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Financial Planning Updates

Financial Planning Updates

January 5, 2009 by Lesjak Planning

Waiver for 2009 Required Minimum Distributions


President Bush signed into law The Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 on December 23rd, 2008. The new law grants a temporary waiver of Required Minimum Distributions from retirement accounts for the 2009 year only. Clearly, this provides relief for those who need to take the minimum distributions and will give the equities in the investment accounts an opportunity to recover. Furthermore, if you were taking monthly withdrawals from your retirement accounts simply to satisfy your Required Minimum Distribution, it may be prudent to suspend those for this year to avoid unwanted income taxes. At this time, it is expected that Required Minimum Distributions will continue in 2010.

Yesterday, we wrapped up our 28th Holiday Champagne Brunch with over 230 friends and associates in attendance. The food was good, and the company was even better. We all bid farewell to 2008, thankfully, and look forward to a better 2009. Please give us a call if you have any questions you wish to discuss.

Consider Refinancing Your Home Mortgage

Recent steps taken by the government to shore up the credit markets and improve conditions in the housing market significantly improved interest rates for home mortgage loans. As of this writing, competitive loan institutions are offering 30 year fixed rate mortgages at 5% and 15 year fixed rate mortgages at 4.875%. We recommend you consider your current home mortgage and possibly refinance to these lower rates. Doing so may result in lower monthly payments and significantly lower interest costs over the life of your loan. However, when refinancing it is important to avoid a new loan whose time period is longer than the years you have remaining on your current loan.

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