Along with all the holiday hustle and bustle and planning personal New Year resolutions, now is also the time to take stock in your financial planning.
Chris Chen, CFP® from Insight Financial Strategists LLC, offered four areas to attend to
for Kiplinger:
- Realize Your Tax Losses. “Now may be a good time to plan tax loss harvesting. The IRS limits individual deductions due to tax losses to $3,000. However, realized losses (i.e., stock that you sell at a loss) can be offset against realized gains (i.e., stocks that you sell at a profit), thus providing you with a great tool to rebalance your portfolio with minimal tax impact,” Chen advised.
- Reassess Your Investment Planning. “It may have been a few years since you have set your investment strategy. Perhaps you did so when the market looked better than it does now. This is a good opportunity to review your portfolio’s asset allocation, and determine whether it makes sense for your situation,” Chen wrote.
- Revisit Your Retirement Planning. “Have you contributed less than the maximum to your retirement plan? You have until December 31 to maximize your contributions to your plan, receive the benefit of reducing your 2015 taxable income, and improve your retirement planning.”
- Plan Your Charitable Donations. Charitable donations can also help reduce your taxable income, as well as provide other financial planning benefits.
The Huffington Post also advises that while you are gathered with family, it’s a good time to talk to them about your wishes, should something happen to you if you become unable to make financial or medical decisions for yourself.
There are two very important documents that you and your spouse or partner should have in place:
- Financial Power of Attorney: Creating a financial power of attorney lets you designate someone to make financial decisions on your behalf, should you become incapacitated or unable to make those decisions for yourself.
- Medical Power of Attorney: Like the financial power of attorney, the medical POA lets you choose who will make medical decisions on your behalf if you are not able to make those for yourself.
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