Year-end $$ Tips
When it comes to money management and strategic planning, the stroke of midnight on December 31 does more than signal the end of the year. It also represents a deadline to make many important money management and tax planning decisions that can impact your financial well-being in 2010 and beyond.
Here is a short to-do list that can help you wrap up the old year and ring in the new on a positive financial note:
- Review your overall financial planning and money management strategy, starting with your financial goals. This will help keep you focused. Decide where you want to be in the years ahead. By reviewing your assets and making sure your strategies and goals are on track, you can work to achieve them.
Write everything down, starting with a wish list; then narrow it down by focusing on the goals that are most important to you. Examples may include having a specific dollar amount on hand for your children’s educations, having the mortgage paid off by a certain year, accumulating a specific size nest egg by age 62. This gives you direction, a road map to follow. Identify specific activities that will help you achieve your goals. If you want $40,000 in hand in 15 years to pay for junior’s college, determine how much money you must put aside every month to realize that goal. - Review your insurance coverage. That is just a matter of meeting with your agent. He or she can help you review your protection and wealth-building program.
- Max out your IRA contributions. Get in your 2009 maximum IRA contribution of up to $5,000 per person this year; $6,000 if you are age 50 or older. (You have until April 15, 2010, but the sooner you make your contribution, the more interest it will earn.) Then, at the first opportunity of the new year, make your 2010 IRA contributions. Even if you can’t make all these contributions in one fell swoop, schedule systematic contributions over the coming year.
- Make charitable contributions before the end of the year so you can take your deductions in 2010.
- If you’re a homeowner, talk to your lender about pre-paying next year’s real estate taxes in a lump sum out of your escrow account or cash prior to December 31. The immediate payoff: If payment is received before December 31, you can take the deduction on your 2009 income tax form.
These are just some of the strategic planning and money management steps you should consider as we wrap up the year. The goal is to take a proactive approach to your finances, putting yourself in control to save taxes and build wealth for the future.
Want to learn more about how to get the best value for the money you spend? Check out The Back to Basics Book of Money! A Couple’s Guide to Financial Peace. The book contains 10 valuable Couple Money Skills. Plus, the Back to Basics Book of Money Workbook (which dovetails with the main text) offers 31 practical, hands-on Wealth Builder activities that can help you and your partner build financial and domestic stability. Both the book and workbook, which retail for $31.98 plus S & H, are available at the Family Finances Conference Center website for $27.99 total.
The Family Finances Conference Center tailors programs to the unique and individual needs of client organizations and their members and employees, based on the principles of the book and workbook set, The Back to Basics Book of Money! A Couple’s Guide to Financial Peace.
For more information, contact me at the Family Finances Conference Center by email (john@b2bbookofmoney.com) or my direct phone line (920-559-3722).
Oh, and Happy New Year. May 2010 be a year of prosperity and good health for you and your loved ones.
John Ingrisano
Director
Family Finances Conference Center
204 Lakeview Drive
Algoma, WI 54201
(920) 559-3722
john@b2bbookofmoney.com
“Helping families find money for
what they truly want and need.”
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