Tag Archives: Retirement

Eight Weeks left in 2023… Wow… That was Fast …. Great Time of the Year to Check Run Rate of Contributions to Retirement Plans or the Like, Here are the Numbers of where we should be!

Posted on November 6, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Today is November 6, 2023….Would you believe there are only EIGHT full weeks left in the year? In some ways we do, others it seems like we just turned the calendar….digressing…


Great time to review your contribution levels

Now is a good time for all of us to review our retirement contribution levels. If our intent is to max out your 401(k), or other retirement plan, take a peek and see if you’re on track to achieve this goal.



If you have any questions certainly shoot us your latest paycheck and we can do the calculations, but here are roughly where we should be on our contributions to the regular and catchup 401(k) levels.


Ideally your year to date (YTD) contribution levels for your 401(k) regular withholding by yourself should be at least $19k in order to meet the $22.5k regular filing maximum by the end of the year and if our goal is to achieve the $30K catchup for those 50 and older we should be at least at the $25k level today. Both of these should be our individual YTD withholding amounts. We know there are matching and employer contributions … but the rules are set for us as an individual at the $22,5k regular maximum and $30k catch-up maximum. Catch ups are the usual problems, so make sure if you are 50 or turning 50 this year, your employer knows you want to do a catch up contribution!

Two quick reminders… if you have changed employers it is our job to keep up with the maximum amounts as mentioned here because our new employer will not know our prior contributions…

There are variances in certain situations, most of which we have already discussed, but the above covers the great majority of plans …. Reach out if you are in the middle for some reason!

This is your friendly reminder!

Reach out if Question… We got you!

Have a Great “Retirement Run Rate” Reminder Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Reminder, Retirement Planning

Tagged , , , ,

Great Time of the Year to Check Run Rate of Contributions to Retirement Plans or the Like

Posted on August 22, 2022 by | Leave a comment

With a pending holiday week coming up in the next several and as mentioned before many on Wall Street seem to be getting their kids back to school. We thought it a timely time to remind everyone to check those retirement contribution run rates….


Great time to review your contribution levels

Midway through the third-quarter, is a good time for all of us to review our retirement contribution levels. If our intent is to max out your 401(k), or other retirement plan, take a peek and see if you’re on track to achieve this goal.



If you have any questions certainly shoot us your latest paycheck and we can do the calculations, but here are roughly where we should be on our contributions to the regular and ketchup 401(k) levels.


Ideally your year to date (YTD) contribution levels for your 401(k) regular withholding by yourself should be about $13,500 in order to meet the $20,500 regular filing maximum by the end of the year and if our goal is to achieve the $27K catchup for those 50 and older we should be at about the $18,000 level today. Both of these should be our individual YTD withholding amounts. We know there are matching and employer contributions … but the rules are set for us as an individual at the $19,500 regular maximum and $27,000 catch-up maximum.

Two quick reminders… if you have changed employers it is our job to keep up with the maximum amounts as mentioned here because our new employer will not know our prior contributions… Lastly we like to max fund early our contributions if we know we are not going to be at our employer the full year…. Especially if we may be going to another place that may not have a plan or may have a mandatory waiting period..

There are variances in certain situations, most of which we have already discussed, but those that we have not recently …

  This is your friendly reminder!

Have a Great “Retirement Run Rate” Reminder Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Reminder, Retirement Planning

Tagged , , , ,

Job Change or Retirement? Here is a great reminder checklist – Updated

Posted on February 11, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Books get updated and reprinted on a regular basis. This post is originally from several years back, but worthy of a re-post/update regularly!

So Important

Maybe you are about to Retire… CONGRATULATIONS ! ……Or maybe you are about to change jobs… exciting new times, just around the corner…

Here are a few handy reminders before/as you leave!

Job/Retirement Change ChecklistFinanicial Planning Doc

Grab that Last paycheck– Once you are gone, the internal system may be harder to access, be sure to get your last paycheck downloaded for your tax and personal recordkeeping.

RSU -Options- Grants -Make sure you are not leaving anything on the table via a vesting sunset or time line that can be associated with your departure.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan-Confirm you have control of your stock and transfer it to an easily controlled account-most ESPP plans are only holding tanks and cumbersome to make transactions.

Deferred Comp– Check on when your plan will be paying you your funds- i.e. tax year, time frame, and if all at once or over several series of payments- confirm the payments method and where they will be sent if mailed.

Pension – Get a copy of your latest balance or estimated amount, time frame of payment, if the projection is inclusive of your departure, if your spouse is included as beneficiary and his/her date of birth is correct and MOST IMPORTANTLY your correct address.

Health Coverage– You do not want to go a day without coverage, make sure you have some type of overlap such as Cobra, New company coverage, Medicare or outside personal coverage.

UPDATED NEW REMINDER – Long Term Health Coverage– If you have been at your employer some time (10+ Years usually), check to see if some type of retirement health coverage options are available. Frequently these have a one time option of opting in and if you leave, you will NEVER get another chance. We have found these to be very good options in certain cases.

401k– In most instances you want to take control of your old 401k by rolling into a self directed IRA. Make sure your final paycheck withholding has hit your 401k before you roll it over or there will be residual amount later.

New 401k– In most cases you want to allocate your new 401k aggressively- be careful NOT to overfund your old and new plan in the same year- most maximums are $18k (+$6k catch up) – If your two employers do not know about each other they may accidentally allow you to overfund the total afore mentioned amount

Severance– Be sure to get your arms around the type, amount, timing and pay and benefits.

Social Security Withholding – Withholdings may likely be over withheld since your two employers did not know about each other – keep good tax records- if they did, you get a refund.

While mentioned several times, once more due to just how important, be sure to keep your address up to date with your former employer !

Have a great ‘More Organized” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

Leave a comment

Posted in Estate Planning, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related

Tagged , , ,

Job Change or Retirement? Here is a great reminder checklist

Posted on July 30, 2018 by | Leave a comment

Books get updated and reprinted on a regular basis. This post is from several years back, but worthy of a re-post!

Maybe you are about to Retire… CONGRATULATIONS ! ……Or maybe you are about to change jobs… exciting new times, just around the corner…

Here are a few handy reminders before/as you leave!

Job/Retirement Change ChecklistFinanicial Planning Doc

Grab that Last paycheck– Once you are gone, the internal system may be harder to access, be sure to get your last paycheck downloaded for your tax and personal recordkeeping.

RSU -Options- Grants -Make sure you are not leaving anything on the table via a vesting sunset or time line that can be associated with your departure.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan-Confirm you have control of your stock and transfer it to an easily controlled account-most ESPP plans are only holding tanks and cumbersome to make transactions.

Deferred Comp– Check on when your plan will be paying you your funds- i.e. tax year, time frame, and if all at once or over several series of payments- confirm the payments method and where they will be sent if mailed.

Pension – Get a copy of your latest balance or estimated amount, time frame of payment, if the projection is inclusive of your departure, if your spouse is included as beneficiary and his/her date of birth is correct and MOST IMPORTANTLY your correct address.

Health Coverage– You do not want to go a day without coverage, make sure you have some type of overlap such as Cobra, New company coverage, Medicare or outside personal coverage.

401k– In most instances you want to take control of your old 401k by rolling into a self directed IRA. Make sure your final paycheck withholding has hit your 401k before you roll it over or there will be residual amount later.

New 401k-In most cases you want to allocate your new 401k aggressively- be careful NOT to overfund your old and new plan in the same year- most maximums are $18k (+$6k catch up) – If your two employers do not know about each other they may accidentally allow you to overfund the total afore mentioned amount

Severance– Be sure to get your arms around the type, amount, timing and pay and benefits.

Social Security Withholding – Withholdings may likely be over withheld since your two employers did not know about each other – keep good tax records- if they did, you get a refund.

While mentioned several times, once more due to just how important, be sure to keep your address up to date with your former employer !

Have a great ‘More Organized” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

Leave a comment

Posted in Estate Planning, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related

Tagged , , ,

Job Change or Retirement? Here is a great reminder checklist

Posted on January 25, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Maybe you are about to Retire… CONGRATULATIONS ! ……Or maybe you are about to change jobs… exciting new times, just around the corner…

Here are a few handy reminders before/as you leave!

Job/Retirement Change ChecklistFinanicial Planning Doc

Grab that Last paycheck– Once you are gone, the internal system may be harder to access, be sure to get your last paycheck downloaded for your tax and personal recordkeeping.

RSU -Options- Grants -Make sure you are not leaving anything on the table via a vesting sunset or time line that can be associated with your departure.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan-Confirm you have control of your stock and transfer it to an easily controlled account-most ESPP plans are only holding tanks and cumbersome to make transactions.

Deferred Comp– Check on when your plan will be paying you your funds- i.e. tax year, time frame, and if all at once or over several series of payments- confirm the payments method and where they will be sent if mailed.

Pension – Get a copy of your latest balance or estimated amount, time frame of payment, if the projection is inclusive of your departure, if your spouse is included as beneficiary and his/her date of birth is correct and MOST IMPORTANTLY your correct address.

Health Coverage– You do not want to go a day without coverage, make sure you have some type of overlap such as Cobra, New company coverage, Medicare or outside personal coverage.

401k– In most instances you want to take control of your old 401k by rolling into a self directed IRA. Make sure your final paycheck withholding has hit your 401k before you roll it over or there will be residual amount later.

New 401k-In most cases you want to allocate your new 401k aggressively- be careful NOT to overfund your old and new plan in the same year- most maximums are $18k (+$6k catch up) – If your two employers do not know about each other they may accidentally allow you to overfund the total afore mentioned amount

Severance– Be sure to get your arms around the type, amount, timing and pay and benefits.

Social Security Withholding – Withholdings may likely be over withheld since your two employers did not know about each other – keep good tax records- if they did, you get a refund.

While mentioned several times, once more due to just how important, be sure to keep your address up to date with your former employer !

Have a great ‘More Organized” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

Leave a comment

Posted in Estate Planning, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related

Tagged , , ,

Old keeps getting older….rightly so in our opinion…Gallup says average retirement age moving up! Server on Notice

Posted on May 22, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Remembering my 101 year old grandmother speaking of the “Old” people that she knows, conjures up how I felt as 40 passed by…some time ago now. Old is definitely getting older with longevity and happiness as factors in our opinion.

Recent Gallup poll Shows Average US Retirement Age is up

According to a recent Gallop poll, see graph below, the average age of retirees or expected retirees is now 61, far from the age 57 retiree in 1991.

Gallop Retirement Age Graph

As you can tell from this Gallup poll, the retirement age is rising and we believe it will continue as self-employment and technology mobility along with improved longevity all add to the equation.

In closing this is a very interesting subject for us and we intend to study it in greater detail along with various aspects of the retirement picture. We may even conduct our own poll in the future. We find often that many are working and intend to work far further into the retirement age zones of old.

Server is on Notice

The new fancy dancy server is on deck and ready to go. We will be shut down from email, vault and saved information the last two days of May as the migration occurs. We will notify you again, but wanted to give everyone a long runway of notice.

Have a great Wednesday!

John Kvale

214-706-4300

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com

8222 Douglas Ave # 590
Dallas, TX 75225  

Leave a comment

Posted in General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning

Tagged , ,

Paper Social Security Statements Absent This Year

Posted on August 25, 2011 by | Comments Off on Paper Social Security Statements Absent This Year

We have commented various times on the importance of taking a few moments to review your annual social security statement, most recently in our in our Q 1 2011 Newsletter which can be found on our Newsletter page. One of the key items to review is your credited quarters and salary, as there are constraints from the Social Security Administration in correcting these reported amounts if incomplete.

As luck would have it, within a few months of our directing you to the importance of reviewing your statements, the following showed up on the Social Security website.

“In light of the current budget situation, we have suspended issuing Social Security Statements” reads the Social Security website.

After speaking to the Social Security office for clarity, here is what I have found out:

  1. Currently there is not an electronic means to check our hours
  2. The abstention of paper statements is not permanent, yet
  3. Reports can be made directly to your local Social Security office for confirmation of benefit (See below)

Since the statements are not being permanently halted at this time, it is important, that we as tax payers, make sure we keep good records of our earnings history, (W-2’s) in case there are reporting problems.

We will update you on the status of next year’s statements, as a second year of absence would create more urgency for the agency to allow an electronic statement, which I requested they implement during my conversation with the administration.

Have a Good Day!

JK

Comments Off on Paper Social Security Statements Absent This Year

Posted in General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning

Tagged ,