Final Planning For 2016 With My Financial Advisor
I completed my call today with Andrew Mohrmann, my financial advisor. He’s great at checking in with me regularly, always making sure that I run my major financial decisions by him first, so that he can give me his input. He’s never pushy, I like that about Andrew. My end-of-year planning with my financial advisor revealed no major issues, I’m staying the course and probably holding off on any real estate investments at this time.
Wall Street Investments
I believe in having a conservative base and building up from that. With passively managed mutual funds I’m getting a slice of the pie of stocks and bonds. My profits aren’t quite as sexy as those from individual stocks but they aren’t as risky, either.
I am maintaining 2 different asset allocations. An 80/20 for my tax-deferred investments and 90/10 for my taxables. The idea being that I will want to be more conservative (80/20) with the money I’ll need at an older age, when I may not be able to work anymore.
The 80% which is invested in stocks will generate the majority of my income and dividends. The 20%, invested in bonds, will smooth the ups and downs of the market.
Even better, by dollar-cost-averaging, I will be buying more of the cheaper bonds when they tank (like they are doing right now), and buy less of the pricier stocks when they are rallying.
Expenses
I really appreciated that Andrew checked me on my expense habits, he follows my blog (incredible for an FA to do), and saw my plan to have a lean December – he wanted to make sure that I’m still enjoying myself.
Needless to say, I’m not missing out on anything. I am enjoying myself. Of course I am going a bit against the norm of society by curbing my spending the way I am. However, in return everything else that I’m doing feels better, tastes better, and means more to me.
Sometime next year we’ll rerun my income/expense projections to make sure I’m on track, this is something a competent advisor does every year for their client. It’s important to have an end-of-year planning with my financial advisor so that I can plan for the upcoming year.
Taxes
Speaking of the upcoming year, we discussed taxes as well. Andrew wanted to make sure that I am maximizing my retirement savings whenever possible which helps reduce taxes.
My income for 2017 is unknown. I won’t be working full-time, I won’t be part-time. I will have income from various random sources. Most of it will be W2 income, limiting my ability to take advantage of tax-deferred savings.
Insurance
Andrew Mohrmann is a CFP, as such he is quite thorough, making sure that my entire financial picture is balanced. He asked me about the following:
- health insurance
- property insurance
- umbrella insurance
I will be losing my health insurance soon since I am going per diem. I am not eligible for any work benefits once I go per diem and with my high income I won’t be eligible for any gov’t subsidies. Still, it won’t cost me much, I can get in as low as $228/month with a $6k deductible or get a Bronze plan for $284/month.
I decided to finally get property insurance for my condo, the policy cost me $197 for the year, not something I wanted to spend. However, after some research and discussing it with my advisor, I think it’s a better idea.
I admit that the only reason I don’t just chose the self-insurance option is that I don’t know all the legal issues surrounding claims against real estate mishaps. It’s a topic I need to research, I’ll be writing it about it in the near future.
An umbrella policy only costs a C-note annually so it’s well worth it. However, the ones I researched required me to have a liability coverage on an auto policy. I don’t have a car but I could purchase a non-owner auto policy – it just doesn’t seem worth the headache.
Looking Ahead For 2017
I have the option of making a good chunk of change since I have some great income opportunities or I could make very little, write off a ton and basically stiff the IRS. The latter is quite tempting.
I expect that I will continue saving and investing, my plan isn’t to accumulate much more but have money available for future business ventures.
I hope to get in on either some real estate investment or at least build up my taxable investments enough that it can produce adequate income to cover my basic expenses. If my investments can make me around 3-4% a year or around 0.3% a month then I only need around $380k invested.