5 Smart Year-End Money Strategies

Between everyday living expenses, the rising cost of essentials like food, and emergencies that occasionally occur, it can be difficult to save for retirement. While you shouldn’t make any major decisions without first consulting with a tax professional or financial advisor, the following year-end strategies could help you save more money for retirement.

Review your investment portfolio. It’s time to sit down with your financial advisor, and review the performance of your investments over the past year. If your savings objectives or retirement goals have changed over the past year, you may need to diversify your investments or make other changes.

Sell investments that have taken losses. Claiming a loss on under-performing investments may help you to lower your tax bill in the spring. But in order to do so, you have to sell the assets before the end of the year.

Make a charitable donation. If you anticipate needing more tax deductions in the spring, make your charitable donations before the end of the year. It make sense to give your money to a favorite charity, rather than to Uncle Sam. Next year, you might consider setting up a donor-advised fund, to streamline your charitable giving and earn valuable tax deductions at the same time.

Start taking minimum distributions, if your’re age 70 ½ or more. Once you’ve reached this age, make sure you’re taking the required minimum distributions from your retirement accounts. If you haven’t already begun doing so, take your distribution before the end of the year. Otherwise you could face steep fees of up to 50 percent of the amount not withdrawn, on top of your regular income taxes.

And while you’re at it…Update your beneficiaries. Since you’re performing a lot of year-end money management tasks anyway, check to be sure the beneficiaries on your accounts are up to date. In most cases these beneficiary designations should override anything stated in your will, so it’s very important to review them regularly to ensure that your final wishes are fulfilled.

This material has been prepared for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, accounting, legal, tax or investment advice.

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