I have a story to share with you that also applies to tax planning. I was out in New Mexico with my family between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and we have a place near Rideau. While there, my youngest daughter wanted to go snowboarding with a few friends at a nearby ski mountain called Ski Apache. Of course, I was the guy that ended up taking them because the road going up to this mountain is not for the faint of heart. There are steep edges, and the guardrails are either nonexistent or a complete joke.
I took my daughter and her two friends up there, and when we arrived, I got them all signed up for ski school. Once they were ready to go, my job was done. I dropped them off, helped them sign up, and now it was time for me to leave.
As I was leaving, I noticed this family walking my way toward the ski school sign-up area. The mom and the dad were walking behind a teenage daughter pushing a stroller with a baby through the snow. If you’ve had more than one child, you probably realize this is a bad idea. Behind them, a little five-year-old girl was walking all bundled up, and another young child was carrying a McDonald’s tray full of drinks. The nearest McDonald’s was over a half hour away, and there was no way the coffees were still warm. I was looking at this and wondering why this couple was having their teenage daughter push the stroller. I was also wondering why their eight-year-old kid was carrying a tray of coffees about as big as she was. It looked like a recipe for disaster. As I was watching them make their way to the ski school, I felt sorry for whatever the ski instructors were about to endure.
Right around the time of this trip, the new Secure Act 2.0 passed. All I could think of as I watched this family was that they were doing everything wrong, just like this budget that the government passed.
Here’s the point; that family was unprepared to go to ski school in any way, and countless hard-working Americans out there are unprepared for the taxes coming in retirement.
Why is tax planning so crucial for retirement? If you know what you’re doing, you can often get close to a 0% tax bracket in retirement. Is your advisor talking to you about getting you there? Do you sit down with your advisor every year to discuss tax returns? Does your advisor show you what to do to get closer to a 0% tax bracket? If your advisor doesn’t have that conversation with you every year, I believe you don’t have a retirement advisor, and you need a new advisor stat.
I feel tax planning is a huge deal. There are two common reasons your advisor might not be helping you get close to that 0% tax bracket in retirement. Number one, they might not know anything about it. Do you want an advisor who doesn’t know how to do tax planning? Number two, they know about tax planning, but they don’t care enough to tell you about it. I don’t know which is worse, but I don’t know if it matters; In my opinion, they both stink. In my opinion, you’re not getting the help you need.
If you’re not getting help with tax planning from your advisor, you should be getting it. I believe you deserve it. I believe you should talk to somebody who lives and breathes tax planning retirement. That’s what we do, and that’s why you should call us to get a Retire Right Report. Right is an acronym for Risk, Income, Growth, Healthcare, and Taxes. Call us to get a Retire Right Report and help clarify what you should be doing. It’s easy and free but only available if you’ve saved at least $500,000 for retirement.
If you’re in that position, reach out to us at 512-886-5850. Let’s get your report put together. We want you to be able to retire well. I believe retirement should be the best time of your life. Let’s make sure you’re planning well so you have the highest probability of achieving that.
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