Radon Stancil and Rick Parkes own Diversified Estate Services, a financial planning firm, based in Cary, NC. They have been in practice for more than 30 years. They also co-founded the N.C. Educational Institute that was formed to teach continued education to other professionals as well as the public. In short, they are pretty knowledgeable fellows. They have come up with 10 smart financial ideas to help ensure that an individual’s retirement nest egg lasts a lifetime. And, here they are:
- Financial Guardrails They claim that one needs to do a risk analysis to determine how much money should be in higher risk vehicles. Makes sense. Using the Rule of 100, they say that your should subtract your age from 100, and the difference is then the maximum percentage of money that can be allocated to any risky investments.
- Shrinking Income They firmly believe that a fixed-indexed annuity might provide protection of your principal and serve a pretty good potential for a reasonable rate of return.
- Bond Fact/Bond Fiction As interest rates rise, they feel that a person’s income will increase but the bond price will certainly drop and its value will decrease, Obviously, they say, when interests rates fall, your income will likewise be reduced.
- Stock Market Rides They cite the three basic trends: up, down, and chop, and suggest that an individual learn the different them in order to understand what impact market volatility has on investments. Needless to say, they do include learning how to get off the stock market roller coaster.
- Deceiving Titles While in that learning mode, they advocate your knowing how death and estate taxes work so that the estate not held up in probate.
- Big Issue Long-term care. They think it’s highly unlikely that Medicare or supplemental health insurance will cover the full costs involved with in-home or nursing care.
- Information Overload They specifically point out that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to financial planning and that it’s vitally important to have a financial review before acting on advice.
- The Two Ps Protecting your principal and a peaceful lifestyle. The idea is not to have to worry about money when you’re retired.
- Discovery and Recovery Stancil and Parkes don’t feel you can rely just on the market to recoup any money you may have lost, and therefore, advocate additional investment strategies. Makes sense, too!
- Building a Legacy This pretty much means watch that living now and planning later concept. It may come back and haunt you.
Some pretty good tips, I would say.
