Planning for your retirement - it's never too late to start!

Retirement planning is a necessary, but often neglected part of your financial future.  When you start off in your early years (18-35), you are often consumed with the activities of daily living and retirement seems very far away.

In your middle years (35-55), you are just as busy as in your early years, but now you are often dealing with children in school, saving for college years, and possible still paying for student loans. Retirement may still be the last thing on your mind!

As you approach your retirement years, you are hoping to arrive at this proverbial place with debt paid off, money in the bank and a feeling you will be fine now and 30 years into retirement.

At Bogetto & Associates, we have the tools, services and expertise to help you work towards YOUR retirement goals and we are GREAT listeners. Whatever stage of life you and your family are in, we have answers that may help you work towards achieving your short and long term retirement goals.

Many people come to us at 55 when we can still provide answer for a healthy retirement. 401k, IRA,and investments will be your basis for retirement. Social Security needs planning to make sure you are taking advantage of the best way to maximize this benefit. During the planning stage we will show you how to set aside assets for the first year of retirement and for the next 10 years. We will also develop a strategy to handle planning for age 70 and beyond working towards supplementing your income for 10 years or longer.

Here are some ideas that you may want to consider when planning for retirement

(Source:  http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/10_ways_to_prepare.html)

Facts

• Fewer than half of Americans have calculated how much they need to save for retirement.
• In 2014, 30 percent of private industry workers with access to a defined contribution plan (such as a 401(k) plan) did not participate.
• The average American spends roughly 20 years in retirement.

1. Start saving, keep saving, and stick to your goals

If you are already saving, whether for retirement or another goal, keep going! You know that saving is a rewarding habit. If you're not saving, it's time to get started. Start small if needed and try to increase the amount you save each month. The sooner you start saving, the more time your money has to grow (see the chart below). Make saving for retirement a priority. Devise a plan, stick to it, and set goals. Remember, it's never too early or too late to start saving.

2. Know your retirement needs

Retirement is expensive. Experts estimate that you will need at least 70 percent of your pre-retirement income – lower earners, 90 percent or more – to maintain your standard of living when you stop working. Take charge of your financial future. The key to a secure retirement is to plan ahead.

 

3. Contribute to your employer’s retirement savings plan

If your employer offers a retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k) plan, sign up and contribute all you can. Your taxes will be lower, your company may kick in more, and automatic deductions make it easy. Over time, compound interest and tax deferrals can make a big difference in the amount you will accumulate. 

4. Learn about your employer's pension plan

If your employer has a traditional pension plan, check to see if you are covered by the plan and understand how it works. Ask for an individual benefit statement to see what your benefit is worth. Before you change jobs, find out what will happen to your pension benefit. Learn what benefits you may have from a previous employer. Find out if you will be entitled to benefits from your spouse's plan.

5. Consider basic investment principles

How you save can be as important as how much you save. Inflation and the type of investments you make play important roles in how much you'll have saved at retirement. Know how your savings or pension plan is invested. Learn about your plan's investment options and ask questions. Put your savings in different types of investments. By diversifying this way, you are more likely to reduce risk and improve return. Your investment mix may change over time depending on a number of factors such as your age, goals, and financial circumstances. Financial security and knowledge go hand in hand.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/10_ways_to_prepare.html

6. Try not to touch your retirement savings

If you withdraw your retirement savings now, you'll lose principal and interest and you may lose tax benefits or have to pay withdrawal penalties. If you change jobs, leave your savings invested in your current retirement plan, or roll them over to an IRA or your new employer's plan.

7. Put money into an Individual Retirement Account

You can put up to $5,500 a year into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA); you can contribute even more if you are 50 or older. You can also start with much less. IRAs can also provide tax advantages.

When you open an IRA, you have two options – a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. The tax treatment of your contributions and withdrawals will depend on which option you select. Also, the after-tax value of your withdrawal will depend on inflation and the type of IRA you choose. IRAs can provide an easy way to save. You can set it up so that an amount is automatically deducted from your checking or savings account and deposited in the IRA.

8. Find out about your Social Security benefits

Social Security pays benefits that are on average equal to about 40 percent of what you earned before retirement.  For more information about your social security benefits, go to www.ssa.gov.  

9. Ask Questions

Find a financial adviser that you trust, ask questions and make sure you understand the answers. Get practical advice and act now.  The financial planning advisers at Bogetto & Associates are here to answer your questions!

Financial Health...For Now & Tomorrow

Contact us Today

Website - www.bogettoandassociates

Telephone - 314-858-1602

Email - peter@bogettoandassociates.com

10805 Sunset Office Drive, Ste. 202

St Louis, MO 63127

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Securities offered through First Heartland Capital, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC

Bogetto Financial is not affiliated with First Heartland Capital, Inc.  

Meet Peter Bogetto!

Bogetto & Associates has a talented team of financial professionals in St Louis to help you plan for your Financial Health...Now & Tomorrow.  In this week's blog, we want to feature the founder and owner of Bogetto & Associates, Peter Bogetto.

Meet Peter Bogetto

Growing up in the upper peninsula of Michigan, Peter left the beauty of the area to attend LaSalle Institute, a boarding school in Glencoe, Missouri, for his high school years. Here he met students from all over the U.S. South America, and India.

Obtaining a B.A. from St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota Peter went on to teach in Minnesota and Wisconsin before deciding on a financial career. In 1974 he began his financial services career. In 1990 he opened Bogetto and Associates. Through his lifelong interest in healthy living, he believes every client should receive a plan that provides healthy financial choices.

To get to know Peter a little better, we asked him some questions about his family, hobbies, and interests:

Q & A with Peter

Q: Who is your Family?

A: I have three wonderful Children all of whom are successful in their chosen careers. Kay my oldest lives in Indianapolis with her husband Greg Stone and her two boys (my pride and joy) grandsons Jacob 11 and Benjamin 8. They visit often and I try to get to Indianapolis at least once a month. My Daughter Anne has been married to Tim Cejka for less than a year. They are both happy in their careers. I of course would like them to think about giving me another grandchild. My Son Ben is single and is taking over my business. We work together on a daily basis. By the time the weekend comes he really doesn’t want to spend any more time with me. 

Q:  Where did you go to school and how did you gain experience in financial advising?

A:   I got my undergraduate degree from St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota. It included an education degree and I did teach high school students for 5 years. Following that I explored other avenues and settled on the financial industry by becoming a life insurance agent with John Hancock. I completed my financial designation degrees for the Chartered Life Underwriter degree and for the Chartered Financial Consultant degree from the American College. Financial planning and advising was a natural progression for me as it kept me before people and gave me the opportunity to use my teaching skills to establish goals and present financial plans to work towards achieving them. For me what I do has never seemed like work. I love my clients and I love what I do. 

Q:  What is your favorite sport to watch and who is your favorite sports team?

A:  I am not what you would call a sports nut. I do like watching hockey and baseball but find myself preferring to travel to Indianapolis to watch my grandchild play baseball and soccer. 

Q:  Do you have pets?  If so, what kind of pet and what is their name?

A:  I have adopted a senior pet who is 9 years old. He is Chihuahua and is a fierce guard dog and a great companion. He loves to go with me everywhere I go and follows me around the house. His name is Murphy after my first childhood dog. 

Q:  What was the last movie that you saw that you really enjoyed?

A:  I just saw BOSS with Melissa McMarthy. She is currently my favorite comedic actress and I’ve seen most of her films. I also like old movies and tv shows such as I love Lucy, The Golden Girls, and the Honeymooners. I prefer films that will make me laugh. 

Q:  Why did you go into the financial world?

A:  I like helping people work toward achieving their goals. I take every clients goals and objectives very personally and work to give the best advice that I would also give to myself. It allowed me to continue my ‘teaching’ career by teaching clients how money works. 

Q:  What do you like to do when you are not working?

A:  Cooking, going on long walks and hikes with my dog, gardening, working out, going to movies, theatre, out to dinner with family and friends. 

Q:  If you had to give advice to young people today with their finances, what would it be?

A:  Start saving and investing as early as you can. Establish a plan and stick to it. Be sure you have set aside 3 to 6 months of your take home income to help you in the event of job loss or illness. Protect your life value and earning power. 

Q:  What is the last book you read that you liked?

A:  "Sail" by James Patterson. I also like reading books by Balducci and other and other mystery writers. The books that have the most profound effect on me have been my middle eastern writers such as: "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini and "The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel" by Rumi written by Elif Shafak.

Q:  What do you like the most about helping people with their financial future?

A:   Life is never linear. Like the stock market it has its ups and downs. People who stick to their goals through good and bad times have the possibility of creating wealth for themselves. My greatest joy is seeing people successfully ease into their retirement with enough money to enjoy it.

Financial Health...For Now & Tomorrow

Contact us Today

Website - www.bogettoandassociates

Telephone - 314-858-1602

Email - peter@bogettoandassociates.com

10805 Sunset Office Drive, Ste. 202

St Louis, MO 63127

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Securities offered through First Heartland Capital, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC

Bogetto Financial is not affiliated with First Heartland Capital, Inc.  

Protect yourself from Scams during this Tax Season

As we enter the final week of tax season, there has been an increase in phone scams as well as phishing scams from people posing as representatives of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and people claiming to provide "Tech Support" .  Bogetto & Associates want to pass along some info about these scam attempts and provide you with advice on how to protect yourself.

The phishing folks have changed their tactics to accusing people of tax fraud to get them to click on a malicious link in an email now.  The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information.

In related news, the cold calling tech support scams are making a comeback after a short break.  This scam is where a person claiming to be tech support calls you out of the blue and tells you about all of these errors they are seeing and try to convince you they need access to your machine to fix them.  They will tell you to look in your event viewer to “prove” there are a bunch of errors.  Windows normally has various errors in event viewer all the time, so this seems legitimate.  Do not let anyone calling you claiming to be tech support have access to your system.  In addition, if you do a simple tech support google search, don’t call the first number you see.  If you need help, call a reputable company that you know is in your area.  BBB and Angie’s list could be helpful for this process.

The IRS warns Washington D.C, Maryland, Virginia residents of new phishing scam.

Here is an excerpt from a recent IRS news release...it discusses attempts to scam residents of the National Capital area, but we want to warn our clients of this as well.

IR-2016-55, April 6, 2016                                                                               

WASHINGTON — As reports of phone scams as well as email phishing schemes continue across the country, the Internal Revenue Service warned taxpayers of a new phishing scam targeting Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia residents.


This time, the email scammers are citing tax fraud and trying to trick victims into verifying “the last four digits of their social security number” by clicking on a link provided. The criminals specifically state that this is for tax filers in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. As a further attempt to trick residents of the Capital region, the email scam even suggests that information from recent data breaches across the nation may be involved.


“As we approach the final days of this filing season, we continue to see these tax scams evolve.” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “We don’t send emails like this, and there’s no special effort underway for people in the District, Virginia and Maryland. As these criminals shift their tactics, the IRS remains committed to quickly warning the taxpayers who may be targeted. Taxpayers should be on the lookout for these scams.”


Last February, the IRS announced a 400 percent increase of these scams being reported when compared to the same period last year. As the email scams increase, the IRS continues its efforts to protect taxpayers, and has teamed up with state revenue departments and the tax industry to make sure taxpayers understand the dangers to their personal and financial data as part of the“Taxes. Security. Together” campaign.


In general, the IRS has added and strengthened protections in our processing systems this filing season to protect the nation's taxpayers. For this tax season, we continue to make important progress in stopping identity theft and other fraudulent refunds.


Protect Yourself


Phishing is a scam typically carried out with the help of unsolicited email or a fake website that poses as a legitimate site to lure in potential victims and prompt them to provide valuable personal and financial information. Armed with this information, a criminal can commit identity theft or financial theft.


If a taxpayer receives an unsolicited email that appears to be from either the IRS or an organization closely linked to the IRS, such as the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), report it by sending it to phishing@irs.gov. Learn more by going to the Report Phishing and Online Scams page.


It is important to keep in mind that the IRS generally does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels. The IRS has information online that can help protect taxpayers from email scams.


Each and every taxpayer has a set of fundamental rights they should be aware of when dealing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore your rights and our obligations to protect them on IRS.gov.


Don’t be fooled by scammers. Stay safe and be informed.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Warning on Tech Support Scams

In addition to the IRS warning, the FTC has issued a warning about official sounding Tech Support phone calls that are actually scams. Here are the details of that article:

Official-sounding calls about an email hack

April 5, 2016
by
Andrew Johnson
Division of Consumer and Business Education, FTC


There’s a new twist on tech-support scams — you know, the one where crooks try to get access to your computer or sensitive information by offering to “fix” a computer problem that doesn’t actually exist. Lately, we’ve heard reports that people are getting calls from someone claiming to be from the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. Their claim? That your email account has been hacked and is sending fraudulent messages. They say they’ll have to take legal action against you, unless you let them fix the problem right away.

If you raise questions, the scammers turn up the pressure – but they’ve also given out phone numbers of actual Federal Trade Commission staff (who have been surprised to get calls). The scammers also have sent people to the actual website for the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. (It’s a real thing: it’s an organization that helps governments work together on cross-border privacy cooperation.)

Here are few things to remember if you get any kind of tech-support call, no matter who they say they are:
Don’t give control of your computer to anyone who calls you offering to “fix” your computer.
Never give out or confirm your financial or sensitive information to anyone who contacts you.
Getting pressure to act immediately? That’s a sure sign of a scam. Hang up.
If you have concerns, contact your security software company directly. Use contact information you know is right, not what the caller gives you.

Read on to learn more about tech-support scams and government imposter scams. And, if you spot a scam, tell the FTC.


The team at Bogetto & Associates is committed to helping you plan towards your financial future.  Falling victim to a phishing or other scam can certainly set back your progress.  If we can answer any questions about this information, please give us a call at 314-858-1602 or contact Peter Bogetto at peter@bogettoandassociates.com.

Financial Health...For Now & Tomorrow

Contact us Today

Website - www.bogettoandassociates

Telephone - 314-858-1602

Email - peter@bogettoandassociates.com

10805 Sunset Office Drive, Ste. 202

St Louis, MO 63127

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Securities offered through First Heartland Capital, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC

Bogetto Financial is not affiliated with First Heartland Capital, Inc.  

Bogetto & Associates...Financial Health for Now & Tomorrow

The Bogetto & Associates team is here to help you plan towards you financial health with a wide variety of investment and insurance products.  We can help your individual needs and your business financial planning needs as well.  In this latest blog post, we will give you an overview of our financial products and financial services that can help you plan for Now & Tomorrow!

Our Mission

We work to engage individuals, families and businesses on helping them to work towards achieving financial health now and in the future. Our main goal is showing clients how to work towards accumulating wealth and preparing for all the events of living. Each client is unique and there is no one plan that fits everyone. Understanding the clients past financial plans through in depth questioning will help us focus on helping them work towards achieving their goals.

Our Products to help you towards your financial future

Bogetto & Associates offers a range of financial products for you to choose from depending on your current life situation.  We are experts in how each of these products may fit your particular needs, and we can offer advice depending on your financial goals.  

Financial products

• Mutual Funds
• Bond Funds
• Fixed, Indexed and Variable Deferred Annuities
• Immediate Annuities
• Real Estate Investment Trusts

Retirement Plans

• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’S)
• Traditional IRA’s
• Roth IRA’S
• Simplified Employee Pension (SEP)
• 401k
• Roth 401k

Insurance

• Life Insurance
• Income Replacement
• Long Term Care
• Medicare Plans

Financial Services available with Bogetto & Associates

Whether you are an individual or business owner, we have financial services that can help you.  Our extensive experience is a strength and we have dealt with the ups and downs of the market.  We also listen very carefully to your needs and goals and can structure a plan to help work towards those goals. Contact us now to start your financial journey!  Here are some examples of our financial services:

Individual Services for Financial Advice

• We are your source for financial planning, goal setting, budgeting, and coaching for retirement, wealth accumulation, investment management and risk avoidance.

Professional Services for Financial Planning

• Team Bogetto has more than 50 years of experience in the markets. Peter started out in Financial Services in 1975. Having lived with the inevitable ups and downs of the market, he knows how to handle volatility.

Estate Planning Services

• Net worth, income, will*, power of attorney, estate transfers and charitable giving are all part of our estate analysis. *Bogetto and Associates does not provide legal advice.

Other Financial Services

• Education funding
• Insurance Analysis and planning
• Pension maximization Strategies
• Social Security Planning
• Long Term Care Planning

Medical Insurance

• Medicare planning

Whether you are just starting out with your financial future, are in your middle years with children and education planning needs, or are looking toward your retirement years, our financial planners in St Louis  may have the products to help you.  Give us a call or contact us via email to start your financial planning journey!

Financial Health...For Now & Tomorrow

Contact us Today

Website - www.bogettoandassociates

Telephone - 314-858-1602

Email - peter@bogettoandassociates.com

10805 Sunset Office Drive, Ste. 202

St Louis, MO 63127

Follow Us

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Google+

Securities offered through First Heartland Capital, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC

Bogetto Financial is not affiliated with First Heartland Capital, Inc.