I’m not alone. There are an estimated twenty million Americans who are Sandwich filling – caring for their children AND their parents at the same time. And just because aging parents may not live in your household doesn’t make it any less exhausting. Time spent traveling to another city, taking time off work, arranging for childcare, taking over another set of finances…if you’re not careful, you’ll quickly become the wilted lettuce in your Sandwich.

No matter what part of the Sandwich you are, it’s never an easy situation. Here are some tips and useful links to help with a smooth transition for all family members.

• Start a Conversation…It may be tough, but finding out how your parents are doing financially and what their plans are should they need long-term care, will help you plan for your life as well. Bills for nursing homes or home healthcare can easily reach over $50,000 a year…who will be paying for this and how?

• Benefit from Benefits…Medicare and Medicaid are only two of many government resources you or your aging parents may be able to use. The AARP website also has a wealth of information.

• Power Up…Have your parents set up a durable power of attorney authorizing someone to make financial decisions on their behalf; a healthcare proxy, authorizing someone to make medical decisions in case they’re incapacitated; and a living will outlining their wishes if life-sustaining medical care is needed. While you’re at it, do this for yourself as well.

• Take Care of Yourself…If you’re already sandwiched, remember to find time for yourself, and your spouse and kids. Reach out to siblings and other relatives for help, hire an elder companion for a few hours a week, or enroll aging parents in an adult day service.

• If the emotional toll of the responsibilities becomes overwhelming, don’t hesitate to talk it out, whether with a professional counselor, pastor, or friend. Think about enlisting an elder care manager to help get you organized. And don’t forget to assess your own financial situation. Will you have enough for retirement? To send junior to college? For your own long-term care?

Caring for aging parents may be extremely challenging, but it may also be incredibly rewarding. If you’re part of the Sandwich Generation – whether bread or filling – I’d love to hear about your experiences. What would you do differently? What tips do you have to offer? Post your comments below.

Robin

Return to: www.TullFinancial.com

When you receive your January statements you may be surprised to see that most major stock indexes posted some of their strongest performances in history for the month of January.  Domestic bond indexes posted solid gains as well. The fact that economic news continues to be generally positive has been an encouraging sign  thus far in 2012.  As an investment advisor, we continue to keep our attention on the ongoing concern of a euro-zone meltdown or a problem in China which could put a halt to this welcomed surge in stock prices.  You on the other hand, feel free to take satisfaction that the S&P 500-stock index, which rose 1.46% Friday, is up 6.9% so far this year, its best start to a year since 1987.

Robin

Return to: www.TullFinancial.com

Thankfully, our core values are in place – integrity, excellence, discipline, and commitment – to guide us in serving and caring for our clients. And a lot of wisdom comes with our 25+ years of experience. We are happy to report that we had many positive changes in 2011, particularly with implementing new software and launching ClientView Live to digitally share documents with our clients. We are very excited about streamlining our processes even further in 2012 in order to provide the most efficient service possible without losing that “live” human-touch that we value so much here at TFG.

As always, we welcome your concerns and your compliments throughout the year…we want to hear how we may serve you better. Please understand that a referral of our services to your family, friends, or colleagues is the best compliment you could give. Take a few extra minutes and “LIKE” us on FaceBook by clicking here.

To start your financial planning for the year off on the right foot, check out this article: Getting Ready for Tax Season: Changes for 2012. You’ll find that the IRS has issued cost-of-living adjustments for the 2012 tax year that modify brackets, deductions, and other thresholds for inflation.  As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and use us as a resource.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com

 Although most Americans will not have to worry about 2012 taxes until early 2013 when 2012 tax returns are due, self-employed individuals or anyone who must pay quarterly tax payments will want to plan ahead.

And there’s good news for those that do. The IRS recently announced cost-of-living adjustments for the 2012 tax year that bump up brackets, deductions, and other thresholds for inflation.

The following is a summary of the key changes for 2012.

• Exemptions are up: The personal and dependent exemption increases to $3,800, up $100 from 2011.
• Standard deductions have increased: The 2012 standard deduction increases to $11,900 for married couples filing a joint return, $5,950 for singles and married individuals filing separately, and $8,700 for heads of household.
• Tax-bracket adjustments: Tax-bracket thresholds have increased for each filing status (see table below).
• Estate tax exclusion has increased: The estate tax exclusion increases to $5,120,000, up from $5,000,000 for 2011. The annual exclusion for gifts will remain at $13,000.
• Earned income credits rise: The maximum earned income tax credit (EITC) rises to $5,891, up from $5,751 in 2011. The maximum income limit for the EITC increases to $50,270, up from $49,078 in 2011.
• Transportation benefits adjusted: The monthly limit on the value of qualified transportation benefits exclusion for qualified parking provided by an employer to its employees for 2012 rises to $240, up $10 from the limit in 2011. However, the temporary increase in the monthly limit on the value of the qualified transportation benefits exclusion for transportation in a commuter highway vehicle and transit pass provided by an employer to its employees expires and reverts to $125 for 2012.

Several tax benefits are unchanged in 2012. For example, the additional standard deduction for blind people and senior citizens remains at $1,150 for married individuals and $1,450 for singles and heads of household.

Details on these and other inflation adjustments can be found in Revenue Procedure 2011-52.

2012 Tax Brackets

As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and use us as a resource.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com

This column is provided through the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community, and is brought to you by Robert W. Tull, Jr. , a local member of FPA.

For more helpful tips on year-end charitable giving, watch my interview for CBN’s Newswatch, and click here to read the article.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and use us as a resource.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com

And what is the “cheese” that we’re all trying to reach? It certainly isn’t the little bag of peanuts that we get on the plane…we’ve been trained to do without that as well.

Actually, I believe that ultimately, the goal of the maze is a sense of security…that all of the things we’ve been trained to do as travelers will somehow allow us to get from point A to point B alive and well. Yes, it may be a little taxing, a little stressful, and we may have to do without the little luxuries we’ve been accustomed to (bye-bye free peanuts), but in the end, we accomplished our goal…and that’s what makes us happy, satisfied, and grateful that we stuck to the training.

I believe the same principle can apply for saving. We can be trained to save our money…to make the needed adjustments and sacrifices that achieve the goal. And the goal is often the same as in air travel – security. Would finding ways to reduce luxuries, maximize your retirement plan contributions, stick to a budget, or maybe even do a little freelance work on the side, be worth it if you knew that you would ultimately achieve financial security?

No matter the adjustments you decide to make, I believe that we can train ourselves to acclimate to them for the long haul. But it does take discipline and a strong desire to reach your goal. If you break from the training one too many times, the entire regimen can fall apart, just like in air travel (just try to go rogue in the maze…you’ll get derailed by TSA faster than you can say “peanuts.”)

Yes, these are difficult economic times, but it’s nothing history has not seen before. If our minds can be trained to “keep up with the Joneses,” then they can definitely be trained to change our saving and spending habits in order to outlast the Joneses. Trust me…the cheese is worth it.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and use us as a resource.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com

After I retrieved my shirts from Rosa, I drove down the street to another cleaners. I asked the gentleman at the desk, “What sets you apart from other cleaners?” He immediately said, “Customer service.”  I then asked, “So what do you mean by customer service, tell me more.”  He looked at the ceiling and then at me and replied, “You know…customer service.” 

What is true customer service? We often laugh at the “Peggy” commercials depicting a customer service specialist in Siberia giving the runaround to credit card callers. We laugh (or even cringe) because we’ve all spoken to “Peggy” at one time. But it doesn’t have to be like that.  Seth Godin has come up with a simple idea called, Just Fill in the Blank.  For example: I was pleased that I got what I paid for, that the food was properly cooked, that they honored their contract, that the roller coaster worked, that there was no trash on the ground and that the staff looked me in the eye.  But what really blew me away was ________. By Seth’s definition, whatever goes in the blank is an Extra–more than you had to do–but what you must do to be considered remarkable.  And remarkable is what we call something we can remark on….

I believe great customer service is doing what folks remark on. That Extra–like Rosa calling me about my shirts, even though she was out of a job; like the college admissions office reminding me to make a tuition payment by the 15^th to avoid a late fee; like the bank calling to say how I can lower my loan interest rate;  or like my mechanic not charging my daughter for fixing her flat tire and saying it’s on the house.

At TFG, we believe that basic customer service is:

1. Accept responsibility for doing what you said you would do
2. Provide independent unbiased advice
3. Tell the truth; integrity based service
4. Respect the client at all times
5. Demonstrate measurable results

This is basic customer service.  What we strive for is when our clients can fill in the blank by saying, “…but what really blew me away was ________.”

When you ask a company “What sets you apart from your competition,” you may be told, “Customer service.”  Everyone says that.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com

In the past, the focus has been on strategies to help clients accumulate, manage, and monitor their investments. The theme throughout last weekend’s conference was on the sustainability of income during retirement. In other words, making sure your money doesn’t run out before you do.  

To insure that your money lasts as long as you do, the age-old principle of taking “a long view” should not change with the times.   We of course don’t want to be unaware of what’s happening on a daily basis. But honestly, to live in anxiety over what’s going on daily, when your investment outlook should be over the next 10 to 20 years, is simply ridiculous.

The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed Professor Richard Sylla, economic historian and professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business, who has studied market behavior all the way back to 1790. In this fascinating interview we learn that Prof. Sylla and colleagues accurately predicted the past decade of overall declines through careful analysis of historical market patterns. And using that same pattern analysis, Prof. Sylla believes that stocks may be bottoming out in the next few years, opening the way for recovery.

In the article, Prof. Sylla says, “People ought to take a longer view and think in terms of years and even decades…Most people are quite pessimistic right now. I am saying: The market may go down from here. It may go up. But if you look at the long sweep of history, this seems like a good time to buy because the average return is down near the bottom” and is likely to go up.

Prof. Sylla’s research showed that U.S. stocks have followed a consistent pattern of ups and down for more than 200 years. So what does this mean for investors now? Well, taking Prof. Sylla’s research, the article recommends that “Investors with long time horizons should focus on where stocks could be in 10, 20 or even 30 years…That doesn’t mean they should buy stocks to the exclusion of all else, just that they shouldn’t give up on them.”

I have advised clients for more than 25 years to retain a long-term outlook and to avoid the short-term “noise” of the media.  Diversify, don’t put all your eggs in one basket…have a plan for your short-term and your long-term financial needs. While we can’t predict the future, we can, through careful research and analysis, have a pretty reliable compass to use when navigating the market.

To read the complete WSJ article and interview with Richard Sylla, see A Long-Term Case for Stocks. As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and use us as a resource.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com

Creating a Personal Disaster Plan for Your Home, Your Loved Ones, and Your Finances

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits all disaster plan, nor should it begin and end with details on how you and your family would cope in the aftermath of a weather disaster or an attack with worldwide implications. Disaster planning is all about worst-case scenarios that might affect you directly.

Consider these examples that actually have nothing to do with storms or even national security. Do you or your spouse travel extensively on the job? How prepared would you be if death, illness or unforeseen events kept you from coming home? Is there a child, friend or other close relative who would have special care interrupted if something were to happen to you? Last month I was notified by my credit card company that someone was making unauthorized purchases at a Safeway store 200 miles away.  Do you have a plan in the event your identification is stolen?

Your CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ can suggest ways to organize the various aspects of a plan. He or she can also advise you on ways to structure the report so it can be read and understood by others. Remember – a disaster plan is worthless if your loved ones, attorneys or financial experts don’t know it exists.

Here are some steps to get you started:

Develop a “what if” list.  Don’t rule anything out and bring your most trusted family members, friends and colleagues in on this discussion, even to the meeting with your planner or other financial experts. Consider every possible event that could hurt you, your family, your home or your business – what hurts one automatically hurts the rest.

Check your insurance at home and work. Your “what if” list might help you focus on this, but all home- and business based coverage should be double-checked with your agent annually or when major changes occur in your life, such as marriages, divorces, new kids, business expansion or contraction. Make sure your coverage is adequate based on any of the emergency scenarios you’ve developed.

Make sure your reserve fund is healthy. In any emergency, cash is king. If your family or colleagues had to pay the mortgage or rent, make payroll, buy groceries, temporarily relocate, pay your out-of-pocket costs for healthcare services, and even pay for your funeral, would they be able to access cash to do it? This goes beyond the creation of a typical emergency fund that pays three to six months of expenses if you lose a job; think bigger to make sure there’s more than enough in savings to cover the cash needs your worst-case scenarios reveal.

Create physical contingency plans: If your family was in different places when a natural or man-made disaster occurred, do you all know where you’d meet?  Close the loop with all friends, family and service providers you’d need for support if you had to rely on them – and set up an effective communications plan to go into effect the moment trouble happens.

Plan an escape kit. If you had to leave home within a very short period of time, what would you take? Key financial and insurance documents would be a must, so make sure that material is organized and in one place for speedy packing.  If you have financial or work data on computers, it’s important to regularly back up that data on separate drives that could be packed up and downloaded to a portable laptop offsite. Also, don’t forget to plan for your pets if you have them – they’ll need their supply of food, toys and medication if necessary.

Although Hurricane Irene has passed and the earthquake is simply a memory, each of us needs to review or establish contingency plans for our families and businesses. In light of 9/11, September has officially been proclaimed National Preparedness Month, so what better time to do it?  Here are some links to help get you started.

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA ) provides a wealth of information on how to prepare for or recover from a disaster:  http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
• Virginia Emergency  provides information on imminent state emergencies, as well as how to plan and prepare for them: http://www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia
• Emergency Management Information for various localities in Virginia. You may also access information for other states here as well: http://www.ready.gov/america/local/va.html

As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and use us as a resource.

Robin

Return to www.TullFinancial.com