Think And Grow Rich: Organized Planning

In the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, the organized planning step is a crucial component of achieving success and wealth. It involves the following key elements:

1. Definiteness of Purpose: Clearly defining your specific goal or desire, creating a clear vision of what you want to achieve.
2. Mastermind Alliance: Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals who share similar goals and ambitions. Creating a cooperative and supportive network that helps each other achieve their objectives.
3. Applied Faith: Believing in the attainment of your goals and taking consistent actions to turn your faith into reality.
4. Going the Extra Mile: Putting in more effort and enthusiasm than expected, going beyond what is required to achieve your objectives.
5. Personal Initiative: Taking decisive action and being proactive in pursuing your goals without waiting for others to motivate you.
6. Self-Discipline: Exercising control over your thoughts and actions, staying focused on your goals even when faced with challenges or distractions.
7. The Habit of Doing More Than Paid For: Providing value and exceeding expectations in your work or business endeavors, which leads to greater success and recognition.
8. Pleasing Personality: Cultivating a positive and charismatic demeanor, as it can significantly impact your interactions and relationships with others.
9. Accurate Thinking: Developing the ability to think critically and make well-informed decisions, avoiding hasty judgments.
10. Concentration: Focusing all your efforts and energies on a single task at a time, avoiding distractions and maintaining a clear focus on your objectives.
11. Cooperation: Working harmoniously with others, fostering a spirit of teamwork and collaboration.
12. Enthusiasm: Demonstrating genuine passion and excitement for your goals, which can inspire others and attract opportunities.

Through applying these principles of organized planning, individuals can maximize their potential, overcome obstacles, and move closer to realizing their dreams of financial success and personal achievement.

Are You Getting What You Want?

I think we have all been there at one point or another and maybe even now. We wonder why we keep having bad luck or why things happen the way they happen to us. We even compare ourselves to the “luck” that others have and wonder how we can get that “luck”.

I remember I used to wonder those same things and blame it on luck. I had an external locus of control, meaning I blamed my outcomes on external things that were out of my control. I started to understand that I was in control of my own outcomes when I first started college. Something clicked in my head for some reason and I decided to push myself and realized that if I kept doing what I was doing that I would keep getting what I was getting.

I realized that even though I believed that I could control my outcomes, that people would ALWAYS be there to try and knock me down. That’s when I decided to focus on doing what needed to be done in order to get what I wanted to get. It required hard work and a lot of discipline, but I started seeing that you can accomplish anything you put my mind to if you step out of your comfort zone.

I still practice that to this day and challenge people to step out of their comfort zone so that they too can get what they want by changing what they are doing.

How Do You Know When You Have Enough to Retire?

How Do You Know When You Have Enough to Retire?

There is no simple answer, but consider some factors. 

Provided by Jose Medina

You save for retirement with the expectation that at some point, you will have enough savings to walk confidently away from the office and into the next phase of life. So how do you know if you have reached that point?

Retirement calculators are useful – but only to a point. The dilemma is that they can’t predict your retirement lifestyle. You may retire on 65% of your end salary only to find that you really need 90% of your end salary to do the things you would like to do.

That said, once you estimate your income need you can get more specific thanks to some simple calculations.

Let’s say you are 10 years from your envisioned retirement date and your current income is $70,000. You presume that you can retire on 65% of that, which is $45,500 – but leaving things at $45,500 is too simple, because we need to factor in inflation. You won’t need $45,500; you will need its inflation-adjusted equivalent. Turning to a Bankrate.com calculator, we plug that $45,500 in as the base amount along with 3% annual interest compounded (i.e., moderate inflation) over 10 years … and we get $61,148.¹ 

Now we start to look at where this $61,148 might come from. How much of it will come from Social Security? If you haven’t saved one of those mailers that projects your expected retirement benefits if you retire at 62, 66, or 70, you can find that out via the Social Security website. On the safe side, you may want to estimate your Social Security benefits as slightly lower than projected – after all, they could someday be reduced given the long-run challenges Social Security faces. If you are in line for pension income, your employer’s HR people can help you estimate what your annual pension payments could be.

Let’s say Social Security + pension = $25,000. If you anticipate no other regular income sources in retirement, this means you need investment and savings accounts large enough to generate $36,148 a year for you if you go by the 4% rule (i.e., you draw down your investment principal by 4% annually). This means you need to amass $903,700 in portfolio and savings assets.

Of course, there are many other variables to consider – your need or want to live on more or less than 4%, a gradual inflation adjustment to the 4% initial withdrawal rate, Social Security COLAs, varying annual portfolio returns and inflation rates, and so forth. Calculations can’t foretell everything.

The same can be said for “retirement studies”. For example, Aon Hewitt now projects that the average “full-career” employee at a large company needs to have 15.9 times their salary saved up at age 65 in addition to Social Security income to sustain their standard of living into retirement. It also notes that the average long-term employee contributing consistently to an employer-sponsored retirement plan will accumulate retirement resources of 8.8 times their salary by age 65. That’s a big gap, but Aon Hewitt doesn’t factor in resources like IRAs, savings accounts, investment portfolios, home equity, rental payments and other retirement assets or income sources.²

For the record, the latest Fidelity estimate shows the average 401(k) balance amassed by a worker 55 or older at $150,300; the Employee Benefit Research Institute just released a report showing that the average IRA owner has an aggregate IRA balance of $87,668.²

Retiring later might make a substantial difference. If you retire at 70 rather than at 65, you are giving presumably significant retirement savings that may have compounded for decades five additional years of compounding and growth. That could be huge. Think of what that could do for you if your retirement nest egg is well into six figures. You will also have five fewer years of retirement to fund and five more years to tap employer health insurance. If your health, occupation, or employer let you work longer, why not try it? If you are married or in a relationship, your spouse’s retirement savings and salary can also help.

Can anyone save too much for retirement? The short answer is “no”, but occasionally you notice some “good savers” or “millionaires next door” who keep working even though they have accumulated enough of a nest egg to retire. Sometimes executives make a “golden handshake” with a company and can’t fathom walking away from an opportunity to greatly boost their retirement savings. Other savers fall into a “just one more year” mindset – they dislike their jobs, but the boredom is comforting and familiar to them in ways that retirement is not. They can’t live forever; do they really want to work forever, especially in a high-pressure or stultifying job? That choice might harm their health or worldview and make their futures less rewarding.

So how close are you to retiring? A chat with a financial professional on this topic might be very illuminating. In discussing your current retirement potential, an answer to that question may start to emerge.    

Jose Medina may be reached at 469-777-8082 or info@medinaadvising.com

www.medinaadvising.com

This material was prepared for J I Medina Investments, and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.

1 – bankrate.com/calculators/savings/simple-savings-calculator.aspx [5/30/13]

2 – marketwatch.com/story/how-to-know-if-you-have-enough-to-retire-2013-05-25 [5/25/13]

Will Teachers Get the Retirement That They Deserve?

Will Teachers Get the Retirement That They Deserve?

Classroom educators are coping with hybrid plans and pension fund shortfalls.

Provided by Jose Medina 

Arizona. Kentucky. Massachusetts. Michigan. Pennsylvania. Rhode Island. Tennessee. In these states and others, teachers are concerned about their financial futures. The retirement programs they were counting on have either restructured or face critical questions.^1,2

Increasingly, states are transferring investment risk onto teachers. Hybrid retirement plans are replacing conventional pension plans. These new plans combine a 401(k)-style account with some of the features of a traditional pension program. Payouts from hybrid retirement plans are variable – they can change based on investment returns. The prospect of a fluctuating retirement income is making educators uneasy, especially in states such as Kentucky where teachers do not pay into Social Security.¹ 

Traditional pensions have vanished for teachers starting their careers in Michigan, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. In 2019, that may also happen in Pennsylvania.¹

In some states, educators are being asked to offset a shortfall in pension funds. Arizona teachers now must contribute 11.3% of their pay to the Arizona State Retirement System, compared to 2.2% in 1999. (What makes this situation worse is that the average Arizona public schoolteacher earns 10% less today than he or she did in 1999, adjusted for inflation.)²

Classroom teachers in Massachusetts already have 11% of their salaries directed into the state retirement fund; in California, almost 10% of teacher pay goes into the state retirement system. (The national average is 8.6%.) Make no mistake, some of these pension fund problems are major: New Jersey’s state retirement system is only 37% funded, and Kentucky’s is just 38% funded.^1,3

How can teachers respond to this crisis? One way is to plan for future income streams beside those from underfunded or reconceived state retirement systems. A talk with a financial professional – particularly one with years of experience helping educators make sound, informed financial decisions – may help identify the options.

That conversation should happen sooner rather than later. Educators in some states are no longer assured of fixed pension payments – and unfortunately, the ranks of these teachers seem to be growing.

Jose Medina may be reached at 469-777-8082 or info@medinaadvising.com

www.medinaadvising.com

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This material was prepared for J I Medina Investments and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.

1 – money.cnn.com/2018/04/04/retirement/teacher-pensions-kentucky/index.html [4/4/18]

2 – money.cnn.com/2018/04/20/pf/arizona-teacher-pay/index.html [4/20/18]

3 – yankeeinstitute.org/2018/04/bill-seeks-to-lower-teacher-pension-contribution/ [4/11/18]

5 Financial Tips For Moms

Forbes presents 5 financial tips for moms @ https://tinyurl.com/ya8g2bvl

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Different Types Of IRAs

The Different Types of IRAs

This popular retirement savings vehicle comes in several varieties. 

Provided by Jose Medina 

What don’t you know? Many Americans know about Roth and traditional IRAs, but there are other types of Individual Retirement Arrangements. Here’s a quick look at all the different types of IRAs: 

Traditional IRAs (occasionally called deductible IRAs) are the “original” IRAs. In most cases, contributions to a traditional IRA are tax deductible: they reduce your taxable income, and as a consequence, your federal income taxes. Earnings in a traditional IRA grow tax deferred until they are withdrawn, but they will be taxed upon withdrawal, and those withdrawals must begin after the IRA owner reaches age 70½. I.R.S. penalties and income taxes may apply on withdrawals taken prior to age 59½.¹ 

Roth IRAs do not feature tax-deductible contributions, but they offer many potential perks for the future. Like a traditional IRA, they feature tax-deferred growth and compounding. Unlike a traditional IRA, the account contributions may be withdrawn at any time without being taxed, and the earnings may be withdrawn, tax-free, once the IRA owner is older than 59½ and has owned the IRA for at least five years. An original owner of a Roth IRA never has to make mandatory withdrawals after age 70½. In addition, a Roth IRA owner may keep contributing to the account after age 70½, so long as he or she has earned income. (A high income may prevent an individual from making Roth IRA contributions.)^1,2 

Some traditional IRA owners convert their traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs. Taxes need to be paid once these conversions are made.¹

SIMPLE IRAs are traditional IRAs used in a SIMPLE plan, a type of retirement plan for businesses with 100 or fewer workers. Employers and employees can make contributions to SIMPLE IRA accounts. The annual contribution limit for a SIMPLE IRA is more than twice that of a regular traditional IRA.³ 

SEP-IRAs are Simplified Employee Pension-Individual Retirement Arrangements. These traditional IRAs are used in SEP plans, set up by an employer for employees, and funded only with employer contributions.⁴ 

Spousal IRAs really do not exist as a distinct IRA type. The term actually refers to a rule that lets non-working spouses make traditional or Roth IRA contributions as long as the other spouse works and the couple files joint federal tax returns.¹ 

Inherited IRAs are Roth or traditional IRAs inherited from their original owner by either a spousal or non-spousal beneficiary. The rules for Inherited IRAs are very complex. Surviving spouses have the option to roll over IRA assets they inherit into their own IRAs, but other beneficiaries do not. No contributions can be made to Inherited IRAs, which are also sometimes called Beneficiary IRAs.⁵ 

Group IRAs are simply traditional IRAs offered by employers, unions, and other employee associations to their employees, administered through trusts.⁶

Rollover IRAs (occasionally called conduit IRAs) are IRAs created to store assets distributed from another qualified retirement plan, often an employer-sponsored retirement plan. If the original plan were a Roth, then a Roth IRA must be created for the rollover. Assets from a non-Roth plan may be rolled over into a Roth IRA, but the rollover will be viewed as a Roth conversion by the Internal Revenue Service.^6,7 

Education IRAs are now mainly referred to by their proper name: the Coverdell ESA. A Coverdell ESA is a vehicle that helps middle-class investors save for a child’s education. Taxes are deferred on the assets saved and invested through the account. Contributions to a Coverdell ESA are not deductible, but withdrawals are tax-free, provided they are used to pay for qualified higher education expenses.⁸

Consult a qualified financial professional regarding your IRA options. There are many choices available, and it is vital that you understand how your choice could affect your financial situation. No one IRA is the “right” IRA for everyone, so do your homework and seek advice before you proceed.    

Jose Medina may be reached at 469-777-8082 or info@medinaadvising.com

www.medinaadvising.com

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This material was prepared for J I Medina Investments and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.

1 – thestreet.com/story/14545108/1/traditional-or-roth-ira-or-both.html [4/4/18]

2 – forbes.com/sites/catherineschnaubelt/2018/04/25/choosing-the-best-ira-to-maximize-your-retirement-savings/ [4/25/18]

3 – fool.com/retirement/2017/10/28/2018-simple-ira-limits.aspx [10/28/17]

4 – investopedia.com/university/retirementplans/sepira/ [11/14/17]

5 – investopedia.com/terms/i/inherited_ira.asp [4/30/18]

6 – fool.com/retirement/iras/the-eleven-types.aspx [4/30/18]

7 – investor.vanguard.com/401k-rollover/options [4/30/18]

8 – investopedia.com/terms/c/coverdellesa.asp [4/30/18]

Make Taxes Easier In 2019

Here are 7 moves that could make filing your taxes easier in 2019, according to U.S. News: https://tinyurl.com/y8yegjct

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Baby On The Way?

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Set Goals as You Save & Invest

Set Goals as You Save & Invest

Turn your intent into a commitment. 

Provided by Jose Medina 

Goals give you focus. To find and establish your investing and saving goals, first ask yourself what you want to accomplish. Do you want to build an emergency fund? Build college savings for your child? Have a large retirement fund by age 60? Once you have a defined motivation, a monetary goal can arise.

It can be easier to dedicate yourself to a goal rather than a hope or a wish. That level of dedication is important, as saving and investing usually comes with a degree of personal sacrifice. When you dedicate yourself to a saving/investing goal, some positive financial “side effects” may occur.   

A goal encourages you to save consistently. If you are saving and investing to reach a specific dollar figure, you likely also have a date for reaching it in mind. Pair a date with a saving or investing goal, and you have a time horizon, a self-imposed deadline, and you can start to see how you need to save or invest to try and achieve your goal, and what kind of savings or investments to put to work on your behalf.

You see the goal within a larger financial context. This big-picture perspective may help you from making frivolous purchases you might later regret or taking on a big debt that might impede your progress toward reaching your target.

You see clear steps toward your goal. Saving $1 million over a lifetime might seem daunting to the average person who has never looked at how it might be done incrementally. Once the math is in place, it might not seem so inconceivable. The intimidation of trying to reach that large number gives way to confidence – the feeling that you could realize that objective by contributing a set amount per month over a period of years.

Those discrete steps can make the goal seem less abstract. As you save and invest, you may make good progress toward the goal and attain milestones along the way. These milestones are affirmations, reinforcing that you are on a positive path and that you are paying yourself first.

Additionally, the earlier you define a goal, the more time you have to try and attain it. Time is certainly your friend here. Say you want to invest and build up a retirement fund of $500,000 in 30 years. If you save $500 a month for three decades through a retirement account returning 7% annually, you will have $591,839 when that 30-year period ends. If you give yourself just 20 years to try and save $500,000 with the same time frame and rate of return, you may need to make monthly contributions of about $975. (To be precise, the math says that over two decades, monthly contributions of about $975 will leave you with $501,419.)¹

When you save and invest with goals in mind, you make a commitment. From that commitment, a plan or strategy emerges. In contrast, others will save a little here, invest a little there, and hope for the best – but as the saying goes, hope is not a strategy.

Jose Medina may be reached at 469-777-8082 or info@medinaadvising.com

www.medinaadvising.com

This material was prepared for J I Medina Investments and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.

1 – bankrate.com/calculators/savings/compound-savings-calculator-tool.aspx [4/26/18]

Comprehensive Financial Planning: What It Is, Why It Matters

Comprehensive Financial Planning: What It Is, Why It Matters

Your approach to building wealth should be built around your goals & values. 

Provided by Jose Medina

Just what is comprehensive financial planning? As you invest and save for retirement, you may hear or read about it – but what does that phrase really mean? Just what does comprehensive financial planning entail, and why do knowledgeable investors request this kind of approach?

While the phrase may seem ambiguous to some, it can be simply defined.

Comprehensive financial planning is about building wealth through a process, not a product.

Financial products are everywhere, and simply putting money into an investment is not a gateway to getting rich, nor a solution to your financial issues.

Comprehensive financial planning is holistic. It is about more than “money.” A comprehensive financial plan is not only built around your goals, but also around your core values. What matters most to you in life? How does your wealth relate to that? What should your wealth help you accomplish? What could it accomplish for others?

Comprehensive financial planning considers the entirety of your financial life. Your assets, your liabilities, your taxes, your income, your business – these aspects of your financial life are never isolated from each other. Occasionally or frequently, they interrelate. Comprehensive financial planning recognizes this interrelation and takes a systematic, integrated approach toward improving your financial situation.

Comprehensive financial planning is long range. It presents a strategy for the accumulation, maintenance, and eventual distribution of your wealth, in a written plan to be implemented and fine-tuned over time.

What makes this kind of planning so necessary? If you aim to build and preserve wealth, you must play “defense” as well as “offense.” Too many people see building wealth only in terms of investing – you invest, you “make money,” and that is how you become rich.

That is only a small part of the story. The rich carefully plan to minimize their taxes and debts as well as adjust their wealth accumulation and wealth preservation tactics in accordance with their personal risk tolerance and changing market climates.  

Basing decisions on a plan prevents destructive behaviors when markets turn unstable. Quick decision-making may lead investors to buy high and sell low – and overall, investors lose ground by buying and selling too actively. Openfolio, a website which lets tens of thousands of investors compare the performance of their portfolios against portfolios of other investors, found that its average investor earned 5% in 2016. In contrast, the total return of the S&P 500 was nearly 12%. Why the difference? As CNBC noted, most of it could be chalked up to poor market timing and faulty stock picking. A comprehensive financial plan – and its long-range vision – helps to discourage this sort of behavior. At the same time, the plan – and the financial professional(s) who helped create it – can encourage the investor to stay the course.¹  

A comprehensive financial plan is a collaboration & results in an ongoing relationship. Since the plan is goal-based and values-rooted, both the investor and the financial professional involved have spent considerable time on its articulation. There are shared responsibilities between them. Trust strengthens as they live up to and follow through on those responsibilities. That continuing engagement promotes commitment and a view of success.

Think of a comprehensive financial plan as your compass. Accordingly, the financial professional who works with you to craft and refine the plan can serve as your navigator on the journey toward your goals.

The plan provides not only direction, but also an integrated strategy to try and better your overall financial life over time. As the years go by, this approach may do more than “make money” for you – it may help you to build and retain lifelong wealth.    

Jose Medina may be reached at 469-777-8082 or info@medinaadvising.comwww.medinaadvising.com

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This material was prepared for J I Medina Investments, and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.  

Citations.

1 – cnbc.com/2017/01/04/most-investors-didnt-come-close-to-beating-the-sp-500.html [1/4/17]