• Gather documents
• Costs you may face
• Ways to cover costs
• Review caregiver finances

A financial planner like me can help you analyze the issues and decide how best to provide care.   I can especially help you analyze the tax implications.  Deductible medical expenses, the caregiver tax credit, and tax deductions associated with in-home care are areas I can assist.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton and a tax preparer at H&R Block. 770 361-3139 website

Unfortunately, there’s no law on the books right now that require your employer to periodically disclose the fees your 401(k) charges you for

• transaction fees and sales charges
• management fees, “recordkeeping”, report requests, toll-free inquiry charges
• individual service fees
• marketing fees (”12B-1″ fees)

When you ask your employer about these fees, it’s likely your employer doesn’t even know all the answers.  Sometimes the employer picked a plan administrator without full knowledge of these fees.  It takes some digging through your plan’s Summary Plan Description, the plan’s Annual Report, and your account statement.   Here’s what’s infuriating: there’s no law that says you have to be provided these documents until after you enroll in the plan.

Your financial planner should help you dig to the bottom to uncover these fees so you can find out how good your 401(k) really is.    Remember, a 1% fee can cost a 401(k) — after 35 years of siphoning off part of your earnings — 28% of your account balance.

More information from the US Dept of Labor: LINK

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton. 770 361-3139 website

Disposable Income = Personal Income - Personal Current Taxes

Personal Savings = Disposable Personal Income - Personal Outlays

Personal Savings Rate = (Personal Savings / Disposable Income) * 100

Note: Disposable Income includes things such as your rent, house payments, utilities, etc.   (Don’t confuse disposable income with discretionary income.)

Are people saving enough?

Here are some metrics.  In 1959, the average personal savings rate in the United States was 8.3%.   By 1975, it had risen to 14.6%.   It fell to 12.2% in 1981, attributable to the recession.   But it fell even more during the 1990’s, because of unbridled consumer confidence.  By year 2000, it was only 3.5%, and it’s 4% now in year 2010.

Are you saving enough?   That depends on when you want to retire, and what your objectives are.   See a fee only financial planner if you want an unbiased assessment.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton. 770 361-3139 website

What’s the price paid for this unrealistic expectation of working forever?  Low savings rates.   A poorly funded retirement and emotional stress.

If your financial advisor allows you to plan to work forever, he/she’s not doing you any favors.  Find some discipline.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton. 770 361-3139 website

The economic trauma of 2008 certainly led most Americans to recalculate their retirement age, which might be a good thing considering how many had  low savings rates and over-optimistic predictions for investment returns.

One of my primary jobs as a financial planner is to provide some realism to your retirement plan and some discipline to your savings rate.

Read the article if you want to know what retirement spending categories Americans underestimate.  Or call me if you want an unbiased checkup.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton. 770 361-3139 website

[edit:  this post was originally written march 1, 2010.  On May 11, Georgia did raise tuition for public universities by up to 15%.   Private schools have not yet increased tuition.]

If you’re sure you’ll send your son or daughter to a Georgia school, now would be a good time to pre-pay tuition.   Unfortunately, you can’t do that for Georgia public universities.   I guess you have to hope the Hope Scholarship will remain in effect and your child will keep a 3.0 GPA in college to remain eligible.  Call me if you want to discuss tradeoffs of using a 529 savings plan versus other college savings methods, for Georgia public schools.

So what about Georgia private schools?   There is a prepaid tuition plan available for many of them.   Agnes Scott, Emory, Berry, Clark Atlanta, Mercer,  Spelman, and others.   Even though these schools aren’t under the budget pressures Georgia public colleges face, pre-paying makes sense to avoid any future increases — as long as you’re sure your child will be attending.

For out of state, you can pre-pay at schools such as Furman, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Samford, Duke, Rollins,  and many others.   The university itself makes the tuition guarantee.   Call me if you want more details.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton and a tax preparer at H&R Block. 770 361-3139 website

The caveat?  You may not be familiar with the brand  name of your new insurer.   It will be an A+ rated company (A.M. Best’s ratings), but these companies don’t advertise on TV.

If you look at the financial strength of these A+ insurers, it’s stronger than the companies you see on TV.  My conclusion?  That’s how they save you money.  (Plus they don’t have commission salespeople in every neighborhood.)

Note: I am not licensed to sell insurance.  I am not an insurance salesman.  I get no commissions.  I help my clients find insurance.  This is one service I provide as a part of financial advice for a fee.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton and a tax preparer at H&R Block. 770 361-3139 website

True, time constraints play a big part of it.   The farther out your time-frame, the more you need to be concerned about inflation and longevity risk.

And true, we need to match your emotional makeup and be risk averse if you are.

But there’s another dimension to your risk profile.  It’s your actual savings behavior.   If you habitually maintain a good 6-9 months “emergency funds” in case of job loss, then you can afford to be riskier with your investments.   But if you’re the type who doesn’t have a good cushion, then we need to be more cautious with at least part of your portfolio.

That’s why a good financial planner wants a clear picture of your expenses and your savings rate.  That’s why I like to put you on Quicken.com or Mint.com so we can get a good snapshot of your lifestyle, where the data is collected automatically by the software (it queries your credit card and bank accounts.)

Your risk profile is a composite drawing.  A good planner doesn’t just go by age and your own self-assessment.  The real picture is more complex.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton and a tax preparer at H&R Block. 770 361-3139 website

A survey by TD Ameritrade of 1,000 retail investor clients found that 44% of those with a retirement savings account that could be converted to a Roth IRA said they are still undecided on whether they would convert.

From my perspective, the decision should be based on whether your taxes will be higher in retirement or higher now.    The first hurdle is that it takes a fairly knowledgeable forecast to predict your future taxable income so you can predict your tax bracket.   (What other sources of income will you have in retirement?)  Then you need to guess what the tax rate will be at that bracket.

I have software that makes the guesswork more manageable.  Give me a call if you’d like help working through this decision.  We’ll set a fee before the work is started, and I won’t pressure you to move your assets to my management.

Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton and a tax preparer at H&R Block. 770 361-3139 website

Example.  Susan already has a decent policy but her employer can’t help her get better coverage for her husband.  When applying for a policy for her husband, they should make it a “couples” policy with for a very small benefit (like $50/day for 2 years) for Susan.  The “couples discount” will be far greater than the cost of Susan’s additional coverage.

With Georgia’s implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act, it’s tougher to transfer assets as a part of Medicaid planning, so LTCI has grown in importance as part of your financial plan.  Call me and I’ll help you shop for policies and compare apples to apples from the different insurers.

Mike Dayoub is a tax preparer and financial planner in North Fulton, Georgia.  770 361-3139 website