retirement planning

By Todd I. Youngdahl, CFP®

If you’ve spent any time researching financial advisors, you’ve probably come across the term Fee-Only. It’s used to describe registered investment advisors, and it’s one of the best words you can hear when searching for a financial expert.

But what does it mean? And why is it important when you are evaluating financial advisors?

Today we’ll address what it means to be a fee-only financial advisor—and why we at Washington Wealth Advisors pride ourselves on this one little phrase.

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP® and Todd I. Youngdahl, CFP®

When it comes to retirement, there seems to be a never-ending checklist of tasks to complete in order to prepare yourself for this major milestone. You need to save enough to maintain your lifestyle, create a withdrawal strategy, work to minimize your taxes, and claim your Social Security benefits. But there’s one other critical piece of retirement planning to prepare for: signing up for Medicare. And with healthcare being one of the top five expenses in retirement,^[1] your Medicare choices are some of the most important decisions you will make.

By Todd I. Youngdahl, CFP®

Roth IRAs are great savings vehicles for many reasons. They can be a tax-free income source in retirement. They don’t have required minimum distributions when you reach age 70½ as with most other tax-advantaged retirement plans.  And, they have flexible inheritance rules that will benefit your children and grandchildren.

The only problem with Roth IRAs is that you may not be eligible for one.  You likely make too much money. For 2019, you are ineligible to contribute directly to a Roth IRA if you are single with an adjusted gross income (AGI) over $137,000 or a married couple with an AGI over $203,000.

Why tout the benefits of a Roth IRA to people who may be unable to contribute directly to one? Another contribution path exists.  It is called a Backdoor Roth IRA which offers an alternative way to make contributions to a Roth IRA. 

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP® and Jane Huang, MBA, CFP®

If you’ve been frustrated by the complexity and inflexibility surrounding your federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), you’re not alone. Fortunately, many of the rules and restrictions surrounding your options for contributing and withdrawing will be relaxed when the TSP Modernization act goes into effect on September 15th, 2019. The new rules are designed to give you more control over your money and apply to all TSP account owners, regardless of whether or not you’re already receiving monthly payments. The top three changes to TSP withdrawals in 2019 are greater flexibility in partial withdrawals, making withdrawal changes at any time, and the ability to choose which accounts your withdrawals are coming from.

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP®