Getting Organized

Planning and organization are important parts of a successful personal financial program. You need a record keeping system that makes it easy for you or your spouse to locate legal and financial documents.
            
What types of documents should be in your financial filing system?

• Legal documents. Items to file include birth certificates, business ownership papers, passports, contracts, deeds and titles, education records, insurance policies, living wills, powers of attorney, and trust documents.
• Tax records. Keep tax returns and receipts for the past six years.
• Investment records. File away statements that show what you've bought and sold, when and for how much.
• Financial documents. Include insurance policies for health, disability, auto and property and casualty. A proper financial filing system can help keep your life organized and on track.

Your Prescription for Retirement
Presented by Pat Wolfe and Steve Hess

May 9, 2006 @ 7:00 PM
Interlachen Country Club
6200 Interlachen Blvd.
Edina, MN 55436

Stretch IRA
Presented by Kim Tricas

May 18, 2006 @ 7:00 PM
Kozlak's Royal Oak Restaurant
4785 Hodgson Road
Shoreview, MN 55126

Avoiding Retirement Potholes
Presented by Ken Smith

May 23, 2006 @ 7:00 PM
Princeton Golf Club
PO Box 339, Golf Course Road  
Princeton, MN 55371

May 24, 2006 @ 7:00 PM
St. Cloud Country Club
301 Montrose Road
St. Cloud, MN 56302

Smart Retirement Moves for Women
Presented by Peg Webb

May 23, 2006 @ 6:00 PM
ASID Showcase Home
601 Bushaway Road
Wayzata, MN 55391

May 25, 2006 @ 7:00 PM
Legends Golf Club
8670 Credit River Blvd
Prior Lake, MN 55372

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Retirement Planning
Presented by Jerry Bernard

May 30, 2006 @ 7:00 PM
ASID Showcase Home
601 Bushaway Road
Wayzata, MN 55391

To register for any of these seminars, please call
1-800-487-1952 or visit wealthenhancement.com

Wealth Enhancement Group has helped thousands of Minnesotans plan for a comfortable retirement. With a team of experts well-versed in financial planning, investment management, and maximizing tax strategies, Wealth Enhancement Group will help you achieve the life you imagined.  

CLICK HERE to get your copy of our 24-page retirement booklet, ”Planning for Retirement – Strategies for Your Life, Your Finances, and Your Future”. In this booklet, you’ll learn more about startegies and options for your future.  

College Costs Bring Tax Savings

Are you taking full advantage of the tax savings available to parents who are saving for-or paying for-their children's college education?

There are several ways you can save on taxes for college savings and college costs:

• Interest from savings bonds is exempt from taxes when used to pay college costs.
• Withdrawals from traditional and Roth IRAs is exempt from the usual 10 percent early withdrawal penalty when used for college costs.
• You can deduct interest paid on student loans even if you don't itemize on your tax return.
• You can also deduct up to $3,000 for college tuition and fees unless you claim a tax credit for education expenses for the same student the same year.
• When saving for your children's college expenses, the earnings that you put into college savings programs may be exempt from income taxes.

How Many Rooms Do You Need In Your House?

Your strategy’s in place. Now it’s time to look to the next step – what types of products will help you implement your strategy. In other words, now you need portfolio. And don’t look at prospectuses or annual reports yet! You’re still not ready to buy products.

A portfolio isn’t just a collection of products, no more than a house is just a collection of rooms. If you own a bunch of products without having a portfolio, you may have a house with two dining rooms, four living rooms and no bathrooms or kitchen. Having a portfolio is like saying, “I need a house with four bedrooms, one big kitchen, three baths, a living room and a family room, and here's how big I'd like them to be.” Now you’ve got a functional house – a house that meets your specific needs.

What you've done is allocated space, just what a portfolio does. A portfolio is your allocation of investment space. Instead of doing it by rooms or square footage, we do it by percentages of your resources: 10% in this type of asset, 40% in that, 15% in another.

Modern Portfolio Theory, whose originators won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economics, champions the notion that the particular asset class that one invested in accounts for the vast majority – over 90% – of the portfolio's performance. (This finding, based upon a 1986 research report* on 91 large pension funds by a prestigious pension fund consulting firm, concluded that the two remaining primary investment strategies – market timing and stock selection – had minimal effects on performance.) This led Dr. Markowitz, one of the Nobel Prize recipients, to argue that for every level of risk, there is some optimum combination of asset classes, known as the “Efficient Frontier”, that will provide the highest rate of return for a given level of risk assumed. Although there are no guarantees in investing, it is on this philosophy that we base our asset management decisions and recommendations.

When planning your life, your future, you have to think of risk and return in the broadest terms. Risk may not mean losing money, rather it may mean losing opportunities – in financial or personal terms.

Reward may be more than making money, it may mean increasing financial security or enhancing your enjoyment of life.

*Based on a 1986 study, more recent studies may reflect different results.

Five reasons you may want to avoid a tax-deferred retirement plan: First, They don't actually avoid taxes. You will be taxed upon the income when you spend it or take it out of the plan.

Second, your tax bracket and the tax rates may be higher when you take the money out and it's time to pay Uncle Sam. Third, they provide no additional spendable income in the year that you contribute to the plan. In fact, disposable income goes down. Fourth, they are promoted by large financial institutions who want to keep their hands on your money as long as possible. Finally, they are inefficient to die with because the beneficiary is also fully taxed and there is no step up on basis.