I’m fixing breakfast this morning and I see a TV commercial coming on. Something along the lines of, “Have the big brokerage firms let you down? Come talk to us. We’ve got neighborhood offices. We’ll get to know you. We don’t have any proprietary or in-house products. We’re here to be your friend and help you out.”

Really?

About 3 years ago, a client brought some paperwork to us from the same company, after they had sold a mutual fund. I’m looking at the paperwork and I see this note at the bottom that says, “Refer to our mutual fund disclosure document” in really small print like this.

So I flip the page and here’s what the fine print said. “XYZ Company receives payments, known as revenue sharing, from preferred fund families which currently include American Funds, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, Hartford, Lord Abbot, Oppenheimer, Putnam, and Federated. Such revenue sharing involves a payment from a mutual fund company. XYZ, its investment representatives, investment companies and shareholders benefit financially from the receiving of revenue sharing payments from mutual fund families like these. As a result this creates a potential conflict of interest in the form of additional payments to the firm. These payments are in addition to the standard sales commissions and management fees.

And while we may offer many mutual fund families, revenue sharing creates incentive for the selection and sales of preferred funds.”

And here’s the clincher, “Virtually all of our sales of mutual funds are in these fund families.”

So here we’ve got a brokerage firm advertising on TV, telling you they don’t create their own mutual fund products – meaning their representatives are supposedly free to pick and choose the best fund for their client. But when you read the fine print, you find maybe 8 mutual fund companies that are paying extra for this brokerage firm to use them!

Have they ‘technically’ broken any law? No. But is this really the kind of company you want to be getting your financial advice from?

And doesn’t it make you wonder where they got all that money to pay for the air time of TV commercial???

A friendly reminder – always read the fine print, even if you need a magnifying glass to see it.

In general terms, we’re big fans of owning your home free and clear, at or before retirement. But there are always people who think otherwise.

They usually argue that, “Well, you know, mortgage money today’s cheap. So keep your money invested at higher returns (or interest rates) and when the market goes up the difference if yours to keep.”

The investment argument has some merit, but not in an apples to apples comparison. If you’re going to keep a mortgage and have money invested in the market, the mortgage is guaranteed, so you’ve guaranteed to pay the interest back to the bank. The investment in the market is, as we all know, not guaranteed. So sometimes you might come out ahead, but sometimes you don’t come out ahead.

Some people complain that their taxes will go up, but usually forget that their monthly cash flow will also improve since they won’t be making mortgage payments every month. So in almost every case I find, on a net-after-tax cash flow basis, that you’re better off not having a mortgage. The argument that the home is a tax deduction just doesn’t hold water. Where does it make sense to give a mortgage company $1.00 of interest just so you can save $0.25 on your income tax?

When it comes to a Worry-Free Retirement and we look back, especially to the 2008 market meltdown, and we put our clients into two groups — people with mortgages and people without mortgages, I don’t need to tell you which group was sleeping better at night.

Bottom line, people with no mortgages sleep better at night! So if you want a Worry-Free Retirement, a big step in the right direction is paying off your mortgage!

In my recent article, I posed the question, “Is real estate a good bet yet?” And the answer I came up with is, “probably not.”

But there’s one area where that line of reasoning does not apply.

And that’s when you’re talking about real estate with a view – a water view.

You’ve probably heard that the three most important words in real estate are location, location, location. And one location that seems to weather just about every storm (at least those of a financial nature) are properties that are located on the water. In fact, if you plan to invest in a condo or a townhouse, I suggest you only consider waterfront property.

And when I say waterfront, I’m not talking about the front of just any body of water. A pond with a fountain in the middle of a muddy canal doesn’t quite cut the mustard. In this case, I’m talking about large bodies of water. Water you can sail a boat or ride a jet ski on, like a river, a lake, or best of all, the ocean.

The market may go up and down, but properties with access to the water will always hold a good chunk of their value.

I get asked about golf course properties all the time, and to be honest, when it comes to condos and townhomes, I’d suggest avoiding them altogether. Golf courses are great in the beginning, when the developer is still involved and everything’s shiny and new. But once the developer leaves, golf course communities can run into problems, like financial difficulties and even bankruptcies, that can bring the value of the properties located there crashing down.

So when it comes to investing in property in this volatile market – and especially when it comes to condos and townhouses, hit the beach (or lake, or river). You’ll be far less likely to get soaked.

For more information on real estate and other investment opportunities, visit my website at www.brianfricke.com.

You’ve probably heard the news that this year, regardless of your income, you now have the option of converting some or all of your IRA investments to a Roth IRA .

The question is, should you?

If you’re planning on leaving this money to your heirs, the simplest, most obvious answer to this question is yes. If you can pay the extra income tax using non-IRA money. At least, I think that’s what the media will tell you. After all, if you’re not planning to use the money during your lifetime, a Roth IRA will enable you to escape the yearly required minimum distribution requirement that comes with a traditional IRA once you reach age 701/2.

In other words, what’s not to like?

As with all good things in life, there’s a catch to the Roth IRA. Or in this case, a few catches.
If you convert to a Roth, you’re going to voluntarily increase your income tax liability and pay more taxes than necessary today. In the hopes of paying fewer taxes later on, maybe due to a tax rate increase that seems almost inevitable.

But here’s what most people are forgetting about. The extra taxes you pay now is also money you no longer have invested earning interest. This is called ‘opportunity cost’. So make sure you net the ‘lost opportunity’ of earning interest on that money before you jump to convert some of your IRA money.

And don’t forget, if you convert your IRA money to a Roth IRA that money has to stay in the account for a full 5 years. If you need the money before that time for any reason, you’ll pay regular income tax and 10% penalty for any earnings you take out.

But my biggest concern…I can’t help feeling a little skeptical about the long-term promises of the Roth IRA. If you convert to a Roth IRA, the government gets more tax revenue now, but it’s all being paid for by forfeiting future tax revenue. If at some point down the line, the government is looking for a new source of tax revenue; I think all those Roth IRAs are going to present a pretty tempting target. And if yours has been passed on to your children or grandchildren, they may have to pay the price.

Do I know this is going to happen? Of course not. But I do believe it’s a risk, and something to think about when the pressure is on to convert to a Roth IRA.

For more information on this subject, or for any other questions about retirement planning, please feel free to visit my website at www.brianfricke.com.

While everyone’s attention has been on healthcare reform, the nitwits in Washington pulled a fast one on everyone who has investments or insurance. So just about everyone will be affected…

This is the topic of tomorrows (Tues Mar 30th, 2010) ‘Coffee Talk’ call. The information is Free, with no obligation on your part.

I’ll tell you what happened and… what you need to do to protect yourself, your family and your money!

This could cost you thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. Way more than Healthcare reform, so…don’t miss this call.

And we’ll be glad to answer any other financial issue or concern you may have…on any financial topic.

Call starts promptly at 9am & will run no longer than 30min.

Special Conference Call #: 1-800-304-3172
Access Code: 825218#

(It’s OK if you Forward this to a few of your friends and business associates. They might find the call interesting and helpful too)!

Hope to ‘See’ you Tomorrow!

Brian Fricke, CFP
Author – Worry Free Retirement
Top Wealth Manager 2004 – 2009 -Wealth Manager Magazine
Top Financial Planning Firm – Orlando Business Journal
Email: bfricke@fmcretire.com
Web: www.brianfricke.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/Brian.L.Fricke
Twitter: Twitter.com/BrianFrickeCFP

IMPORTANT: If this message was sent to you by a friend… you can grab a complimentary subscription to my Monthly print newsletter ($24.95 value). It can be fun, controversial, informative, but always worth your time. So take a moment to click here and claim your free subscription now.

Bonus: when you do, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book Worry Free Retirement, also at NO CHARGE!

***Listen To Last Week’s Call***
If you missed Last Week’s Call “Are You Making These Mistakes On Your Taxes”??? the digital Audio can be found here or you can Click on the link below to listen to the audio.
http://www.brianfricke.com/conference-calls

This is the topic of next week’s (Tues Mar 23rd, 2010) ‘Coffee Talk’ call. The information is Free, with no obligation on your part.

You’ve heard that old saying that you can’t avoid death and taxes. On the next edition of Coffee Talk I’ll be covering some of the most common mistakes we see people make on their taxes.

Including the single biggest mistake we see people make when they prepare their own tax return.

I’ll also tell you what tax records you need to keep and which ones you can toss.

You’ll hear about some of the common mistakes we’ve seen people make using some of the popular tax filing software programs.

And we’ll be available to answer any question you may have…on any financial topic.

Call starts promptly at 9am & will run no longer than 30min.

Special Conference Call #: 1-800-304-3172
Access Code: 825218#

(It’s OK if you Forward this to a few of your friends and business associates. They might find the call interesting and helpful too)!

Hope to ‘See’ you next Tuesday!

Brian Fricke, CFP
Author – Worry Free Retirement
Top Wealth Manager 2004 – 2009 -Wealth Manager Magazine
Top Financial Planning Firm – Orlando Business Journal
Email: bfricke@fmcretire.com
Web: www.brianfricke.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/Brian.L.Fricke
Twitter: Twitter.com/BrianFrickeCFP

IMPORTANT: If this message was sent to you by a friend… you can grab a complimentary subscription to my Monthly print newsletter ($24.95 value). It can be fun, controversial, informative, but always worth your time. So take a moment to click here and claim your free subscription now.

Bonus: when you do, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book Worry Free Retirement, also at NO CHARGE!

***Listen To Last Week’s Call***

If you missed Last Week’s Call “4 Sacred Cows Of Investing That Will…Cost You Thousands Of Dollars Every Year”!!!

the digital Audio can be found here or you can Click on the link below to listen to the audio.

http://www.brianfricke.com/conference-calls

This is the topic of our next ‘Coffee Talk’ call (Tues Mar 16th, 2010). The information is Free, with no obligation on your part.

• Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) – investing a fixed dollar amount at regular intervals – is a failure at reducing investment risk.

• Got big tax losses you’ll never use in your lifetime? It’s not as bad as you think! What most people don’t know about or have forgotten.

• Target Date Retirement funds should be avoided, without exception. This so called simple solution if you find it too difficult, unpleasant or time-consuming to choose among all your other investment choices is a Ticking Time Bomb! The Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) in most 401(k) plans that should be avoided at all costs.

• Would you have been better off leaving everything in CDs the last 10 years? This is a comment we’ve been hearing more and more. I’ll reveal the Fatal Flaw to this line of thinking. Why you would have even bigger losses today if you would have followed this approach! Crazy…but true!

Call starts promptly at 9am & will run no longer than 30min.

Special Conference Call #: 1-800-304-3172
Access Code: 825218#

(It’s OK if you Forward this to a few of your friends and business associates. They might find the call interesting and helpful too)!

Hope to ‘See’ you next Tuesday!

Brian Fricke, CFP
Author – Worry Free Retirement
Top Wealth Manager 2004 – 2009 -Wealth Manager Magazine
Top Financial Planning Firm – Orlando Business Journal
Email: bfricke@fmcretire.com
Web: www.brianfricke.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/Brian.L.Fricke
Twitter: Twitter.com/BrianFrickeCFP

IMPORTANT: If this message was sent to you by a friend… you can grab a complimentary subscription to my Monthly print newsletter ($24.95 value). It can be fun, controversial, informative, but always worth your time. So take a moment to click here and claim your free subscription now.

Bonus: when you do, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book Worry Free Retirement, also at NO CHARGE!

***Listen To Last Week’s Call***
If you missed Last Week’s Call “Top 5 Retirement Planning Mistakes I See People Make” the digital Audio can be found here or you can Click on the link below to listen to the audio.
http://www.brianfricke.com/conference-calls

In this month’s article, I talked about the estate tax, the capital gains tax, and how they seem to change every year for no good reason. The really frustrating thing is, how your assets will be taxed after your time on earth is over is only one small example of how little sense our tax laws make.

The other night, my wife and I were talking about health care, and how doctor’s offices have to employ people just to fill out insurance forms. It’s a whole new profession to just navigate through the insurance claim side of the business. And I looked at my wife and said “this is wrong.” Why should we have to hire people, whether it’s a business or an individual, to fill out insurance forms? It should be simpler than that.

Well, the same holds true for taxes. Why do we have to hire people just to fill out our tax returns, or have to buy special software to fill out our taxes? The process has just gotten too complicated.

So right now, I want to ask every American taxpayer reading this to do me a favor. If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of reforming our current tax code. I personally think the country would be a whole lot better off if we just threw the current tax code in the trash can and started over with a completely different tax system.

The best one that I’ve seen out there is something called the “Fair Tax.” Which brings me to my favor.

On our website www.brianfricke.com, at the bottom of the resources page, there’s a button that you can click to see how the fair tax would affect you. You can plug in your own information and see whether a new tax system like the Fair Tax would be beneficial to your own personal situation. I’d be interested to find out how much money the Fair Tax would save you.

The other thing that I’d like to you to do is to send a note to the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to encourage him to at least have an open debate pro and con on the Senate floor regarding the Fair Tax. It’s nothing new and it’s been out and about for the past 10-15 years, but it has yet to have an open debate on the House or Senate floor.

You can go to www.FairTax.org for a link to send a letter to the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee requesting him to hold an open hearing. Please do this right now while it’s still fresh on your mind. Makes you wonder why they’re afraid of a good healthy debate, doesn’t it?

This is the topic of next week’s (Tues Mar 9th, 2010) ‘Coffee Talk’ call. The information is Free, with no obligation on your part.

How many times in your lifetime will you retire? Once, maybe twice!?

I’ve ‘retired’ over 756 times! – via helping our clients

So I’m going to share with you the most common planning mistakes I’ve seen people make, hopefully you’ll avoid them.

I’ll also discuss my recent observations on how the definition of retirement is changing and why I think the word retirement will be a ‘dirty word’ in 10 years or less.

I’ll also reveal what some of our more successful clients are doing to make sure they’re living life on their terms. A life filled with purpose and passion.

Oh, I’ll be calling you from The Villages. I’m holding a book signing party for some of our clients and their friends. If you’re in the area stop in, I’d love to see you… Carrabba’s Italian Grill™ on Hwy 441, 3:00 – 4:30pm.

Call starts promptly at 9am & will run no longer than 30min.

Special Conference Call #: 1-800-304-3172
Access Code: 825218#

(It’s OK if you Forward this to a few of your friends and business associates. They might find the call interesting and helpful too)!

Hope to ‘See’ you next Tuesday!

Brian Fricke, CFP
Author – Worry Free Retirement
Top Wealth Manager 2004 – 2009 -Wealth Manager Magazine
Top Financial Planning Firm – Orlando Business Journal
Email: bfricke@fmcretire.com
Web: www.brianfricke.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/Brian.L.Fricke
Twitter: Twitter.com/BrianFrickeCFP

IMPORTANT: If this message was sent to you by a friend… you can grab a complimentary subscription to my Monthly print newsletter ($24.95 value). It can be fun, controversial, informative, but always worth your time. So take a moment to click here and claim your free subscription now.

Bonus: when you do, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book Worry Free Retirement, also at NO CHARGE!

***Listen To Last Week’s Call***

If you missed Last Week’s Call “It’s Not What You Know, But Who You Know” the digital Audio can be found here or you can Click on the link below to listen to the audio.

http://www.brianfricke.com/conference-calls

This is the topic of next week’s (Tues Mar 2nd, 2010) ‘Coffee Talk’ call. The information is Free, with no obligation on your part.

We’ll be sharing some of the resources we use to help our clients save thousands of dollars on things like Cars, Real Estate, Insurance, Legal fees, Healthcare issues, Long Term Care.

Over the years we’ve documented savings that easily exceed $1,000,000!!!

And…we’ll be here to answer any questions you may have about this… or any other financial matter.

Call starts promptly at 9am & will run no longer than 30min.

Special Conference Call #: 1-800-304-3172
Access Code: 825218#

(It’s OK if you Forward this to a few of your friends and business associates. They might find the call interesting and helpful too)!

Hope to ‘See’ you next Tuesday!

Brian Fricke, CFP
Author – Worry Free Retirement
Top Wealth Manager 2004 – 2009 -Wealth Manager Magazine
Top Financial Planning Firm – Orlando Business Journal
Email: bfricke@fmcretire.com
Web: www.brianfricke.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/Brian.L.Fricke
Twitter: Twitter.com/BrianFrickeCFP

IMPORTANT: If this message was sent to you by a friend… you can grab a complimentary subscription to my Monthly print newsletter ($24.95 value). It can be fun, controversial, informative, but always worth your time. So take a moment to click here and claim your free subscription now.

Bonus: when you do, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book Worry Free Retirement, also at NO CHARGE!

***Listen To Last Week’s Call***

If you missed Last Week’s Call “Do Your Kids Need A Financial Bailout???” the digital Audio can be found here or you can Click on the link below to listen to the audio.

http://www.brianfricke.com/conference-calls