Thursday, January 06, 2011

Estates Lawyer in Houston Discusses How To Set Those Pesky Financial Goals

By Kim Hegwood, Estates Lawyer in Houston

Not to make you feel guilty, but for every seven years you delay saving and investing for the future, you cut in half the income you would enjoy at the end of your life. So, as an estates lawyer in Houston, I want to encourage you to make 2011 the year you get on the right financial course!

Here are some suggestions to get started...

1) Set Realistic Goals First, ask the right questions and stay the course until you have found the answers. Goals that are shared are ten times more likely to be acted on. Don't wait until you have everything set up to seek out accountability.

2) Make those goals concrete and then document them. Set your savings goals as a specific annual percentage of your adjusted gross income (AGI). It is a great idea to save at least 10% of your AGI in tax-free retirement accounts and another 5% toward retirement in taxable investments. If you are behind on your savings, you may want to save even more in order to catch up.

Third, craft the best strategy to implement your goals, including prioritizing the appropriate retirement vehicles. Start by investing just enough to get the entire match from a company's 401(k) plan (if you have one) and then fund your Roth IRA accounts next. After these two, make certain you have enough nonretirement savings.

Fourth--and this is a BIG deal-- automate your plan. Automating putting money in an employer-defined contribution plan is easy. Automating a taxable savings plan is just as painless. Most banks or brokers offer an automatic money link between an investment account and a checking account. They should also offer a monthly automatic transfer between the two accounts.

Going into further detail would actually entail sitting down and creating a true, full financial plan--which is impossible over email!

But I will say one last thing: the most critical component of wealth management in the new year will be tax minimization. With the potential for tax rates to fluctuate even more than the stock market in 2011, it is never been more important to monitor what "Uncle Sam" is seeking to take from your wallet!