Note: with the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law, File & Suspend and Restricted Application have been effectively eliminated for anyone born in 1954 or later. If born before 1954 there are some options still available, but these are limited as well. Please see the article The Death of File & Suspend and Restricted Application for more details. Apparently in the President’s recent budget documentation there is a brief mention of a desire to curtail the availability of File and Suspend as an option for Social Security benefit filing. The reason, it appears, is that the Obama administration views this option as one used only by high income folks to take advantage of the government with this valuable option. The problem with that viewpoint is that it is used by folks of all income levels, and in fact if it is taken away this could cause […]
March, 2014:
A Bad Day or a Bad Life?
As a financial planner I am often asked whether or not a personal liability umbrella policy is worth the price. Generally, my answer is a resounding “Yes!” Personal liability umbrella policies or PLUPs (for the remainder of this article) are insurance policies that provide coverage above and beyond the underlying liability limits on an individual’s or family’s auto insurance or home owners insurance. PLUPs can also be purchased by folks that have renters insurance or condo insurance policies. PLUPs are usually purchased in $1 million limits starting at $1 million. Umbrella policies work like this: Generally the person applying for the PLUP has their auto and or home insurance with the insurance company they are considering purchasing the PLUP through. What the insurance company will do is require that in the underlying auto policy that the personal liability (if a member of the insured household is liable for damages in […]
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How Does an Early Withdrawal from a Retirement Plan Affect My Taxes?
Oftentimes we are faced with difficult situations in life – where we need extra money to pay for a major car repair, a new roof for the house, or just day-to-day living expenses – and our emergency funds are all tapped out. Now your options become poor: should I go to a payday loan place, put more on my credit card? My mortgage is upside-down so there’s no home equity loan in my future, and I can’t ask my folks for a loan, I’ve asked them for too much. Hey, what about my retirement plan? I’ve got some money socked away in an IRA that’s just sitting there, why don’t I take that money? It’s really tough to be in a situation like this, but you need to understand the impacts that you’ll face if you decide to go the route of the IRA withdrawal, especially if you’re under age […]
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Can You Itemize? Or, Should You Itemize?
When you prepare your taxes each year, you’re faced with a decision – itemize deductions or take the standard deduction? Most of the time it’s not a question of whether you can itemize, but rather should you itemize. Most Anyone Can Itemize… This is due to the fact that most anyone can itemize. If you’ve paid state and/or local income or sales taxes, real estate taxes, or paid mortgage interest, you have deductions to itemize. Same goes for charitable contributions. All of these items that you’ve paid out are eligible to be deducted on Schedule A of your tax return, without a lower limit. If you have medical expenses, these can be deductible if the total of your medical expenses are more than 10% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). For 2013 tax returns, if you’re 65 years of age or older, your medical expenses that are more than 7.5% […]
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How To Save (and Pay) for College
Saving for college is a priority among many parents. Often we are asked about the right savings vehicle for college education. There are a few that parents can choose from between Coverdell ESAs, prepaid tuition and 529 college savings savings plans. We’ll discuss the 529 plan here. The 529 plan is essentially a college savings vehicle very similar to an IRA or an employer-sponsored plan. Depending on the state you live in your state may have a 529 plan that will have access to stock and bond mutual funds and or a pre-determined mix that will invest the money and allocate it for you depending on your risk tolerance or your time horizon upon entering college. Many states such as Illinois well even offer a state tax deduction for any contributions that you make up to a certain dollar limit. The beauty of 529 savings plans is that there is no […]
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Use Direct Deposit for Your Tax Refund
When filing your tax returns this year, consider using direct deposit for your refund. By doing this, you don’t have to worry about the mail “making the trip”, and also you won’t have to make a visit to the bank to cash or deposit the refund. On top of that, direct deposit refunds usually are deposited more quickly than a check is delivered by mail, getting you the money faster. Among the many alternatives for the places you can have the money deposited to are virtually any bank account, as long as you have the routing and account information, as well as transferring your funds to your TreasuryDirect account to purchase US Treasury marketable securities and savings bonds. You can also split your refund to be deposited in two or three different accounts – the account(s) need to be title in your name, your spouse’s name, or both, not someone […]
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How Much Do I Need to Save: Part II
Last week I gave some general indications on how much someone needed to save. We used general percents and some basic numbers but this week I want to actually put those numbers to work. For example – let’s say we have a 30 year old couple that says they would like to have $3,000,000 saved at retirement (assume their both the same age and will both retire at 65). We’ll also assume that they have not started saving yet. Using a 5% compounded annual rate of return this couple would need to save about $2,640 per month for 35 years in order to hit their goal. If we assume they’ve amassed $50,000 by age 30, then they only need to save $2,388 per month. If we use the $2,388 as our savings made at 10% that means our annual income for the couple is about $286,560. Using the same amount […]
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Your Social Security Benefits: Are They Taxable?
If you’re receiving Social Security benefits, either for disability, retirement, or survivor’s benefits, when you file your tax return you will need to figure out if the benefits you’ve received during the prior year are taxable to you. You’ll receive a Form SSA-1099 from Social Security sometime in the first months of the year, showing what your benefits were in the prior year, as well as any deductions that were made throughout the year – including Medicare premiums (Part B and/or Part D) if applicable, and federal income taxes withheld. But are the benefits taxable to you? At most, 85% of your benefit might be taxed – and it’s possible that none of your benefit is taxable, all dependent upon your total income for the year. See this article for a detailed explanation of How Taxation of Social Security Benefits Works. The IRS recently published their Tax Tip 2014-23, which […]
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7 Debunked Myths About Mortgages
Guest post by Diana Fishlock for Zillow.com. Diana Fishlock has researched and written articles on a wide variety of subjects for newspapers in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. She lives near Harrisburg, PA and writes for Zillow. Securing a mortgage can be a daunting, confusing process for first-time home buyers as well as experienced homeowners considering moving or buying a second home. There are lots of myths and misconceptions about mortgages, such as who qualifies and what makes a good one. Myth 1: Prequalified means preapproved. Reality: Prequalifying for a mortgage and being preapproved are two different steps. Prequalifying is a lot simpler. It requires informing a lender about debts, income and assets in a general sense. Prequalifying helps buyers loosely determine their affordable price ranges. For preapproval, a buyer must submit to the lender much more detailed information, including a financial history. The lender then verifies the borrower’s debt-to-income […]
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How Much Do I Need to Save?
Frequently I’m asked by folks how much they need to be socking away for retirement. Many people I talk to are concerned about having enough (a very common concern I would say among most people) for retirement and fear running out of money. As much as I would love to give them a rock-solid answer and as much as they want a definitive answer, the true answer is that it depends – on a number of factors. 1. How much do you plan to spend in retirement? This question can be difficult to answer especially if you’re young and can’t contemplate nor even come close to an estimate of what expenses will be in retirement. For others, this may be more readily a number to come up with especially if one is close to retirement or in the peak accumulation years of their careers which is usually later in life. 2. […]
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Education Tax Benefits
Going to college can be a stressful time for students and parents. Some of the costs of your education can be offset by tax credits and reductions to income. These credits and reductions can be complicated, so it takes a bit of coordination to keep things straight. More than one education tax benefit may be taken in one year, but generally the expenses must be segregated from one another in your reporting. In other words, you couldn’t take two tax benefits based upon the exact same education expenses, with some exceptions. For example, you can use most qualified expenses for the tax credits and apply the expense toward eliminating the 10% penalty on IRA distributions at the same time. Generally though, most tax benefits for education can only be applied once to each expense. Only one of the following credits may be used per student in any given year: American […]
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
The latest in our Owner’s Manual series, A 401(k) Owner’s Manual, was published in January 2020 and is available on 
A Medicare Owner’s Manual, is updated with 2020 facts and figures. This manual is available on 
Social Security for the Suddenly Single can be found on Amazon at 
Sterling’s first book, Lose Weight Save Money, can be 
An IRA Owner’s Manual, 2nd Edition is available for purchase on Amazon. Click the link to choose the 
Jim’s book – A Social Security Owner’s Manual, is now available on Amazon. Click this link for the 
And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.