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There really isn’t a simple or standard answer for everyone.  When you ar leasing a car, what you are doing is simply financing the expected depreciation of a car, that is the difference between purchase price and the projected residual value, the value at the end of the lease.  However, since there is risk forthe leasing company when they project the future value of the car, the leasing company will err on the side of a greater depreciation than might actually occur, thus the payments for that depreciation might be higher than the actual depreciation.  So from a long term financial position buying generally makes more sense in terms of net cost over time.  The exception though is when manufacturers need to move inventory, but do not want to use rebates so instead they guarantee leasing companies a higher residual value, which in turn ensures a lower leasing payment.  And for many retirees a lease provides a known expense for budgeting without the worry of ever having to sell a car and the security of always having a relatively new car.  There is also the value of simplified tax expensing for pre-retirees who use their car for business.  You can easily measure any of these personal financial issues with ExecPlan personal financial planning software, because it incorporates both the ability to have varying year by year expensing and and actual income tax calculation like TaxMode income tax planning software

The small things are often overlooked in buidling a comprehensive retirement planning strategy, and the most common are home, auto and personal liability insurance.  A financial plan’s objective is to minimize risk, and since the risk of loss of property and assets due to a personal liability suit is so small, when often overlook it.  However if such an event happen, the cost could be devistating to reaching your retirement goials. The cost of mitigating this exposure is so inexpensive, that it reviewing these issues and adjusting coverage over time is essential.  Clearly as you approach retirement and your employment, your personal activities, and your living arraingements change, you will need to be able to adjust for the cost of these policies accordingly, and your retirement planning software will need to be able to adjust the cost of premiums accordingly like you can with ExecPlan Expres personal financial plannings software

Today’s 5  or 7 year ARMs may be an ideal financial planning strategy for those willing to take some risk.  And for those who have the discipline to use the savings from refinancing to pay down their debt or invest into the deductible retirement plans, this may be a no brainer.  The former of course wil remove a mortgage payment from future cashflow (hopefully before retirement) and the latter will provide capital savings for retirement while lowering your current tax burden and improving current cash flow even more.  Retirement planning software like ExecPlan Express personal financial planning software can help look at how much the savings would be and the improved tax benfits from investing the savings from a home refinance because of its ability to adjust liabilities and investment objectives at any time in the planning horizon.  Doing a financial planning software review will highlight how few professional financial planning software tools can accomplish this simple planning projection.

When integrating disability needs into a comprehensive financial plan, it is important that your personal financial planning software will properly project the difference between a group disability plan and a personal disability plan like ExecPlan Express personal financial planning software.  Of course most financial planning software reviews rarley cover this issue, however it can make a substantial difference that most retirement planning software will not pick up since they rarley incorporate an actual income tax analysis.  Generally speaking a group disability policy provided by your employer, will have benefits that are taxable, where as when you pay the prmium, the benefit is tax free.  This can mean as significant difference in net benefit, and in turn effect how much policy you should obtain.

The annuity has an appeal for certain people in certain situations, but unless the object is for a lifetime income stream, an annuity inside an IRA is simply poor planning.  One of the primary advantages of an annuity is its tax defered status, however IRAs already provide tax defered growth without the high internal expenses of an annuity.  This ultimately means that an equity annuity inside an IRA will net as much as 2% less in return as opposed to investing directly in equities.  Running a plan with a 2% difference in net return will mean over time a significant differences in capital to fund your retirement needs.  A personal financial planning software like ExecPlan professional financial planning software will allow you to look at a comparison of two or more plans with varying rates of returns to see the long term net worth impact on your personal investment goals.

The Dow has been trading near a three month low, and though the market is usually a trailing economic indicator, it might be simply be that the market is telling something that most people have been ignoring, that we might actually already be in a doupld dip recession.  Though the US GDP is in the positive territory for the pasy 6 months, it has only been so marginally, the EU, Japan and now Inia and China have been putting out bad economic numbers for months.  For retirees who count on their investments to fund their retirement needs, this likely meansa need to trim personal expenses and assume lower if not negative investment returns for the near future.  ExecPlan Express personal financial planning software will allow you to reduce your expenses and assume lower rates of returns with the assumption that both will rise in a year or two and allow you to view what the impact of a recession would have on your retirement needs unlike any other retirement planning software.

Determining when is the best time to collect Social Security benefits will depend on many factors, such as whether you will take early benefits, will you be working , you income and even your marital status.  Even if you choose not to take early benefits, whether you work or not could have a significant impact of when to collect.  This is because benefits are taxable up to 85%, so if you are working up to 30% of the benefit to taxation.  It may makes sense to post postpone the benefit until you stop working since every year you defer you avoid the taxes and you increase your benefit by 9% a year until age 70.  To see what makes sens, using a retirement planning software like ExecPlan Express personal financial planning software that models the tax liability of social security benefits in its retirement planning projection.

There is a tax time bomb scheduled to go off at the end of this year.  Not only are rates schedule to go up to 2001 levels.  There is the return of the marriage penalty, the return of the phaseout of itemized deductions for high income earners, and the implimitation of the new mdeicare surcharge tax on all income over 250k.  This means the cost of doing a Roth IRA conversion will go up substantially.  Any financial planning software review should measure a retirement planning software tool’s ability to evaluate the cost and net benefit of a Roth conversion, and this can only be dune accurately if like ExecPlan Express personal financial planning software, a true income tax analyiss is part of the retirement planning projection.

The qualfied personal residential trust is a practical strategy for managing your estate tax exposure, especially with the potential of significant changes to the estate tax law in the next year.  In 2013 the estate tax is schedule to return to the 2001 rates and UTC.  This may mean a substantial increase in estate tax liability for many families.  The QPRT is a relatively minimum risk strategy to remove the value of your home from any estate tax liability.  Though it takes several years to execute, eventually you can remove an asse that generally increases in value, yet still have control of its use, i.e. continue living in it for the rest of your life.  Most retirement planning software tools generally do not include an  estate planning analysis, so when doing a professional financial planning software review, make sure you can evaluate current and futre estate tax liablities like you can in ExecPlan Express personal financial planning software.

For most people it is hard to see how an election in France could effect there investments., but in can and already has.  The likely result of this past weekend’s French elections has put the entire Euro project in chaos.  This has already sent oil prices down, a reaction by the market anticpating that the new goverment’s policies may push France and possibly most of Europe into a new recession.  Good news for spenders, bad news for investors as the equities markets also expect a slow down in economic growth.  This is especially true for those holding international funds.   This could also further drive interest rates lower.  In the long run this will make US based investments more attractive with lower interest rates, a more stable investment enviroment, and lower enregy prices.  If you do plan to divest your European dependent assets, ExecPlan personal financial planning software will help you see the tax consequences from any long term capital gains you may capture for 2012