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Shane Flait's Articles in Personal Finance

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Estate Planning Addresses Your 5 Basic Questions in Later Life You may have heard about estate planning. Your estate is composed of everything you own - and that includes yourself. But what is the 'planning' really about and should you be concerned getting it done? At some point later in life you decide that you should make provisions for both you and your estate. This article addresses 5 basic questions that encompass those provisions, the consequence of not answering them, and the urgency for doing so. Earnings Are As Important As Contributions to Your Retirement Savings Just contributing to your retirement savings is not enough. You've got to make them earn decent returns so their compounding effects significantly add to what you eventually accumulate. To settle for pathetic investment earnings makes saving for retirement only a contribution game with meagre results. This article shows the kind of earnings you need to compound your way to a decent retirement. Enjoy Retirement by Recreating a New Mental Outlook Retirement is our third phase of life. Our first phase found us growing up and becoming educated to make a living. In the Second phase we create a family and the wealth to support and raise the kids through their own first phase. we need to recreate our outlook for our third phase to reap a new opportunity for enjoyment and avoid the depression and loss of purpose that many retirees feel. This article addresses how you can do just that. It's Never Too Late to Create an Agreeable Retirement If you're a Boomer or fast approaching retirement age but you're far behind in retirement savings, don't give up. You can still pull together a retirement that you can enjoy. With perseverance, planning, and sacrifice, you can retire in relative comfort even with a late start. In this article I show you how to set up a strategy for achieving a good retirement by maximizing your retirement income and minimizing your living expenses. IRAs and Qualified Plans Offer Limited Asset Protection You can lose your assets to creditors (whom you've borrowed from), to claims under divorce or paternity suits, to trumped-up claims against your deep pockets, or to government for taxes owed. What you have in your IRA or other qualified plan has some asset protection. But federal and state laws together determine when and how much protection those assets actually have - and from whom. That's what this article addresses. A Self-directed IRA: the Pros and Cons Government rules allow use of your IRA for more types of investments than banks and mutual fund companies allow. But you must steer clear of violation self-dealing rules for those nonconventional IRA investments. But, taxation of IRAs obliterates the tax-advantages of some alternative investments. This article overviews nonconventional investments, tax rules and restrictions, and suggests reasons for and against investing in them. Keep Your Wealth Longer by Withdraw Income from Your IRA or 401(k) Only After Using Up Your Taxable As a retiree you've probably accumulated savings in both IRA-type retirement accounts and regular taxable accounts. You'll withdraw from them for your annual living expense. But the different tax treatments that apply to IRA-type and regular taxable accounts make it confusing about which type you should withdraw from first. Below I'll show that withdrawing from your taxable accounts first allows you to preserve your wealth longer.