Problems we solve
how we can help
Retirement in the Midwest isn’t just about saving a certain amount of money or going after the right pension. To build a truly stable monthly income, you need to plan for all the inevitable twists that life can take. This has less to do with how humble or luxurious you want your golden years to be, and more about how you want to define your priorities. For instance, if your newborn grandchild comes to you in 18 years and asks for financial help with their college education, will you want to be in a position to say yes?
Finding a quality boutique retirement firm can have a lot to do with whether you’re prepared to comfortably navigate the bumps along the road. Oscar Alvarez and Cory Van Camp at AMChoice Financial are advisors who will show you how you can put together as many sources of income as possible, so you can essentially replace your paycheck with something every bit as reliable.
Secure Monthly Income
This term essentially refers to money that you can count on coming in at regular time intervals. It could be in the form of a Social Security check, a stock dividend, an IRA withdrawal, or even a salary from a part–time job. No matter what you’re planning to do when you retire —be it traveling all over the world or catching your own dinner off your private dock —the basic strategy remains the same.
When you visit a small business as opposed to a big–name conglomerate, you get the personal care and attention that ensures you aren’t missing out. The right advisor will take you through the pros and cons of different opportunities, so you can be certain you understand how your finances are performing and whether they need to be adjusted. The best part is, you really only have to do a few things to make it happen.
1. Work out how much you can save every month.
2. Let a financial advisor introduce the right amount of risk into your portfolio.
3. Relax and enjoy the retirement you’ve always dreamt of.
Maximizing Social Security
When people think about Social Security, their first thought might be that the program is largely ineffective at meeting people’s basic needs during their retirement. They may know of a relative or neighbor who thought they could rely on the benefits, only to find that the monthly check did little to help their financial situation.
This may lead them to focus on other matters, which can lead to missed opportunities. Oscar Alvarez is a financial advisor at AMChoice Financial, and he wants to see everyone get the most of a system that can help them cover many of their daily expenses.
How to Maximize Social Security in the Midwest
Since its inception in the 1930s, this national safety net has undergone countless changes and revamps. It’s gone from a relatively stable source of income to one that’s dismissed by many people today. Alvarez believes that while maximizing Social Security may not be as straightforward as it once was, it is possible when you understand more about its regulations and restrictions.
Much of the battle comes down to filing all of your paperwork correctly and ensuring that all of the details are included. What you receive every month depends on your profession and how much you spend paying into the system. If you make an error on one of the sections, which is relatively easy to do, it can have a major impact on the amount. Even a small difference can add up to tens of thousands, depending on how long you collect.
Talking to a financial advisor isn’t just a way to gain additional secured revenue for your retirement, which is largely considered the smartest strategy when it comes to living a comfortable lifestyle, it’s also a way to avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes. If you need to correct your information with the government, the process of doing so may be more than you want to deal with. Instead, talk to an expert who can save you the hassle, so you know you’re getting every penny you can.
Efficient Tax Planning
When you’re planning your taxes, the strategies you use are specific to your lifestyle, profession, and personal income. If you have an accountant, they likely have a strong idea of what you do and what you’re looking for from your money. However, they’re also approaching the subject from a vastly different viewpoint than a financial advisor. At AMChoice Financial, Oscar Alvarez shows his clients what efficient tax planning really looks like, and how they can take advantage of every available opportunity.
Taxes in the Midwest
Most people know the basics of taxes: incentives for charitable donations, federal tax laws, standard deductions, etc. However, there are so many more codes and regulations that affect how much you pay every year, and the government is often counting on you not to know what they are. It’s not just national restrictions that matter either, you need to think about how state and local codes are affecting your bottom line. With so many laws and loopholes, it’s no wonder many people end up paying more than they should.
If you want to learn more about where you can tighten up your taxes, whether you pay every year or every quarter, speaking with the right professional can make all the difference. You may be able to lower yourself into a different bracket, saving yourself thousands of dollars per year. At the very least, you may have the option to defer your taxes so you can put the money towards investments that will net you far more than the alternative option.
Retirement is sometimes thought about in terms of savings, which is often all about conserving wherever possible. Alvarez says that this is a solid game plan for many people, but it ignores the potential of other strategies. From taxes to wealth management, all of your finances are tied together to the long-term decisions you make. It’s his job to introduce the options, so clients can weigh the pros and cons and decide from there.
Retirement Income Planning
Retirement planning can be a puzzle to people, particularly when they’re often given blanket advice about how they should be preparing. Aiming for $1 million or at least 80% of your pre–retirement income may be memorable figures to mention during casual conversation, but it’s far from a road map when it comes to how to plan your retirement income. Whether you’re comfortable with your financial trajectory or you wish you had a little more banked away, a financial advisor can tell you more about how to plan your income, so you have enough by the time you’re ready to put your professional life in the rearview mirror.
How Much to Retire in the Midwest?
At AMChoice Financial, it’s worth noting that plenty of people don’t take a traditional path when they retire. Some will want to keep working, just not at their so–called “regular” job. They might take a passion position working at a vineyard or at a music store, and enjoy exploring new sides of themselves as they get older. Others will want to travel the world, even if they have to do so on a budget. Oscar Alvarez believes that the best way to plan for retirement is to have as many sources of income as possible, so you don’t have to rely solely on what you’ve saved over the years.
Whether it’s Social Security, rental income, or IRA withdrawals, the more secure income you have, the less you’ll have to worry about meeting your expenses and still having enough left over to enjoy yourself. “How much do I need to retire?” might be a question that gets a lot of attention these days, but the reason why it’s asked so often is because that number really depends on who you are and what you want. By the time you reach your retirement age, you need to have a solid idea of how much money you’ll get every month and what exactly it will be allocated for. Talking to a financial advisor can make it easier to determine those details sooner than later.
Long-Term Care
It’s no secret in the Midwest that medical expenses can derail a family or individual’s long–term savings plan. Even one unexpected accident or illness can quickly balloon in costs, whether that’s time missed from work, direct healthcare expenses, or indirect costs like live–in aides. If you’re concerned about this happening to you at some point before or during your retirement, talking to a financial advisor about your options can give you more than peace of mind.
How Long-Term Care Insurance (LTC) Works
Long–Term Care Insurance isa policy that’s meant to cover the costs of a potential medical setback that a regular healthcare insurance policy wouldn’t. So, if you need assistance with personal hygiene, running errands, cleaning, etc., you can claim these expenses so you don’t have to pay out of pocket. The details of the policy will vary based on the provider, but the general statistic is that people with this policy pay about six times less than those without (when in similar situations).
At AMChoice Financial, Oscar Alvarez can tell you more about whether this asset will fit in with the rest of your portfolio and whether it can protect your holdings during a precarious time. Because the cost of things like live–in care or nursing homes can run so high, this policy is one of the more expensive types of insurance you can buy. It’s also been largely on the decline, with fewer companies offering it these days. Talking to a professional can give you a better idea of whether the investment will be worth it, and how the policy will function if you never end up needing it.
Preparing for the potential of a chronic illness is far from an exciting task, but with the right mindset, it can provide a lot of comfort and relief to anyone who wants to safeguard their legacy for future generations. It can also make it possible to recover from an emergency, so you can get back to your retirement.
Tax-Free Retirement
Taxes in the Midwest are sometimes seen as just another item on our to–do list, particularly if you’re used to paying about the same amount every month. To even hear the phrase tax–free retirement may sound like little more than buzzwords to you. However, it may be time to rethink how you work with Uncle Sam and how your decisions affect the rest of your assets.
Not everyone will be able to zero out their bottom line when April rolls around, but there’s at least the possibility of drastically cutting back on how much you owe. At AMChoice Financial, Oscar Alvarez can take you through the basics of a tax–free retirement and how the principles apply to your portfolio.
The Beauty of Tax Codes
Most people will look at a pile of tax codes and see little more than a headache. However, there’s a lot of really useful information between the lines if you know how to read it correctly. From local to state to national tax laws, there may be countless opportunities that will ultimately lead to your enjoying a better retirement. A financial advisor not only understands the ins and outs of the restrictions, but he also sees where and how they might best be used to protect your assets.
Taxes during retirement are based on a wide variety of factors, including the specifics of your accounts (traditional vs. Roth IRA, etc.), as well as how much you receive from other sources of income, including rental properties, stock dividends, etc. Before you retire, you should consider how each asset affects your taxes and whether it’s worth holding onto as you get closer to your last day at your official job.
Reducing how much you owe during tax season can help you deal with anything from standard inflation to unexpected emergencies. This has nothing to do with ignoring your societal contribution, but rather avoiding giving the government a tip when none is due. A financial advisor can give you tips on how to make it happen.
Wealth Management
Wealth Management principles are usually reserved for the wealthiest members of society, though it’s worth noting that everyone has their own version of managing their assets. The right financial advisor in the Midwest can tell you more about how your investments are performing and how they can be optimized to get more from every dollar. At AMChoice Financial, you’ll find that Oscar Alvarez can give your portfolio more than a cursory once-over.
Settling on Your Asset Wealth Management Strategies
The best strategies are the ones that are comprehensive, as they are intuitive for the asset holder. If you’re tired of feeling like your holdings are all over the place —or even if you’ve forgotten that a few exist —you can lean on the expertise of a professional who has the time to comb through each one so they can be organized into a more cohesive structure.
Taxes, real estate, stocks, IRA accounts: Wealth can amass faster than many people realize. Asset and wealth management companies are designed to give you solutions that help coordinate everything, rather than just focusing on certain parts of your portfolio. You might decide to set up a donor-advised fund in order to keep track of where you’re giving and who you’re giving it to. This ensures that you’re only giving to causes and charities that you find worthwhile, which can ultimately give you a tax break when the time comes to file. Or you might want to look to private equity or a hedge fund as a way to funnel your assets to more lucrative opportunities.
Regardless of the wealth investment principles you choose to implement, the overarching idea is that you’re constantly adjusting what you do based on the relative value of each account. It’s a somewhat subtle distinction from more general financial rules, but it can end up paying off in a big way. Meeting with an advisor is the first step to learning more about what’s possible, how to make it happen, and what they can do to keep track of it all.