Tax, Retirement & Wealth Advisors in Salem OR | Jamison Hanson

As Financial Advisors in Salem, OR, we specialize in Wealth Management and Retirement Planning. Schedule a free review today!

Call: (503) 391-1040

The Cost of Putting Off Financial Planning

The Cost of Putting Off Financial Planning

By Steven Jamison, CFP®, CPA

The famous saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” is especially true when it comes to your finances. Most people don’t find the topic of financial planning the most exciting, or even know where to begin organizing their finances. We get it. 

But just because it’s boring doesn’t mean it should be avoided. Delaying this task can be costly in many ways—in time, energy, and money. If you’ve been putting off your financial plan, you could be losing money. Consider these 5 reasons why you should stop procrastinating and start planning today.

1. You’re Probably Not Saving As Much As You Should

The first reason you shouldn’t put off financial planning is that you’re probably not saving as much as you should. That’s not to say that the savings you do have shouldn’t be celebrated. But no matter the amount you have, you need to be sure it will be enough. 

If you plan to retire in your mid-60s, your retirement savings may need to carry you through 30-plus years. Not to mention rising inflation that will decrease the value of your savings over time and the additional expenses you will likely encounter along the way. A study by the Center for Retirement Research estimated that the median retirement savings of Americans age 55-64 is $120,000, (1) yet the average retirement cost is nearly $46,000 per year! (2) At that rate, a savings of $120,000 will only last 3-4 years.

The best way to avoid running out of money in retirement is to work with a financial professional to understand what your savings can handle. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot use a multiple of your annual income to determine how much to save. This is why it’s so crucial to plan ahead. The sooner you understand your need, the more options you will have and the easier your goals will be to accomplish.

2. Healthcare Costs Are on the Rise

If you’ve ever held a hefty medical bill in your hand, you aren’t alone. Healthcare costs in America are among the highest in the world. (3) And as you age, you will likely require more healthcare services. According to the Fidelity Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, the average couple at age 65 will need about $300,000 saved to cover healthcare costs in retirement. (4) Most people don’t even have that much in their retirement accounts to live on, let alone cover medical costs.

Given the events of the past two years and continuing inflation, it’s more important than ever to start preparing for the ever-increasing cost of care. The longer you wait, the less options you’ll have. Working with an experienced professional can help you evaluate your options and build a long-term plan for healthcare. 

3. Tax Strategies Take Multiple Years to Implement

Another reason not to put off financial planning is that if you don’t start early, you’ll miss out on several tax strategies that take years to implement, including:

Tax-Advantaged Retirement Savings

If you’re in a high tax bracket, being able to save for retirement with pre-tax dollars is a great advantage because pre-tax contributions reduce your taxable income and ultimately reduce the amount of taxes you owe. This strategy could save you thousands of dollars in taxes each year. The earlier you start, the more you’ll save over the course of your career. 

Roth Conversions

Roth conversions help to increase your retirement savings and decrease your long-term tax liability by transferring funds from a pre-tax retirement vehicle (traditional IRA) to an after-tax account (Roth IRA). This allows your money to grow tax-free for as long as you’d like, and required minimum distributions (RMDs) are avoided as well. 

Withdrawal Strategies

When it comes to withdrawing from your retirement accounts, how you take your distributions can make all the difference. Each retirement asset (employer-sponsored accounts, Social Security, traditional IRAs, etc.) has different tax characteristics. Creating a withdrawal strategy can help lower your tax burden by structuring withdrawals from each income source in a tax-efficient way. 

To properly implement these strategies and more, a long-term understanding of your full financial picture is required. Putting off financial planning can leave you stuck with a huge tax bill that could have been avoided.

4. Take Advantage of Compound Interest

Just as saving early allows you to take advantage of massive tax savings over time, there is a compound effect that occurs with the money that is invested as well. The money contributed to your retirement account each year will grow exponentially over time, but the key part of that equation is time. 

A single penny that doubles every day for a month may not seem like much on the surface, especially when compared to $1 million up front. But by the time the 30th day rolls around, you will have over $5 million in pennies. This same concept can be applied to your retirement account, but because retirement investments are at the mercy of the highs and lows of the stock market, it will take more than 30 days to see that kind of growth. 

If you wait to invest, you are missing out on growth year after year, and the resulting loss of earnings can be substantial. Not to mention the potential for loss when you try to invest yourself without the proper advice and guidance of a professional. We’ve found that many clients are often invested too conservatively and miss out on the opportunity for significant growth in even just a slightly riskier portfolio. 

5. Financial Planning Can Alleviate Stress

Do you feel 100% confident about the myriad of financial choices you make day in and day out? Have you encountered more complexity as your assets have grown? Partnering with a financial professional can help alleviate the stress and anxiety that comes from trying to figure out your finances. 

Think about all the time you spend worrying over finances and whether you are saving enough money. Are those thoughts preventing you from making great memories and actually living your life? For many of our clients, the answer is yes. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Financial planning can help alleviate the stress that comes from not knowing where you stand or how to achieve your goals. It can provide clarity by defining a path from point A to point B and allowing you to get the most out of your life along the way.

Get Started Today

As you can see, there are many reasons to start the financial planning process sooner rather than later. If you have long-term financial goals (like buying a house, planning a wedding, or saving for retirement), working with a professional is one of the best things you can do to set yourself up for success. Don’t leave your most important goals and priorities to chance. 

We at Jamison Hanson take care of you by taking complete care of your money. We will build a custom plan to put your money to work for you, so that you can feel confident in your financial future and get back to the life you love. Our simple solution to wealth management: Save time. Build wealth. Live life. Schedule a 15-minute introductory call online or reach out to me at (503) 391-1040 or steven.jamison@jhadvisors.com. 

About Steven

Steven Jamison is President at Jamison Hanson, a full-service, fee-only financial planning and accounting firm. As a Certified Public Accountant and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional with more than 10 years of experience, Steven uses his specialized knowledge of tax, financial, and management matters to enhance the lives of personal representatives and trustees and professional practice owners (especially dentists) in Oregon and along the West Coast. With a passion for simplifying finances, optimizing opportunities, and saving money, Steven provides customized wealth advisory and accounting services, including investments, income and estate tax planning and compliance, and retirement planning, so that his clients can stress less and feel more confident about reaching their goals. 

Steven prioritizes his clients, building long-lasting relationships that make a significant impact on their financial lives. He graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and is a member of the Willamette Valley Estate Planning Council and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Outside of work, Steven enjoys spending time with his wife, Rachel, and their five children. You can often find him adventuring in the outdoors—biking, hiking, traveling, and swimming. In addition to the Willamette Valley, they enjoy the splendor of the high desert of central Oregon and lush beauty of the Hawaiian Islands. To learn more about Steven, connect with him on LinkedIn.

_____________

(1) https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-retirement-savings-are-you-normal

(2) https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-average-spending-amount-in-retirement-is-surprisingly-high/

(3) https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/072116/us-healthcare-costs-compared-other-countries.asp

(4) https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/personal-finance/plan-for-rising-health-care-costs

The Tradesperson

Carl didn’t have to go to college to carve out a solid career. He’s skilled at what he does, puts in hard work every day, and has the callouses to show for it. That competence and reliability have paid off in making him an asset to his employers, so the income he brought in over the years coupled with a commitment to living beneath his means has allowed him to create a nice nest egg. “I’m starting to feel the years,” he told me. “That’s the tradeoff for doing work you enjoy, I guess. I’m looking forward to another ten years on the job, but my body might have other ideas.” Carl confessed that his back was starting to feel stiff some days. He wasn’t in pain or injured, but it was taking him a little longer to loosen up in the morning, and he was ready to hit the couch when he got home at night. He wanted to make sure he was protected. “I’d rather have a stiff back from wiring a building than sitting at a desk all day,” he joked as I shifted in my desk chair and laughed. “But I want to make sure we’ll be okay in case I have to hang up my gear earlier than planned.” With a son in college to become an engineer and a teenage daughter who plans to follow in her father’s footsteps by learning a trade, he and his wife, an RN, still have tuition and child rearing expenses to cover. But they’ll be empty nesters soon, and he wonders if downsizing their lifestyle could leave them with more options in the long run. Other than setting money aside regularly, he’s not familiar with investing or tax strategies. So he doesn’t know where to start. “We’re not extravagant people, but we chose a good school district and mortgage to go with it. When the kids are gone, Sheri and I are thinking it might be easier on the budget and more enjoyable to move out of the suburbs into a smaller house with some land.” “That sounds like you’d be living the dream, Carl,” I said. I knew we could make some adjustments to give him the freedom to retire earlier if need be. “Your toolbox is different from mine, let’s make sure you have the tools you need in place to be comfortable in retirement.”

Primary Concerns

How We Helped

The Widow

That’s why there’s no time like the present to meet with an attorney and get your documents updated to make sure they are in good order. The eventual (if not immediate) need for a power of attorney, and health care proxy to be filed is of the utmost importance. Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in America. And although we know this to be true, it seems that dementia is right up there with the clients we help. The onset is often young (late 50’s, early 60’s), and to date, there is no cure, no surgery to be done. “We’re coming to see you,” Laura said. “Just so you know, he is having some memory issues and is having some testing done. Please don’t mention the ‘D’ word in front of him. It’s early in the process for him, and he knows what it means and what the outcomes are.” We had a conversation, the three of us. His comprehension was good, but there were differences. I checked my notes as to the last time their wills were updated… it had been a while. On a subsequent visit, Laura let me know she was having difficulty grasping the enormity of the potential expense to care for him. By choice, long-term care insurance had not been part of their plan. She was now projecting the harsh realities around the cost of care, not to mention the taxes on their IRAs to access those funds. “He has life insurance,'' she said, “but it expires in 5 years. I can’t stop feeling awful, but I’m counting on that being there for me, assuming I have to use our retirement assets to pay for care.” “It’s not selfish; it’s survival,” I said. “Remember, your goal is to provide him great care while he’s alive. His goal was for the two of you to enjoy your lives together. He would be upset if, after 40 years of professional work, you spent all of it on him.” By the end of our conversation, she understood that the death benefit is for the survivor, not the person whom the policy is on. As to the timing of it, my experience is that spouses who survive their loved ones have already mourned the very essence of their being, well before their bodies have given up. The willingness to do what is right for him now will somehow be balanced out later. She still maintains the family home, stays close to her children and lifelong friends, and travels when she can. Because of our work together, Laura is more at ease and confident in her financial future.

Primary Concerns

How We Helped

The Single Mom

Life doesn’t always go as planned, but the more dedicated, disciplined, and prepared we are, the better financial future we can enjoy—no matter the circumstances. Paige had been to a presentation I did about her workplace benefits. The company was having on-again, off-again “reduction-in-force” offers to take an early retirement, or to simply leave. When I answered the phone, the caller sounded a little nervous. She had never met with an advisor before, but after attending the presentation, she thought I might be able to help her. She started working at the phone company right out of high school. A few years later, she was married, and soon after that, well, you know those newlyweds! By the time her daughter was five, her husband had left. It turned out, fatherhood wasn’t for him… nor was consistently making child-support payments. That didn’t stop Paige from working and raising her daughter to become a healthy, productive adult, or from making her 401(k) contributions. As the years went by, she had questions. “Am I saving enough? Do the investments make sense? How am I going to pay for college? Can I afford to buy a new car when I retire? Should I pay off my mortgage? The dream trip to Tuscany… is it doable?” She looked to me for advice and guidance. I admired (and still do) her commitment to providing for her daughter and her consistent resolve to save and invest for her future retirement. Paige accomplished a lot—a whole lot, really. But the best offer yet from her company came in her mid-50’s. She had been saving, waiting, for this moment for over 30 years. It was scary—no, intimidating, for her to really contemplate not having that paycheck, paid vacation, and benefits. “How do I evaluate the early retirement offer?” she asked. “How will I live? Where will I get money from? Will I pay taxes on my retirement? What about the company stock?” “You know,” I said, “we’ve talked about this many times. You did some great prep. Work with me.” “I know,” she said. “But big decisions like this are stressful, especially with the deadlines. And I know you can explain it to me again so I can be confident in my decisions.” Paige did take that offer. She works part-time now and spends one to two days a week caring for her parents. “Do they have health care proxies, powers of attorney, and wills?” I asked. She laughed, “Does it ever end with you?” As long as time marches on and the world keeps changing, then no, it never really ends. The topics of conversation and how I am trying to help keeps our relationship fresh.

Primary Concerns

How We Helped

The Married Couple

Corrine retired first. One of the largest razor blade companies was headquartered in Boston, and they treated their employees well. A pension combined with a 401(k) match in the form of a stock that did very well gave her a comfortable nest egg and monthly income…not to mention a Medical ESOP plan. Her husband Ed retired many years later. An employee of the federal government, he wanted to work longer to increase his pension benefit. He too did well with his Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). But he had some credit card debt, so we devised a strategy to pay it off over two tax years, using vacation buyout money at retirement and TSP funds the following tax year. The couple had been clients of mine for several years, and he had put off retiring more than once. When I saw them call in, I figured he was calling to let me know he had finally decided to retire. Unfortunately, he was calling to let me know that his son died very prematurely. They came in, still reeling from grief, to discuss what they wanted to do next. Corrine and Ed come from a small island nation where family customs favor the eldest son. At the time of his death, he had two young children, the older of which was two and the other only months old. “We want to provide for our grandchildren,'' they said, “to make sure they can be educated when the time comes.” Neither Ed nor Corrine had attended college, but they made sure their sons did, and now, in their son’s absence, they will provide for his children. Given their young age, I suggested they speak with a local estate planning attorney to see if she thought setting up some type of trust to put assets in (and to name as a beneficiary) would help them accomplish their goals. She agreed, drafted the relevant documents, and they are now comforted by having a plan in place. Their son’s death triggered Ed to retire immediately. He and his wife now care for their grandchildren daily when their mother goes off to work. Their involvement in the grandchildren’s lives helps to ease their pain, pass on family values, and keep the legacy of their son alive.

Primary Concerns

How We Helped