Planning for your future is an important step in making sure that the future is safe and stable. Laying out the roadmap to your life can help you identify and achieve your goals.
When you have a family, working toward your goals becomes even more important, as your children will depend on you for care and nurturing. In many cases, goals include such issues as retirement funding, college tuition for your children, and buying a home. An estate plan can help you achieve these types of goals.
Everyone knows that college tuition is getting more and more expensive every year. It takes a good deal of foresight and careful financial planning to fund your child’s college at a traditional four-year institution.
One of the best estate planning tools you can use to make sure your child can afford college is to invest money for college in a 529 account. A 529 account is a special type of account used especially for eligible educational expenses.
Your investment grows tax-free while you wait for your child to get to college age. When you make withdrawals from the account, those are also tax-free, as long as they are used for eligible educational expenses.
Most people aim to own their own homes, and that is an important investment and planning tool. It also needs to fit properly within your estate plan. One part of home ownership and estate planning is to make sure you use the proper kind of deed.
If you are married and purchase the home with your spouse, chances are that the home is held as joint tenants. The big advantage of this arrangement is that at the time of your death, your spouse will immediately be the sole owner of the home, without first having to pass through probate, which will save both time and money.
Retirement is an important goal for us all. No one wants to spend their golden years continuing to work at the daily grind of office life. Your estate plan needs to keep retirement and aging in mind.
After you retire and as you age, it may be necessary for you to reside in a nursing home if your medical needs are too overwhelming to treat at home. A good estate plan will help make sure you are eligible for Medicaid while still preserving your assets for your family and loved ones.
Let us help you make an estate plan that will meet all the goals of your daily life. Call today at (320) 299-4249 for a consultation.
