At times in our lives, we may be faced with sudden events, occurrences, or outcomes that we never expected to happen. Such events may cause us to react, even overreact out of emotion rather than taking time to think things through. Granted, this is easier said than done. The death of a loved one can take a huge emotional toll on us. Aside from coping with our loss, there’s the additional stress of taking care of things after the death. Wills, trusts, property transfers, and retirement accounts all need to be handled. Divorce is also a stressful event. Deciding on property division, living arrangements, parenting time, and legal aspects all take their toll. Feelings of fear, anger, sadness, and resignation can linger for a long time. Losing a job also adds stress to our lives. Our minds may reel with the sudden loss of income, what we’re going to do […]
financial planning
Trust Me, You’re Gonna Like This – The See-Through Trust as a Beneficiary
One area that often gets short shrift in discussions of IRAs and beneficiary designation is the use of a trust as the beneficiary. Part of the reason behind this may be the perceived complexity of trusts in general; at any rate, it’s not as complicated as it sounds, and it can be beneficial, depending upon your circumstances. We’re specifically discussing the “see-through” trust here, as this type of trust is most appropriate for IRA and Qualified Retirement Plan beneficiary designations. The See-Through Trust as a Beneficiary If you designate a trust as the beneficiary of your IRA or Qualified Retirement Plan (QRP), the trust should be set up with certain properties associated with it: the trust must be valid under the plan owner’s state’s law; the trust must be irrevocable upon the plan owner’s death; the trust beneficiaries must be identifiable; ALL of the trust beneficiaries must be individuals (cannot […]
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Pension Payout: Annuitize or Rollover (Cash)?
If you happen to be in one of those jobs (there can only be a handful left at this point, right?) that has a traditional pension plan, you may be faced with an important decision. When you’re ready to retire (did I just hear angels singing?) – you have to decide if you’ll take annuitized payments, or if you cash out the plan and roll it over to an IRA. These “traditional” pension plans are referred to as defined benefit (or DB) plans – meaning that your benefit is defined as a determined amount. This benefit is usually based on a combination of your longevity in the job, plus your ending salary. You’re probably familiar with these computations: an example is a pension that is 2% per year of employment, multiplied by the average of your final five years of salary. So if you worked at a job for 25 […]
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Principles of Pollex – Saving 10% of Income
(In case you are confused by the headline: a principle is a rule, and pollex is an obscure term for thumb. Therefore, we’re talking about Rules of Thumb.) I like rules of thumb, as a rule of thumb… I think we all generally want difficult issues in our lives to be boiled down to a simple, easy-to-understand statement. These rules of thumb are everywhere, all around us. Heck, there’s even a whole website dedicated to rules of thumb, where you can find rules on all kinds of subjects, as diverse as how to outrun a crocodile to changing your answers on a test. Save 10% of Your Income Let’s start with one of the basics you might hear regularly: Save 10% of your income. Like most all rules of thumb, this one is very general in nature, but it provides a good starting point. This starting point is best for […]
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Celebrating 15 years: Financial Planning 101
On this date fifteen years ago, April 19, 2004, this blog was officially launched. The article below was the first post ever, and I’ve reposted it here in celebration of the 15 year anniversary of Financial Ducks In A Row. I have not edited the content below, it’s exactly the same as it was originally posted back in 2004. A lot has changed over the years, and I continue to enjoy sharing sound financial principles, information and advice through this medium, and I hope to keep it up for a long time into the future. Nine Essential Tips for a Bright Financial Future 1. See a lawyer and make a Will. If you have a Will make sure it is current and valid in your home state. Make sure that you and your spouse have reviewed each other’s Will – ensuring that both of your wishes will be carried out. […]
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Doing All The Right Things
I am diabetic. This is one of those situations we’re dealt in life that requires changes – and paying attention to a lot of stuff we never wanted to pay attention to. Like eating right, exercising, taking appropriate meds, and monitoring and adjusting. It’s a lifestyle change. What I’ve continued to notice is that, even when I do most of the right things – I exercise regularly, walking for 45 minutes a day, stay away from sweets, take the right meds at the right times, and monitor things closely – I can still wind up with a high blood glucose level. How can that be? Well, it turns out that just staying away from sweets and sugars isn’t the whole answer – I also need to refrain from most starchy foods and have more proteins and vegetables in my diet. Frustrating? You bet. Futile? Not completely – I just need […]
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Focus On The Future
This post was inspired by a recent conversation I had with a former student. As is customary in my classes, I encourage students to contact me if they have questions while in the “real world” after graduation. The student was contemplating contributing the maximum to a Roth IRA for 2018 – which is $5,500, and then potentially doing the same for 2019 – which would be $6,000. His concern was market volatility. He was afraid of contributing to the IRA, then seeing is lump sums of $5,500 and $6,000 respectively plummeting if the market were to drop substantially. I told him to look at it from this perspective. The middle letter in the acronym IRA stands for retirement. This young man is 22 years old, planning to retire in 30 to 40 years. I told him that he could consider contributing the maximum to his Roth IRA every year, regardless […]
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Life Insurance: Protect Your Most Important Asset
You may think that your most important asset is your home, your nest egg, your priceless collection of Etruscan snoods. Your most important asset is you – your human capital. Your human capital is your current and future economic contributions to your family. Perhaps you’ve gone to college and majored in a profession to pursue a career. You may have earned advanced degrees and designations to increase your knowledge, professionalism, and income. All of this increases your human capital – your ability to earn, substantially, over your lifetime. Now that you have a family, a spouse and kids to support, you need to hedge your human capital, you need to protect it in the event it’s lost – should you die unexpectedly. No one likes talking about death. Even writing these words, it’s hard to type them. But it’s necessary to convey the importance of life insurance. Life insurance protects […]
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Are Resolutions Worth It?
After the first of the years it’s common of individuals to aspire to change their lives for the better. Many individuals come up with New Year’s resolutions – with aspirations of accomplishing certain goals or tasks that have eluded them in the past. But do resolutions really work? In other words, what good is a resolution without action? Granted, I am being nitpicky. But think of it this way. If I were to write down a handful of resolutions that I wanted to achieve in 2019 and beyond – they would simply be words on paper. Don’t get me wrong, having the resolutions or goals listed is an excellent start, but again, until they’re acted upon, nothing will happen. All the words and intentions in the world are nothing without action. So how can we convert resolutions into measurable acts? First, do one thing today that is an action toward […]
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Can You Beat the Market?
In investing and finance, the words “beat the market” appear from time to time either as part of an investment strategy, conversation, or a combination of both. Investors can often be lured by the phrase in the hopes of achieving returns superior than the market or “above average”. When we refer to the market, we’re generally referring to a benchmark such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (The Dow) or the S&P 500. First off, I’d like to offer a bit of clarity before attempting to answer the titular question. If fact, I’d like to ask two questions and answer both – because they will have different answers, even though they look similar. First, I think it’s appropriate to ask this question: Can the market be beaten? To which I answer, yes. The market can be beat, and there are times where certain investments have done better than the market. […]
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”.