It’s the season to talk about retirement

By Dee Siegferth,The Milestone Center, Akron LIVING WELL Magazine 

Did you realize that retirement is similar to how football games are organized into two halves? Your working and retirement life is divided in a similar way. The first half: hopefully you saved, but you may be like most people and accumulated most of your money in retirement accounts through your work. Your second half: you begin thinking about retirement or you may already be retired. The clock is running, but it seems like everything gets more expensive, especially when it comes to taxes. Why not win your Game? It is your life!

Did you ever think about what item you write checks for in the first half and the second half of your life?  From the day you start your first job and even in retirement, you have basically been writing a check to the government to pay your taxes.

When you were working, you may have contributed to a retirement account for a tax break, but did you realize these accounts are taxable the minute you take money out of them? During your first half, you probably took a mortgage loan on your home. You may have had the goal to pay off the mortgage so you would be free of this payment, and you would own your home free and clear. When you own a 401(k), 403b or IRA, it is like the mortgage loan except the taxes may never be paid off in full.

Ed Slott, America’s top CPA retirement account expert, maintains that your game plan should always have the end in mind to pass the goal line knowing you have a tax-free or tax-favored estate. Ed Slott also emphasizes that taxes are now on sale and this window for planning is closing and shuts down at the end of 2012. Now may be the time to leverage your retirement account money at these low tax rates.

To receive further information how you too can leverage your retirement accounts, life insurance and other savings to create a foolproof last quarter of your game plan, call our office for a no cost audit of your retirement accounts and tax situation.  

Dee Siegferth, a charter member of Ed Slott’s Masters Elite IRA Group, can help you tweak your game plan to be assured that you have won the game by preserving your hard earned savings for you and your loved ones. Call 330-644-0284 or email contact@themilestonecenter.com.