MONEY AND FINANCE

Death And Taxes

Death and Taxes

Death and taxes certainly have provided any number of comedians/humorists with a lot of material. Some of it was actually funny too.

Death and taxes bring to mind something called estate planning. Most of us estate plan simply by making a will. Some of us don’t do anything. The rest of us do something that is absolutely brilliant.

They actually plan their life and death so that they pay as little in taxes as possible and leave their heirs with as little an obligation to pay taxes as possible. I am about to suggest a way you can do that even if you don’t have a ton of money in the bank.

Every year you complete and file an IRS Form 1040. This document and its support paper work contain your financial situation as it existed in that point of time. Therefore it could, by default, be called your financial plan.

Financial planning is something we all do whether we do it or not. Think about it. If you don’t plan, your doing nothing is your plan. The results probably won’t be too good for you.

If you do plan, you don’t guarantee you’ll experience the best results but you do guarantee you have put yourself in a position to reap the most you can possible reap. If you are sharper than the average beach ball, you can look at your 1040 and immediately see if you need to re-allocate your moneys to a more productive source.

Take taxable interest for example. Let’s say you have a high amount of taxable interest and this bothers you. The 1040 shocks you into making a decision. You can either leave the principal sit where it is at or you can move it into an account paying tax free interest or one paying tax deferred interest.

Examples of this type of strategizing are all over page one of the 1040. That’s the page that is your financial snapshot as it exists at that point in time.

If you don’t possess a financial planner’s eye, don’t worry. An ebook titled, “1040 Goldmine” exists that has analyzed each section of the 1040 with suggestions you can consider on re-allocating your money. It is that easy and readily available.

After all, nobody wants to outlive their retirement account. Now is the time to plan your future. The tool that will help you is in your filing cabinet. Pull it out and start using it today.

Money and Finance

Death And Taxes