Charitable giving can be a rewarding experience by allowing you to both give and receive. To enjoy the benefits of charitable giving, you can utilize a variety of strategies.

The Basics of Charitable Remainder Trusts

To establish a charitable remainder trust, you transfer appreciated property to an irrevocable trust and designate the charity of your choice as the beneficiary of the trust. The property within the trust is then sold and reinvested to provide income. You retain a lifetime interest in the income generated by the trust, and when the trust expires at your death, the property within the trust is transferred to the charitable organization.



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As tax laws change, college investment planning becomes increasingly complex. The most beneficial strategies for creating a college fund are quite similar to other investment tactics. Investment products that are tax deferred, tax exempt, or transferable without tax consequences can be especially advantageous.

This could be even more effective if you do your planning early.

One important aspect of an investment is its balance of yield and risk. Determine the amount of risk you can tolerate, given the amount of time you have to recover from any potential losses.



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Many Americans facing retirement would love to increase their monthly income.

Faced with fixed pensions, rising medical expenses, limited Social Security benefits, and longer life spans, an increasing number of people are actually being forced to lower their standards of living when they retire.

As you approach retirement, one of your major assets is likely to be your house. By the time the average person retires, his or her home is usually worth significantly more than he or she paid for it.

Now there are techniques that will enable you to use your property to finance your lifestyle without the emotional trauma of having to sell your home.



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Withdrawing funds from a tax-deferred retirement account before the age of 59½ generally triggers a 10% federal income tax penalty; all distributions are subject to ordinary income tax. However, there are certain situations in which you are allowed to make early withdrawals from a retirement account and avoid the tax penalty.

IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans have different exceptions, although the regulations are similar.



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A 403(b) plan is a special tax-deferred retirement savings plan that is often referred to as a tax-sheltered annuity, a tax-deferred annuity, or a 403(b) annuity. It is similar to a 401(k), but only the employees of public school systems and 501(c)(3) organizations are eligible to participate in 403(b) plans.

Employees can fund their accounts with pre-tax contributions, and employers can also make contributions to employee accounts. Employer contributions can be fixed or discretionary. Eligible employees may elect to defer up to 100% of their salaries, as long as the amount does not exceed $16,500 (in 2011). A special “catch-up” contribution provision enables those who are 50 and older to save an additional $5,500. Total combined employer and employee contributions cannot exceed $49,000 (in 2011). Contribution limits are indexed annually for inflation.



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Most people have good intentions about saving for retirement.

But few know when they should start and how much they should save.

Sometimes it might seem that the expenses of today make it too difficult to start saving for tomorrow. It’s easy to think that you will begin to save for retirement when you reach a more comfortable income level, but the longer you put if off, the harder it will be to accumulate the amount you need.



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Long ago, people realized that there is strength in numbers. For hundreds of years, we have been joining forces against all kinds of calamities — including financial troubles. The concept of insurance is simply that if enough of us can pool our money to form a large enough fund, then together we can handle practically any financial disaster. Our motivation for contributing to this fund is our own eligibility to draw from it in the event of a disaster. One for all and all for one, so to speak.





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