Retirement planning is an essential aspect of financial planning, as it helps ensure you can maintain your lifestyle and cover your expenses when you are no longer working. Darrow advisors share retirement planning insights for executives and business owners. Saving for retirement can include a multitude of strategies including: portfolio income, stress testing a retirement plan, tax planning and bucketing, Social Security timing, pension income, Roth conversions, plans for business owners, risk tolerance changes later in life and more.
Should You Take a Pension or a Lump Sum? Deciding between a lump sum or receiving pension benefits monthly requires careful planning and consideration. Though your personal situation and circumstance will always be the most important factor in any major financial decision, there are several key considerations to keep in
Is there an optimal time to convert a traditional IRA or old 401(k) to a Roth IRA? While a Roth conversion may never make sense for some individuals, for others, early retirement years may be the best time to convert pre-tax accounts to tax-free Roth. Your current and projected future
Don’t stress out about every headline, stress test your retirement plan instead. Markets move every day and the news cycle is 24-7. Unfortunately, headlines often leave investors wondering what the news means for their portfolio and financial outlook. We can’t predict the future, but we can control how we prepare a
The idea of living off dividends in retirement sounds nice, but investors often don’t realize how much money they’ll need invested to generate enough income from dividends to cover lifestyle expenses. Over the last 30 years, the S&P 500’s average dividend yield was 1.98%.¹ So historically, every $1 million invested
Updated for 2024 – 2025. Investors often ask: should I be making nondeductible IRA contributions? In the vast majority of cases the answer is no. Why non-deductible? Because many taxpayers earn too much to make pre-tax IRA contributions as they have a 401(k) at work. Although any investor with earned
Wondering where to invest after maxing out your 401(k)? If you’re looking for ways to invest after your 401(k) or 403(b) at work, you likely have three options: a brokerage account, IRA, or Roth IRA. Investing after maxing out a 401(k) is smart, especially since your retirement accounts may not
The Secure Act 2.0 was signed into law December 29th, 2022, bringing more major changes to tax law. Among the most notable changes include a significant step towards ‘Rothification’ through expanded use, new requirements, and even a way to move money from college savings accounts to a Roth IRA. Here
Updated for 2023. Planning can help optimize annual required minimum distributions depending on your goals and cash flow needs. After the passing of Secure Act 2.0, RMD age increases to 73 for taxpayers born in 1951 – 1959, increasing to age 75 for those born in 1960 or later. Taxpayers
The 4% rule is one of the most well-known rules of thumb in personal finance. The premise is simple: retirees can withdraw 4% of their starting retirement portfolio annually, plus inflation, for 30 years with a high probability they won’t run out of money. Unfortunately, in practice, this withdrawal strategy
Updated for 2024. Anyone with earned income can make a non-deductible (after tax) contribution to an IRA and benefit from tax-deferred growth. But it may not be worth it due (in part) to often overlooked ongoing recordkeeping requirements. For many, the biggest risk and most common downfall is significant: paying