Asset Planning, Inc Blog

The latest from the team.

Sandra Field, founder, of Asset Planning Inc. (API), is a Certified Financial Planner and has been an active professional in the financial services industry for over 23 years. She is recently named as one of nation's leading wealth mangers by Bloomberg "Wealth Manager" magazine. 

A Southern California native, Sandra graduated from California...

Sandra Field, founder, of Asset Planning Inc. (API), is a Certified Financial Planner and has been an active professional in the financial services industry for over 23 years. She is recently named as one of nation's leading wealth mangers by Bloomberg "Wealth Manager" magazine. 

A Southern California native, Sandra graduated from California State University Long Beach with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and from University of Southern California with a Masters in Business Administration.

Sandra is a member of NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors) and the Financial Planning Association. Sandra has served on the board of directors for the Orange County Chapter of FPA. Well respected in the industry, she is a featured financial advisor for the LA Times "Money Makeovers" as well as for the "One On One" column in the Orange County Register. In addition, Sandra serves on the Mutual Fund Panel of Experts for the Orange County Register Newspaper. She is also an active member of the community, serving as past President of the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce, past Vice President of Finance on the Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society, and past Business Advisor to the City of Seal Beach.

Last but not least, she is a featured speaker at many public and private functions such as AAII (American Association of Individual Investors), Cal State Univ. Long Beach, EWGA and USC. She recently spoke at the WISE (Women In Securities & Education) conference, conducting a live money makeover before 400 women.

Whether she is assisting clients to reach their retirement goals or selecting the right investments for clients, education is at the core of Sandra's philosophy. She emphasizes the importance of developing a relationship with and educating clients, placing the utmost importance on helping them reach their goals, whatever they may be.

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Planning Your Digital Estate

Deciding how to manage one's digital legacy has turned into one of the trickiest estate-planning tasks. Facebook status updates, blogs posts, tweets, digital music libraries and other digital remains may have significant financial or personal value to the families. Failure to plan ahead may prevent loved ones from recovering these digital items of personal value and information pertaining to bills or other financial liabilities. It could also leave your estate vulnerable to identity theft.
The first step to start navigating through this new world of digital estate planning it is important to recognize the obstacles one faces, such as all the legal terms of use and service of each online service provider. Providers differ in how one can handle accounts of deceased users. Yahoo for example, will terminate your account upon your death if a certificate is submitted. Google recently introduced a new feature allowing users to specify the termination of account data should the account be inactive for a certain period or passed along to specific individuals.
Some accounts that you access online do not pose an estate-planning challenge. Financial institutions do have clear procedures an account holder's death. Always check the terms of use and inquire what will happen to your account in case you pass away.

Retrieved from Kiplinger's Retirement Report

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Withdrawing Funds From IRA’s, Trusts, and Individual Accounts

Need money from your IRA or Trust accounts? No problem; securities, mutual funds and bonds can all be sold on the same day and the cash is settled into your account in approximately four business days; however, giving your financial advisor prior notice can get you more money from the sale of your investments.

If you need more than $15,000 in cash, it is advisable to give your advisor a one month notice to take advantage of market sales. This means your advisor tries to sells the investments when markets hit a high price in order to get the greatest amount of cash from the sale of from a stock, bond or mutual fund. Once the investments are sold it does take time for the cash to settle into your accounts. Mutual funds for example, can be sold on the same day but the cash doesn't settle into your account until the next business day. Stocks can too be sold on the same day; however, the cash takes three days to settle. Bond sales are unique since they are placed on a bond trading desk and wait for a reasonable bid. In our case, we would wait for the highest bidder.

Giving your advisor a month's time notice not only facilitates the selling process, but also allows us to search for the best selling prices for your investments, providing you with more cash.

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Impact of Applying for Business Credit Cards

Every time you apply for a personal credit card your average time length of your credit accounts decrease and in turn decreases your credit score. It is sad news if you were looking to open a new personal credit card account; however, applying for a business card will not reduce the average time length of your credit accounts. The personal credit bureaus do not receive reports on the amount you spend on a business credit card, as well as your credit line.

For Example, theoretically speaking if one was to use up an entire credit limit from a business credit card, it would have no impact on a personal credit score. In contrast, if the same was done a personal credit card, it would dramatically reduce your score even if the balance was paid in full when the statement arrives.

Bottom line, not only do business credit cards provide more sign-up bonuses, they also have less of an impact to your personal credit score. You don't need an established business to get approved for a business credit card and you can often get approved for existing businesses which you run as the sole owner or which you are thinking of starting. It is advisable to be cautious of what you apply for, the interest rate and any penalties that come with any credit card including business credit cards.

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President’s Budget Would Cap Retirement Accounts

President Obama's budget proposal would cap multimillion-dollar tax-favored retirement accounts. The budget plan would prohibit tax payers from accumulating more than $3 million over all IRA accounts. The proposal would generate $9 billion in revenue for the Treasury over the next decade.

According to Ed Slott, an IRA specialist and certified public accountant, IRAs have evolved from a retirement-planning technique into an estate-planning tool for some wealthy families because tax laws allow the accounts to be passed onto heirs. The cap would apply to the total of all of an individual's tax-favored retirement accounts.

The plan was unveiled on April 10 as part of the proposed budget for 2014.

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CREDIT CARDS OFFERING MILES AND POINTS

It is very easy to want to sign up for credit cards that offer miles and points for purchases you make, especially with sign-up bonuses offering 50,000 miles or points when you apply and receive the credit card. Yet, you should take into consideration how this might impact your credit score.

You should think twice on getting these kinds of credit cards if:

1. Interest rates on these are especially high.

2. You shouldn't apply for them unless you know you can definitely pay off the entire balance each month

3. You are having trouble budgeting or you can't resist making unnecessary purchases just for the sake of increasing your points or miles.

4. You have a score lower than 700

5. Don't apply for these kinds of credits cards if you seek to increase your credit score, especially if you are thinking of taking out a home loan in the near future.

In the short-term your score could decrease; however if you are strict with yourself, make considerable purchases and pay your balance off in full each month, then the score will increase and also you will be able to redeem points and miles.

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How Your Credit Score is Calculated

Your credit score is determined by the following:

-35% payment history

-30% amount owed

-15% length of credit history

-10% new credit

-10% types of credit.

The percentages are based on the importance of the five categories for the general population. For particular groups; for example, people who have not been using credit long, the relative importance of these categories may be different.

PAYMENT HISTORY is considered the most important variable. The next most important variable to watch are the AMOUNTS OWED. Having debt doesn't mean you are a high-risk borrower. Keep in mind that if a high percentage of your available credit has been used, it may suggest that you take on more debt than you can probably handle. This might reflect as a risk of you not being able to pay back your loans.

It is important to not max out your credit cards and keep a low credit utilization rate. Example:

If your credit limit is $5,000, don't charge more than a $1,000 if you want to keep your utilization rate below 20%.

Spend healthy and keep that payment history a priority!

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Defining Credit and Credit Cards

First: What is a credit score?

In the U.S, a credit score is a number used to predict the likelihood of you not paying back loans. There are three main credit bureaus in the US A and they are Equifax, TransUnion and Experian; however Fair Isaac Corporation dominates the US credit score business and issues FICO scores ranging from 300 to 850.

The higher your credits score the better; however there is a limit. A score of 650 is always better than a score of 550 and a score of 750 will get you access to lower interest rates than a score of 650. Here is the catch, after a gaining a score of 760 you won't necessarily get lower interest rates than someone with a score of 830. As long as you maintain a score above 750 you will be in great shape.

Please stay tuned for our weekly series on credit cards and FICO. Next week I will post on what your FICO score is, what it means and how it is calculated. Feel free to share with other family and friends!

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The Sequester, What Will Happen?

Neither a Democratic nor a Republican bill aimed at replacing the so called sequester was able to get enough support to win a test vote on Thursday. The budget cuts for fiscal year 2013 will not take effect all at once on Friday. Instead, they will go into effect gradually through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The sequester would cut about $1 trillion over nine years.

Beginning today:

-Across-the-board cuts under sequestration formally take effect today. The cuts amount to "only" 2.3% of total federal spending.

-Sequestratoin is likely to reduce real GDP growth in 2013 by 0.6%, with the effects concentrated in the second and third quarter.

-Having passed the March 1st deadline to avoid sequestration, the next date to watch will be March 27th when current spending authority expires.

-Social Security, Medicaid, veteran benefits are exempt from the sequester.

U.S markets on Thursday shrugged off the budget drama in Washington. Financial stocks held their ground Friday as investors, with plenty of time to adjust their portfolios, looked past looming federal spending cuts.

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Ironman Race Completed!

Just to let everyone know I successfully completed my half Ironman Triathlon race on July 31st. It is also called a 70.3 race, since I traveled 70.3 miles while swimming, biking and running, all back to back.

The race was held in the Santa Rosa or Northern California area. The swim of 1.2 miles was in the Russian River in Guerneville. We began the 56 mile bike portion of the race there, as we exited the water. We rode through the vineyards and extremely beautiful rolling hills, passing dozens of wineries. The course passed through the towns of Heraldsberg and Geyserville, before ending the bike portion in the town of Windsor. There were two significant hills on the course that made all my miles of bike training pay off. I was able to ride up the entire Chalk Hill, passing men and women who were walking their bikes up the steep grade.

From the town of Windsor, the 13.1 run portion began and ended. The run course went through the very hot and dry area where the temperatures were in the high 90's. I had set a goal of finishing within 8 to 9 hours, depending on the heat. I finished the race with one minute to spare, in 8 hours and 59 minutes!

It was an amazing journey to set a fitness goal this big and accomplish it. This took many months of training, sometimes six days a week of workouts. Now I can enjoy my summer!

Dream Big!

Sandy

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Did you take your meds today?

I just saw this article called Track Your Meds Better wtih This Little Trick by Real Age

When you take a daily pill, it can be tough to remember if you're on schedule or thinking of yesterday's dose. So use this little trick to jog your memory.

Be original. Each time you take your pill, do something different. One day, pat the top of your head. Another day, knock on the doorframe. Next time, do a slow twirl afterward. Adding a complex or unusual action helps people remember a routine task.

Enhance Your Memory
Unfortunately, your tendency to forget routine things gets worse as you get older. Pairing a quirky action with a routine task makes it more memorable because the action requires you to pay extra attention to what you're doing. Another easy tactic: Get a day-of-the-week pill dispenser. A little organization may be all you need to avoid missing or doubling up on doses.

I guess I will be twirling around in the morning now.

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