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New Retirement Contribution Limits for 2023
New Retirement Contribution Limits for 2023 (3 minute read). The IRS has released new limits for certain retirement accounts for the coming year. Traditional IRA contribution limits are up to...
Read MoreFive Secrets to Making Your 2023 Plans Thrive
Effective Planning - At McKell Partners, we believe the fundamental three steps to an effective planning process are Goals, Risks and Strategies. We follow this pattern with our clients each day. Our approach is simple, yet comprehensive.
Read MoreEliminate Pre-Retiree Mistakes by Following this Principle
An important rule I teach my clients is, “Don’t do anything you don’t understand!” This seems obvious, doesn’t it? Of course, it does! But you would be surprised how many pre and post-retirees don’t...
Read More10 Principles for Financial Peace
Having engaged in the financial arena for over 30 years, I have developed 10 economic principles that can bring financial peace at most any age. While some of these may be familiar, others may be new to you. Notwithstanding, power lies...
Read MoreThe One Incident That Could Change Your Entire Future
Whenever you read or talk about important topics like long-term care, health costs or retirement, you have to wade through facts, statistics and other numbers. The average cost of medical care today, the likelihood that you’ll be...
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Pre-Retirement House Cleaning: Clean Out Your “Financial Junk Drawer”
Do you have a junk drawer in the kitchen? Over the years, I have asked hundreds of people this question. All admit to having a junk drawer. One day a person answered me with a straight-faced “No.” I was surprised because...
Read MoreAdopt This Skill in Pre-Retirement: It Will Make All the Difference
So much of reaching our true potential centers on how we think and our ability to cast our minds into the future, to envision and see our lives unfold potentially many years before our reality is upon us. This is true in our financial...
Read MoreIdentifying 6 Potential Retirement Risks and How to Combat Them
Can you remember a time when you were truly fearful? I remember one night as a child of about 11 years old, getting a phone call from a neighbor late one night with some terrifying news. At the time, my Dad was the youth church leader...
Read MoreWorried About Maintaining Your Standard of Living in Retirement: Take the 10 Step Retirement Income
My Dad sat on an old three-legged stool in his workshop while examining the brakes on several old Fords we restored and enjoyed working in the 60’s and 70’s. As a child, I spent many years being his “tool runner...
Read MoreFour Reasons You Might Be Feeling the Pre-Retirement Jitters
I have seen the looks on their faces. With thousands of hours of client meetings, workshops, and public educational events, I have seen the troubled countenances and guarded expressions of wonderful hard working Americans who are...
Read MoreWorried Your 401k Might Not Do the Job? Here are Three Reasons Why It Might Not!
When you entered your 50’s you likely began to pay more and more attention to your long-term retirement savings, like your 401k. 401k’s are emblematic of a range of retirement saving accounts across American for private...
Read MoreFeeling Behind in Your Retirement Savings? Catch Up with These 3 Tips
If you are like most American’s, you may feel a bit behind in your retirement savings or just sense a general lack of preparedness for this next stage of life. This might feel more urgent if you are less than 10 years away from...
Read MoreHow To Protect Yourself Against Emotional Market Cycles
Investors often fall into the trap of deciding to BUY when they are confident and SELL when they are frightened. This unfortunately can translate to an unsuccessful pattern of buying high and selling low – the exact opposite of...
Read MoreDon’t Let a Bad Day Turn Into a Bad Life!
For nearly 10 years I worked as a District Manager for a national multi-line insurance company recruiting, training and educating agents how to best protect their client’s assets and income. At any given time I had 40-50 agents...
Read MoreWill You Have a Happily Ever After Retirement?
What ever happened to happily ever after? With over 11,000 baby boomers a day entering retirement, new retirees are concerned about our current economic environment; many are down right scared at what the future holds. Gone are the...
Read MoreA Devastating Risk Most Fail to Diagnose.
I got one of those terrible phone calls this past week that I had hoped I would never receive. Skip called to say that his dear wife Vivian had passed away suddenly. I met Skip and Vivian three years ago (I have changed their names to...
Read MoreSix Ways to Beat Financial Procrastination
We have all experienced the feeling of putting something off that we know is of utmost importance. Maybe it’s that project or task we need to finish, an important phone call to make, a letter we need to write or an email to send....
Read MoreWhy Your 401k Might Not Do The Job
When was the last time you hired someone to do a job? We might not think of it this way, but we do it every day when we purchase goods and services in the market place. Consider your cell phone service? You scan the available cell...
Read MoreWhat Job Did You Hire That Milk Shake For?
I finished reading Clayton M. Christensen’s New York Times best selling book, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Clayton M. Christensen is a Harvard Business School professor and author of seven books. In 2011 he was...
Read MoreSix Tips to Avoid Financial Abdication
One of the first rules I teach my clients is, “Don’t do anything you don’t understand!” I introduce this principle early on in my educational seminars and interactions with clients. As a professional, I must...
Read MoreAm I Locked In With An Annuity?
Have you ever heard someone exclaim, “I don’t want an annuity because I don’t want to be locked in!” Certainly being locked in does not conjure up happy thoughts, so is this true or not? Let’s talk about a...
Read MoreIt’s Time to Call a Family Meeting!
Over a year ago I was in Utah visiting my parents. They are both doing well, but not getting any younger. I can’t say enough about them and the wonderful example they have been to me. Their example of unselfish love, enduring...
Read MoreWho is Calling the Audible?
I have long been a football fan. I enjoy many parts of the game, but none more than watching a quarterback call an audible at the line of scrimmage. For those that might not know what “calling an audible” means in American...
Read MoreCapture the Memories
Shaver Lake is just a few miles north east of Fresno, California. Some 45 years ago my grandparents purchased a lot just off the lake’s shore and the collective family built a beautiful cabin. I remember traveling there as a...
Read MoreThe Painful Cost of Waiting
A client called me recently with the horrible news that she had been diagnosed with cancer. Over a year ago, we worked diligently on her estate plan. The plan included a sizable life insurance policy to protect her daughter at her...
Read MoreThe Acorns of Personal Vision
In the 1300’s at Cambridge University in England, a chapel was constructed for one of the colleges. Huge beams fashioned from old-growth oak supported the vaulted roof of the chapel. Seven hundred years later, the beams had so...
Read MoreRetirement Income Analysis
A mentor of mine once asked me, “If you were doing something wrong, when would you want to know?” My response was an immediate, “I would want to know now!” I have asked this question to countless others and...
Read MoreRetirement: Ready or Not?
The clock is ticking. Baby Boomers are getting within a 9 iron of their golden years. Most have finally come to grips with the fact that despite the ideal retirement pictured in glossy brochures and commercials—that retirement...
Read MorePiloting Your Financial Aircraft
Toward the end of my two-year missionary experience in the Philippines some 30+ years ago, I became acquainted with several people at Philippine Airlines. I can’t recall exactly how it happened, but I got a chance to board a...
Read MoreChoosing the Right Club
When I was a child, my Dad got me started with tennis and golf. I played team sports during my youth, but individual sports seemed to dominate my interest. I was quite a tennis player as a teenager and made the varsity tennis team as a...
Read MoreWhat’s the Money For?
It takes a period of time to understand someone’s financial life. Even more focus is required to identify the risks they face and then develop effective risk-mitigating strategies putting them on the path to reaching their goals....
Read MoreBegin With the End in Mind
The late Stephen R. Covey authored a wonderful book titled, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” I read the book many years ago and gleaned much from its pages. Not too long ago, I attended a 6-month course titled,...
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