Provided by Meghan Murray, CRPC® When you plan to retire at a certain age, you can follow a strategy that incorporates your investment moves, your health insurance and other factors. But what happens if you’re forced to retire earlier than you anticipated? Unfortunately, this situation is not that uncommon. About 40% of Americans say...
Business Report: Know the Key Benefits of a Roth IRA
By John Gable
As you save for retirement, you’ll want to take full advantage of the investment vehicles available to you — and one of the best is a Roth IRA. But what sets it apart from other accounts?
Three key factors distinguish the Roth IRA:
• Tax-free earnings – When you invest in a Roth IRA, your earnings can grow tax free, provided you don’t begin taking withdrawals until you’re 59½ and you’ve had your account at least five years. If you don’t meet these criteria, withdrawals of earnings will be subject to taxes and a possible 10 percent penalty.
• No penalties on withdrawals of contributions – You fund a Roth IRA with after-tax dollars, which means you can withdraw your contributions — not the earnings — at any time for any reason, without facing taxes or penalties. So, you could use some of your Roth IRA money for non-retirement purposes, such as helping pay for a child’s college education.
• No required withdrawals at age 73 – With a traditional IRA or a 401(k), you must start taking withdrawals — called required minimum distributions, or RMDs — once you reach 73. But this rule doesn’t apply to a Roth IRA — you can keep it intact as long as you like. You may need to tap into it for some of your retirement income, but if you don’t use it all, the remainder could benefit your beneficiaries.
A Roth IRA does share one similarity to a traditional IRA: It can be funded with virtually any type of investment, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, certificates of deposit (CDs) and so on.
Business Report: Long-term Care and Care Giver Considerations
Brian M. Johnson, MBA, CLTC
It’s no secret that Long-Term Care services such as In-Home Care, Assisted Living, Memory Care and Skilled Nursing can be financially devastating. Depending on the need, these costs can easily surpass $10,000-$15,000 per month. The high cost means that not everyone will be able to get professional care. In those cases, who will provide care and what does that mean for those care providers? Today’s care environment is both a challenge for giving and receiving care. Whether by necessity or preference – care is often provided by loved ones (informal, unlicensed) at home.
According to “Long-Term Care in America: Americans want to age at home” and a 2020 study by AARP, 88 percent of Americans would prefer to receive ongoing living assistance as they stay at home, 70 percent of people who provide care do so out of necessity, and 21 percent of Americans are currently caregivers. As the Baby Boom generation ages, these numbers are only going to increase.
According to “Caregiving in the U.S., AARP, 2020,” 36 percent of caregivers report high emotional stress and more than half of caregivers report financial strain from caregiving. This includes an end or pause to saving for their own future, taking on more debt, using personal savings and paying bills late or sometimes not paying them at all. In a 2018 report by the Harvard Business School, it’s estimated that if a caregiver is of working age, there is a 32 percent chance he or she will have to leave the workforce all together due to their caregiving responsibilities. If a caregiver remains employed, his or her work often suffers as they are typically tired, stressed and not able to fully concentrate on their job.
So what are our solutions? There’s no “silver bullet” here, but there are tools that can help Americans finance their potential need for care so they’re not a burden to those they love.
Business Report: NBT Analyst Highlights Economic Concerns
By Paul Post
The U.S. should have no trouble weathering a mild recession if one occurs, but inflation, a national labor shortage, and skyrocketing debt coupled with high interest rates are major causes for concern.
That’s what a leading financial analyst told more than 200 people gathered for a recent Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce event at the Queensbury Hotel.
Ken Entenmann is senior vice president, chief investment officer and chief economist for Norwich, N.Y.-based NBT Wealth Management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in applied economics and business management from Cornell University, an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester’s William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, and oversees more than $9 billion in assets under management and administration in trust, custody, retirement, institutional and individual accounts.
His presentation, supported by detailed graphics, was entitled, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Waiting for the Imminent Recession That Has Yet to Happen.”
“Whether we have a recession or not, I don’t think is the relevant question,” Entenmann said. “Things are slowing, but because consumer and corporate balance sheets are relatively strong, I think we’ll weather a recession. I’m concerned because I think it’s fair to say Washington right now is dysfunctional, and the likelihood that they’re going to tackle some of the bigger problems like Medicaid and Social Security is small. Therefore, I think those problems are going to linger.”
Since 2007, national debt has more than tripled from $9 trillion to $33 trillion.
“Then the chickens came home to roost,” Entenman said.
While debt was growing exponentially interest rates remained low, but have since gone up 550 basis points, meaning this year’s interest payments on debt will total about $800 billion and likely reach nearly $1 trillion in the next few years, or 8 percent of the federal budget.
Business Report: 8 Key Questions To Steer Toward Success
Budgets. Strategic Planning. Annual Planning. ‘Tis the season … but who has time? For many business owners it can be hard to work ON your business, rather than feeling the pull to solve IN the business issues. In this article we’ll share a simplified approach to strategic planning.
Can you gather your leadership team and answer these 8 Questions?
1. What are your Core Values?
I don’t mean your aspirations or the words on a plaque. Rather, what are the behaviors that define your best team members? Who do you LOVE working with – including vendors and clients? What do they have in common? Your core values define the right people for your company. They act as a magnet – both attracting and repelling!
2. What is your Core Focus?
This is your reason for being; it’s what you’re best at doing! Others call it a mission. It comes from your core and it should give you a filter to help you focus your energy. In Good to Great, Jim Collins says. “You are more likely to die of indigestion of too many opportunities than you are of starvation of not enough.”
3. What is your Core Target?
Pick a timeframe – 10 years? 15 years? Then identify what you REALLY want to accomplish. Be brave. You are inviting people to be part of……what?
4. What’s your Marketing Strategy?
Who is your ideal customer and what do they need to hear from you in order to part with their hard-earned money? You don’t need to become a household name. You do need to focus your Marketing and Sales efforts.
Business Report: Strategic Growth Through Company Culture Alignment
Michael Cruz
Your business plans are built on logical thought. We decide where we want to take our business. Goals, plans and strategy help you focus on the growth in your business. Inevitably, some of the plans will need adjusting because there will be obstacles along the way. Many of those obstacles will come from your own people NOT following through on achieving your plans. Sometimes it is because they did not believe in the goals. Perhaps your culture got in the way.
Wiki defines culture as “the values and beliefs; language and communication; and practices shared by a group of people.” You have a company culture whether (or not) you acknowledge it. Most often the culture in your company is a set of unwritten rules.
We live within many cultures in our world. Since culture is about behaviors that are acceptable, we try to adapt based on the group setting. There is a culture in your immediate family, at work, at church or in other social groups. Adaptation to the expected culture is what normal people do.
New employees spend their early time in your employ observing “acceptable” behaviors. They absorb how people interact and watch what values are held high. And which behaviors are frowned upon. They are helped along with comments from others such as, “We don’t do that here.” And they adjust their behavior to fit inn better.
It is therefore key to understanding the culture that has evolved inn your organization. There are many ways to determine company culture. The most focused one is to ask you employees. There is a local company that helps you measure your culture through a survey. It is called CultureTalk. It gets your team to think about what is important and what gets measured by the company. It is not very expensive but can be invaluable. (www.CultureTalk.com) It will help you figure out what your culture is. There are also individual culture profiles that can show us what our natural behaviors might be. That also helps us see potential stressors in our attempt to adapt to the company expectations.
Business Report: Fitness Nutrition, GI Health Can Decrease Stress
By Mary Beth McCue
Healthy life-style and trauma work are simply “life work.” Where have we been, where do we want to be, what are the options to getting there?
Preferably all for the better of humanity, and the best path for ourselves. We all interconnected with these factors in the human quest for a peaceful purposeful and joyful existence. It can and should be achieved from within.
When we experience trauma, a series of neurological events occur in the body leading to negative mental and physical impact. Trauma is our unique response to experiencing a stressful event. Depending on how we process it, or not, will determine health, and everything in our lives.
The amygdala area of the brain can (generationally) hold events, including the intensity and impulse of emotion that comes along with these memories. Many neurological series of reactions connect to the GI, but potentially all areas in the body. Discovering the areas of stress and trauma, and how they feel in the body are significant to lifestyle changes and healing.
A colleague and teacher of mine psychiatrist James Gordon, MD, founder of The Center for Mind Body Medicine (cmbm.org), shares great points in his many teachings and trainings on the role of nutrition and healing trauma. The mental and conventional health fields have generally been slow to recognize the role nutrition can play in every persons life.
This all has been changing over the last couple of decades as more and more research and clinical practice’s like functional nutrition become widely accepted and demanded from the consumer. The Smiles trial and the Helfimed study are two of many examples of how diet plays a significant role in treating depression, which is based in unresolved trauma.
Business Report: Employers Scramble To Meet Health Care Costs
by Renee Walrath
Open enrollment is around the corner and employers are scrambling to accommodate the rising cost of health insurance.
The annual premium for individual coverage has risen more than $225 per year on average, and family coverage has risen more than $700 per year on average from 2010 to 2022. Statistically speaking, prices for healthcare grow much faster than inflation and that combined with increasing employee demands has companies, both small and large, forced to make difficult decisions.
The specific reason for increasing healthcare costs can be attributed to a variety of factors including the following:
• Continuing research and new, innovative technology leading to more expensive procedures and products.
• Labor shortages, physician consolidation, and contract renewals are amplifying the already aggravated industry.
• Chronic healthcare conditions, catastrophic health claims and rising prescription drug prices add to the sizeable hike for 2024.
This is the second year in a row that employers have projected a 7 percent-plus hike and confronting affordability and disrupting costs are among the top obstacles for employers in 2024.
Organizations must reshape their strategies and business models to allay the drastically different costs. Nearly two-thirds of large employers (500-plus employees) are planning to make enhancements to their health offerings in 2024 to support employee needs.
Business Report: Life Insurance Awareness Month
By John Gable
It’s probably not on your calendar, but September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. And that means it’s a good time to become more aware of the benefits of having life insurance—and the dangers of not having it.
Unfortunately, confusion about some of the basic elements of owning life insurance may be keeping people from getting the protection they need. More than half of uninsured Americans say they have put off purchasing coverage because they don’t know what to buy or how much they need, according to Life Happens and LIMRA, two nonprofit organizations that provide research and education about life insurance.
Yet, while this confusion may be understandable, a delay in acquiring appropriate insurance can be costly in more ways than one. From a strict dollars-and-cents perspective, it’s generally much more affordable to buy life insurance when you’re younger. But there are potentially much greater costs involved in not having insurance when it’s needed — and these costs are personal.
To be specific, what is it worth:
• To know your family could stay in your home if something happened to you?
• To know your children could continue their education plans?
• To know your debts could be paid without burdening your family?
Business Report: Care For The Long Term
Brian M. Johnson, MBA, CLTC
When it comes to where and how you live, and what you do with your money, you want the freedom of choice and confidence that you’re making the right decisions.
The same is true with your long-term care strategy, helping you set the stage for the future and the legacy you have planned.
Long-term care is quite simply assistance with simple everyday tasks, even as simple as eating or getting dressed. The need for care could arise from an accident, illness, cognitive impairment, or the aging process. You may never need it.
But, the best time to start thinking about it is before the need arises and while you’re still able to take control. Many Americans work hard, save diligently for retirement, yet fail to address the single biggest risk to their portfolio and families: extended healthcare.
When it comes to long-term care, do not be swayed by common misconceptions such as:
• “It won’t happen to me.”
People unrealistically downplay their personal risk. Seventy-nine percent of people put off discussions about long-term care, but 98 percent of financial professionals say they have clients who have needed it. In fact, being healthy presents even a higher risk of needing long-term care services than someone who is managing chronic a condition.
• “Medicare or Medicaid will cover me.”
If qualified, Medicare will likely be insufficient for long-term care needs and Medicaid does not account for your choices or preferences, and one must financially qualify for benefits.
• “That’s what my savings are for.”