Top 12 Financial Planning Strategies for 2012
To this end, the Financial Planning Association of San Francisco has offered up its Top 12 Financial Planning Strategies for 2012.
Take a gander at this interactive slideshow detailing the best tactics for you and your clients next year.
1. Get Started Today<br><br>
If you don't already have one, make a plan. You'll want to analyze your asset base, your earning potential, and your spending. Most importantly, you'll want to review your goals. Are they still attainable, or even reasonable?
You can do it yourself, but a professional financial planner has the knowledge and the tools to calculate what it will take to reach your goals while helping you manage your finances along the way to help you get there.
2. Spend Less. Save More.<br><br>
Another place to look is at your credit cards. Instead of paying high credit card rates, you'll be earning market-beating 9, 12, 18, or an even higher percent. That's your return on every dollar you don't have to pay to a credit card company.
3. Got lemons? Make Lemonade.<br><br>
4. Keep on Contributing to Your 401(k)<br><br>
5. Keep an Eye on a ReFi<br><br>
Run the numbers. You may find that the payment on a new 15-year mortgage is similar to an existing 30-year mortgage and would significantly reduce the amount of interest paid over the life of the loan.
6. Assess a Reassessment<br><br>
7. Update Your Estate Plan<br><br>
8. Give a Gift or Make a Loan<br><br>
It's called the Applicable Federal Rate, or AFR, and our low interest rate environment could make 2012 an excellent time to make loans. The current long-term AFR for loans more than nine years is 2.80% (compounded annually), and the short-term AFR for loans less than three years is only 0.2%
9. Resolve to Review Beneficiaries<br><br>
Every financial planner has stories of clients who divorce and never revise their beneficiary statements; the client dies and a life insurance policy or 401(k) is paid to the ex-spouse, leaving a current spouse or children with nothing.
10. Keep Up with Contribution Limits<br><br>
11. Keep Your Cool<br><br>
12. See a Financial Planner<br><br>
If you have a financial planner, and you haven't updated your plan in light of recent economic realities, it makes sense to check if you're still on track, or if there are course-corrections you could make to improve the situation.