Tax Time Bomb 7: The Widow’s Tax Penalty That Can Cost You More Even With Less Income

Although it would be great to help everyone achieve financial independence, the truth is, like everyone, we have limited time and capacity.  Thus, we like to focus our work on those we can serve best with our expertise.

First, we are only looking to work with those seeking a long-term, trusted relationship with a fiduciary financial advisor and have specific goals and ideas for their future.  We enjoy working with those who strive to be and do better than average.

Our most valuable work is done for those in the retirement ‘Red Zone’, where getting it right is crucial to long-term financial success.  This is the 10 years leading up to your retirement (financial independence) date as well as the first 5 years of retirement.

We are comprehensive financial planners, but specialize in tax-efficient retirement income planning. If you want to understand the best way to create a safe, increasing and predictable income you can’t outlive, we are the right firm for you.  We best serve savers who have accumulated between $250K and $3M of investable assets.

If you also want to pay the IRS the least amount of tax and achieve (or be as close as possible to) the 0% tax bracket (yes, this is absolutely possible) in retirement, we are probably the right firm to work with.  We wrote the book on this subject and you can learn more at www.Divorce-The-IRS.com.

You don’t want the cookie cutter advice you have realized is offered at most financial planning firms these days and would prefer a personalized plan that reflects your specific dreams and goals. You would like to see choices in how your retirement income could be structured and not just offered one solution or product.  You tend to be more optimistic than pessimistic. 

If this sounds like you, and your situation, we invite you to schedule a friendly introductory meeting with us to learn more and explore the possibility of a partnership.

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HOW WE CALCULATED THESE LIFETIME EARNINGS

To project the salary of a 30-year old woman currently earning $85,000, we used a women-specific salary curve from Morningstar Investment Management LLC, a registered investment adviser and subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., which includes the impact of inflation. We added up her projected salary each year over her 40-year career.

HOW WE CALCULATED THIS INCREASED EARNINGS WITH A RAISE

We projected the salary of a 30-year old woman currently earning $85,000 and one earning $110,500 (assuming a 30% raise) using a women-specific salary curve from Morningstar Investment Management LLC, a registered investment adviser and subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. We sum up both projected salaries over 40 years, in today’s dollars, and calculate the difference.

HOW WE CALCULATED THIS RETURN BY SAVING IN THE BANK

The banking account results assume a 1% long-term average annual cash return over 40 years.

HOW WE CALCULATED THIS INVESTMENT PROJECTION

The low end of the range assumes that you invest 20% of your salary ($85,000 currently) with a financial advisor in a diversified mutual fund portfolio comprised of 60% equity and 40% bonds, which is rebalanced to this allocation each year. Fees include average mutual fund fees and an assumed advisory management fee of 1%. The high end of the range assumes that 20% of your salary is invested with Baobab Wealth in a diversified low-cost ETF portfolio comprised of 91% equity to start and growing more conservative towards the end of the investment horizon (40 years). Fees include those for the recommended ETFs and Baobab Wealth’s fee of 0.50%.

We assume salary growth based upon a women-specific salary curve provided by Morningstar Investment Management LLC, and that you save 20% of your salary each year. These results are determined using a Monte Carlo simulation—a forward-looking, computer-based calculation in which we run portfolios and savings rates through hundreds of different economic scenarios to determine a range of possible outcomes. The results for the low end of the range reflects a 70% likelihood of achieving the amount shown or better, and the high end of the range reflects a 50% likelihood of achieving the amounts shown or better. All results include the impact of inflation, and estimated taxes paid on dividends, interest, and realized capital gains.

The results presented are hypothetical, and do not reflect actual investment results, the performance of any Baobab Wealth product, or any account of any Baobab Wealth client, which may vary materially from the results portrayed for various reasons.