What does caffeine, kids, and your financial future have in common? Perhaps several things,
but for sure, each of them can keep you up at night! Have thoughts about your financial future ever caused you to lose sleep? You can help eliminate some of those sleepless times and create confidence in your financial future with three important considerations.
Foster a long-term investment mindset.
Whether you follow a current trend and work later into life, or decide to stop sooner, there will come a time when you need to replace your employer checks with a reliable and sustainable income stream. Currently, income streams are being created with Social Security benefits, employee pensions, and personal savings. If employee pensions become fewer and Social Security benefits change, the result will be that personal savings will take on a more significant load in providing future income streams. Now more than ever, the adage, “time in the market is better than timing of the market” rings true. Moving in and out of the market slows momentum and could reduce returns as best days in the market could be missed while sitting on the sidelines. While it is tough to be patient through difficult periods in the market, portfolios can be designed to weather the storms while taking advantage of the best days.
Optimize your Social Security benefits.
Social Security benefits should be considered a valuable asset and income stream source. While we do not know it's future, we know it is currently holding strong. As an asset, it can be combined with other assets to create and even stretch values in your portfolio. It also has serious tax implications. Although people should take Social Security when they absolutely need to, there is considerable value in waiting to take the benefit later. Optimizing the benefit involves modeling different income scenarios based on timing and then applying the most advantageous approach to the portfolio.
Have in place strategies designed to ensure protection.
Two areas of protection are insurance coverages and legacy documentation. Both combine to provide confidence that your family is protected in case anything ever happened to you. Reviewing insurance coverages is important particularly when it comes to permanent life policies. No matter how good a whole life policy sounds, over time it will need to be monitored to help ensure that it is meeting performance expectations. From an Estate point of view, one of the most important things to do is to be sure that assets in the estate are titled in the proper way which helps ensure the correct flow of assets at the end of life. This becomes particularly necessary when Trusts are added to the mix. Most people should begin with a simple will that is updated regularly as changes in life are experienced.
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Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Wealth Advisors, LLC (BWA), a registered investment advisor. BWA and Brookstone Capital Management, LLC are affiliated companies. BWA and R&R Financial Advisors, LLC are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BWA but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
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