Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 14, 2015 to attend FINANCIAL FEST –presented by Money Radio (KFNN 1510AM & 99.3FM) – a day of free seminars specialized to grow your wealth and help you retire comfortably.

Boudreau Consulting’s Kevin Boudreau will be presenting TAX BACKETOLOGY -- a review different ways of minimizing your personal & business income taxes --regardless of your tax bracket.

Boudreau Consulting is the only CPA firm presenting at this event. You will have a chance to meet the Boudreau Consulting tax professionals that can help you save money. TAX BRACKETOLOGY is scheduled to start at 11 am.

On the surface, this may seem like another scam, but your health insurance company may request that you provide them with the social security numbers for you, your spouse and your children covered by your policy.

This is because the Affordable Care Act requires every provider of minimal essential coverage to report that coverage by filing an information return with the IRS and furnishing a statement to covered individuals. The information is used by the IRS to administer – and individuals to show compliance with – the health care law.

Health coverage providers will file an information return, Form 1095-B, Health Coverage, with the IRS and will furnish statements to you in 2016, to report coverage information from calendar year 2015.

Opening the mail and seeing a notice from the Internal Revenue Service generally raises our blood pressure.  Here are some tips of how to address and resolve any issues when you receive a notice.

1. Watch out for Scams - The IRS only will initially notify you by mail – not phone or email.  The IRS does not contact people via email, text or social media. 
2. Don’t Ignore It. You can respond to most IRS notices quickly and easily. It is important that you reply right away.
3. Focus on the Issue. IRS notices usually deal with a specific issue about your tax return or tax account.  Understand the reason for the notice.

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve's 2014 Survey of Household Economics and Decision Making found many Americans are not financially prepared for retirement.

• 38% percent have either no intention to retire or plan to keep working for as long as possible.
• 31% of non-retirees have no retirement savings or pension, including nearly a quarter of those older than 45
• 55% of those making less than $40,000 per year plan to keep working as long as possible or never plan to retire
• 53% could cover a hypothetical emergency expense costing $400 without selling something or borrowing money.
• 31% went without some form of medical care in the past year because they could not afford it

A generic rule of thumb financial advisors have used for retirees is to withdraw 4% of their account balance each year in order to not out live your money.

However, interest rates have been at historic lows the last nine years, so conservative investors may need to accumulate more funds if they wish to use the 4% withdrawal rate.

As a Steven Covey advocate, Tom Anderson’s personal finance article on the CNBC website Monday caught my interest — 7 habits of highly effective retirement savers. You can read the entire article at www.cnbc.com/id/102545493 but here are your keys to success:

As the economy appears to be a bit stronger, now is a great time to try and position yourself for a financially stress-free retirement. One of the best ways is to eliminate as many fixed costs – your home mortgage is the primary great target.

President Barack Obama announced that he will propose tax increases for higher-income individuals and provide tax relief for middle-class taxpayers in last night’s State of the Union address. He wants to simplify the Internal Revenue Code, eliminating loopholes, and help “middle class families get ahead and grow the economy.”

While it remains to be seen when and how anything may be implemented, the president’s wish list includes:

Careful naming of IRA beneficiaries is critical. Merely putting a name on the beneficiary form is insufficient; a certain amount of thought, communication, and coordination is required to prevent loss of family wealth to taxation.

An IRA owner who wishes to pass on as much wealth as possible should carefully consider who should be named as a beneficiary. Wealth grows more quickly in the tax-free or tax-deferred environment inside an IRA. If some of your beneficiaries do not need the IRA funds for support, you should name the youngest possible designated beneficiaries to spread distributions over the longest possible time period. This minimizes RMDs, leaves more money to grow inside the IRA at its pre-tax rate of return and maximizes the amounts that can be passed on to heirs.

Do you donate your services to charity and travel as part of the service? Some travel expenses may be deductible for income tax purposes.

The pressure to be financially prepared for retirement is evident in the recent Gallup finding that saving for retirement is Americans’ top financial worry.

According to a 2011 Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index survey, the value of investments is the key factor determining when pre-retired investors say they will retire, followed by their health, the cost of healthcare, and inflation. However, according to a more recent Wells Fargo/Gallup survey, U.S. investors are highly cautious about retirement savings, saying they would prefer secure investments with low growth potential over investments with high growth potential and a risk of lost principal.