The best way to get the most out of the money you’ve earned is to make sure you aren’t giving any of it away. By utilizing smart and careful tax planning strategies, you can set yourself up for a better financial future. Today we’ll address some of the common tax questions we hear and talk about a few of those strategies to help you protect the money you’ve earned.
As we approach another tax season, we get many of the same questions while people are preparing to send in their documents to the IRS.
But tax planning starts well before it’s time to file. On this episode of Your Sweet Retirement, we want to share some of the questions that come up this time of the year and then talk about the ways you can position yourself for retirement in the most tax-effective way possible.
What’s important to understand is that a financial advisor has a different role to play with your finances than your accountant. Most accountants are historians in the sense that the document the finances over the past year and relay that information to the IRS.
The one thing that we’ve noticed many people don’t do is get a gauge of where you stand in December. That’s not the accountant’s job to do, but it’s what an advisor should be assisting you with. For example, there might be some stocks you want to sell off and realize gains or losses to help you get the best outcome once April arrives.
On any given year, you might have room to increase your income before the next tax bracket takes effect. This could be an opportunity to withdraw more out of an account without having to worry about how much more it might cost you.
The other way that many people are tax planning for retirement rather than taking a short-term approach is by focusing more of their efforts towards a Roth. Whether you’re contributing to a Roth IRA or using a Roth conversion, taking advantage of low tax rates today might pay off exponentially in retirement when you can withdraw that money without having to pay a dime on capital gains.
Tax planning is a year-round effort and something a comprehensive financial plan will take into account. By working with an experienced advisor, you can actually save yourself more money over your career and see the fruits of that planning once retirement rolls around.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about tax strategies that might benefit you, schedule a meeting and we’ll start that process with you.
Listen to the full podcast or use the timestamps below to jump to a specific section.
0:36 – Common tax questions
1:22 – Tax issues to get ahead of
2:34 – Don’t pay more than you have to
4:18 – Assuming taxes will be lower in retirement
5:51 – Tax planning strategies
7:33 – Client example
8:41 – What our meetings consist of
If you’re not paying a lot in taxes, well why not see how much income you can get without paying a lot in taxes. If you’re $30-40,000 away from the next tax bracket, you may actually want to take out more money now out of your IRA because you’re not going to go up into the next tax bracket.
Josh Greenberg
