360’ high. The tallest pine tree ever measured was 268’ high, the tallest tanoak 162’ high.⁴ 

STRATEGIC WITHDRAWALS MAY HELP YOU SUSTAIN YOUR SAVINGS  

Deliberate, orderly withdrawals from retirement accounts may be a key to stretching out your retirement dollars. You likely have retirement savings in both taxable and tax-advantaged accounts. Given this, there are some prudent steps that might make income planning easier as retirement begins. 

Figure your income needs and weigh them against your latest retirement account statements. If you are 70+, will RMDs from workplace retirement plans and traditional IRAs provide enough? If you aren’t yet in your seventies, can you live on cash and income from CDs and money market funds for 6-24 months to start? (That will give your tax-deferred accounts more time to grow and compound.) If the answer to these questions is “no”, it may be wise to sell taxable assets – those with a higher cost basis first, then ones with a lower cost basis. Ideally, you tap your tax-advantaged accounts last (drawing down Roth accounts last of all).   

Finally, all retirement income withdrawal strategies are influenced by three factors: your age, your tax bracket, and whether transferring highly appreciated assets to your heirs will be the best choice from a tax standpoint.¹ 

LOOKING FOR A PART D PLAN?
If you are shopping for a plan that can give you access to Medicare’s prescription drug benefits this fall, you have 1,001 choices before you. Literally. So says the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Fact Sheet, a 4-page guide providing an overview of Part D options. Medicare recipients in all 50 states will have at least 24 stand-alone drug plans to choose from this quarter. 

KFF research shows that 55% of Part D plans will offer enhanced benefits in 2015. It finds that 58% of plans will come with a deductible; 44% of those will charge the full allowed amount of said deductible ($320).  

A little shopping around during the 2014 enrollment period (Oct. 15 – Dec. 7) may lead to some savings on prescription drug costs in 2015. If you have a Part D plan and you are content with it, you aren’t alone. The KFF says that 70% of participants in Part D plans from 2006-10 elected to stick with their current plan.²  

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Here’s hoping history repeats: 2015 represents the third year of a presidential term, and according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, U.S. stocks have risen an average of 12% in such calendar years during the past century.³ 

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