Managing Your Financial Future with Lucia Capital Group

With everything we have going on in our lives right now, with all the new things we have to deal with, it's important to keep in mind that ordinary events still happen during extraordinary times.  Births, deaths, marriages, divorces, family events -- things both in and out of your control -- continue.  Part of the essence of financial planning has to do with making sure that both expected and...

Stock markets are volatile, people are hunkered down in their homes, and life as we know has been put on pause, at least for a while.  In spite of that, though, all of the regular financial issues still exist, pandemic or not.  And today we're answering those emails that have come in from you, our loyal listeners, over the past few weeks. The issues at hand:  taking distributions from your IR...

During normal times, it's easy to put our financial lives on autopilot.  Our 401(k) contributions happen without us having to do anything, many of our bills are paid with auto pay, and once we're set up with the proper amount of life insurance, health insurance, and maybe long-term care insurance, we tend to resort to a "set-it-and-forget-it" mode.  There are times, though, whe...

Between the CARES Act and the SECURE Act, both of which have been enacted, 2020 has turned out (so far) to be a year of change and uncertainty.  The SECURE Act was passed in December of 2019, aiming to make retirement saving easier for individuals, increasing access to tax-advantaged accounts, and preventing older Americans from outliving their assets. Certain provisions of the SECURE Act have dir...

It's a fairly well-known and well-accepted fact within the investment world that market timing - attempting to get in or out of equities on the highs or lows - doesn't work.  Most investing novices (and even veterans) who trade on daily trends will lose money, and some will lose all of their money.  The stock market is simply too unpredictable. But that doesn't mean that when market...

One of the most potentially useful tools a financial planner has is the ability to create some form of lifetime income for those who need it. In much the same way that a company could provide a pension to its employees, so may an advisor offer “pensionized” income as a way to provide guaranteed lifetime income to someone who might otherwise have none. This week’s episode of Managing Your Financial...

So maybe you looked at your 401(k) balance as recently as mid-February, and then decided you'd finally enough saved up to retire.  You put your notice in at work, everyone wished you well, and then...And then.  From bull market to bear market in a flash, without warning.  What have you done?  Can you really afford to retire now?  Good question. In this week's podcast, Johnny Dean and Pro...

So the long bull market finally came to an end.  The drop in equity values was quick, sudden, but not unexpected.  The markets simply did what they've always done, and while we never knew the exact date it would happen, we knew it was inevitable.  And because we know it's inevitable but cannot predict when it will happen, we have a strategy that anticipates this kind of volatility and ai...

Many people who aren't old enough to receive their benefits yet don't give much thought to Social Security. They figure it will be there for them in some form or another when they retire, but as to when they should begin taking it, well, that's not something they keep on their mental front-burner. It's often not until they approach or reach retirement that they give it any seri...

When it comes to finance, conflicting advice is everywhere.  This is especially true when people have questions about when they should start taking money from their traditional IRAs: Should I start early, or wait until I'm required to take the money out?  Is my withdrawal going to be taxed?  Does an IRA withdrawal affect my Social Security, or change the cost of Medicare Part B and D?  Very f...

The current bull market is 11 years old as of March, 2020.  This seems to have given more than a few investors the mistaken idea that stocks will continue to climb forever.  Whenever markets are flying high, or (on the other side) when they’re sinking into oblivion, people tend to overreact and do something that they later on wished they hadn’t - often times, something irreversible. If you’re abou...

The SECURE Act, passed by Congress at the end of 2019 and effective on January 1, 2020, provides several reforms to 401(k) accounts, IRAs, college savings accounts, and more.  A couple of long-standing rules, including the age at which most people must begin taking their required minimum distributions, were amended.  These changes created both opportunities and obstacles for people who are making...

A few episodes back, we talked about the benefits of charitable giving for both the recipient of the gift and the giver.  The one who receives the gift gets the benefit of the gift itself.  The one who gives the gift may be entitled to (among other things) a tax benefit for their generosity.  Some people, though, for a variety of reasons, aren't able to deduct what they give to charity -- at...

Fear does strange things to people.  It can motivate us to take immediate action when a threat is imminent, or it can cause us to retreat, cover up the issue, and hope it will go away. Retirees have many financial concerns. But their biggest one -- the one that can be connected to all of the others -- is running out of money.  This fear often causes them to either be frugal to a point beyond reaso...

Most people at some time or another want to be charitable.  Part of human nature tells us we should give to those in need -- that we have a kind of social obligation to allow others to have something that they could otherwise only dream of.  This is why being charitable often gives us a nice, warm feeling. That's the emotional side of giving.  On the practical side, there can be financial rew...

Many people know that long-term care costs are expensive.  In spite of that, they're often reluctant to buy an insurance policy to cover those costs because they don't want to pay for something that they may never need to use.  After all, not everyone ends up in a nursing home or care facility. But what if you could both insure against those costs AND retain ownership of your premiums so...

Did you know that the location of your assets - 401(k), IRA, personal account, Roth - is a big determinant of your ultimate tax bill?  By simply locating your assets in the proper account(s), you may be able to drastically reduce your tax bill. Find out how with Rick "The Professor" Plum, CFP®, and Johnny Dean, along with Ray Lucia Jr. and Joe Lucia, on this week's episode of Managi...

You may have heard or read that Americans aren't saving enough for their retirement years.  If so, there's a good chance that the phrase "retirement crisis" was part of the story. It's easy to scare people into reading an article online, but while everyone could probably stand to save more then they are, is there really a retirement crisis in America?  Maybe not. Rick &quo...

You work hard for your money.  You save, you plan, you make contingent plans, you save some more, and yet you can never really be sure that your savings will last as long as you do.  Your portfolio faces a number of different risks, and not all of them happen after you retire.  We've narrowed those risks down to the three most basic - the three you really need to plan for. Find out what those...

Social Security has provisions for a survivor benefit, which allows a surviving spouse to continue receiving their deceased spouse's Social Security benefits.  It was put in place in 1940 to ensure that widows would not suffer a cut in benefits.  Ironically, in today's world, those same survivor benefit rules may cause just that - a actual cut in pay to the survivor.  How is that possibl...