When you imagine the day you give back the work keys and finally retire what goes through your mind? Will you feel excited and secure, knowing that you can now start living the best years of your life doing exactly what you’ve always wanted to do? Or will you have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach knowing that you will now have to live a life of insecurity and austerity due to a lack of planning?

The choice belongs to each of us. Like the old proverb says…"the journey of a thousand miles  begins with a single step”. Retirement planning is simply deciding today to look after yourself and those you care about in the future, and then beginning the steps.

Many individuals already take advantage of one or more of the commonly known retirement savings vehicles, like IRA’s or 401k’s. Yet so often, they fail to take into account future tax liabilities that can have such a dramatic impact on their income levels and, ultimately, their quality of life in retirement. For example, many people have a substantial portion of their estate value locked up in the value of their homes. There are options available to utilize the value of the home to obtain tax-free income while continuing to own and live there. Best of all, this strategy can minimize taxable distributions from retirement plans, thereby allowing them to continue to grow. This can result in a much greater stream of retirement income. Other strategies allow an individual to donate highly appreciated assets to charity in such a way that they actually come out further ahead than if they sell it and pay income taxes on the proceeds.

None of these strategies are simple. In many cases they need to be combined with other retirement planning instruments, such as a trust and insurance, to obtain the best result. When handled by a financial planning professional, however, the increase in your wealth and decrease in your tax liability can be very substantial. That is why you owe it to yourself to let a professional guide you toward your retirement goals. At SAMG, we specialize in retirement planning and have the knowledge and expertise necessary to provide you with quality results.