Mission
The FedUp Group was founded with a sincere respect for the client in mind. Our underlying philosophy is that financial planning shouldn’t have to be as hard as it appears. It’s why we take the time to not only listen to our clients, but to give them as much information as they need to make informed decisions about their long–term plans. Advisor Timothy McCleskey Jr is there to safeguard his clients’ assets as he builds wealth from the bottom up.
Vision
We envision a future where financial well-being is accessible to all, regardless of their background or current circumstances. By leveraging our expertise and staying ahead of the ever-changing financial landscape, we strive to be the trusted partner that equips our clients with the confidence and resources to navigate the complexities of personal and business finance.
Your retirement years are, in part, defined by economic forces you have no control over. If you happen to live through a huge spike in inflation or the downfall of Social Security, you won’t be able to stop either of these things from affecting your finances. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to give yourself an edge during your retirement, particularly if you’re interested in having a steady stream of income to play with every month.
Income Planning: The Best Way to Secure Your Wealth
For years, most financial experts pushed the idea of saving to the American public. They wanted everyone to have enough set away for a rainy day, so they wouldn’t have to watch their wealth take a tumble during their retirement years. Today, this concept has evolved to include income planning. This tried–and–true strategy is similar to that of a paycheck. Just as you don’t rely on your savings to pay your monthly bills when you’re working, income planning means having enough new revenue to cover your expenses and still save.
With income planning, as with investing, the goal is to spread out where the money is coming from. For instance, you might have money coming from your pension, Social Security, and a rental property you own. At The FedUp Group, you’ll learn more about how you can employ different strategies to keep yourself flush during your retirement years. Advisor Timothy McCleskey Jr. is an expert at helping people map out their income strategies in the Nashville metropolitan area, so they understand how to best allocate their money to different expenses.
There’s a lot to learn when it comes to what you can do with your money, but the general rules stay the same no matter who you are and how much you’re worth.
1. Calculate what you can save every month.
2. Allow a financial advisor to aggressively manage a portion of your portfolio for growth.
3. Sit back and let yourself (and your loved ones) enjoy all of the wealth you’ve worked so hard to build.
Retirement Income Planning
Efficient Tax Planning
Maximizing Social Security
Tax Free Retirement
Health Care
Life Insurance
Retirement Income Planning
Retirement income planning has become the new trend in retirement planning, mostly because it mirrors how most people have likely always managed their finances. For the most part, people rely on their paychecks as a way to build up their assets. With retirement planning, a financial advisor can help their clients replace that paycheck with other forms of income that are equally dependable.
How to Plan Your Retirement Income
How much do I need to retire in the Nashville metropolitan area? This common question doesn’t have a common answer, even if you might hear some people quote certain figures or percentages. For a while, the goal was for people to save $1 million by the time they hit their retirement age, because this would give them somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000 annually. This is an easy number to remember, but it glosses over a lot of the complexities that come with retirement.
A much smarter way to look at retirement is to think of it as you would any other financial equation. The more money you have coming, the more likely you’ll be able to pay for all of your expenses plus all of those unexpected emergencies. At The FedUp Group, a financial advisor can tell you more about what kind of revenue would work best for you.
Ultimately, how you determine your income comes down to a combination of your current assets and your desired lifestyle. Some retirees may be able to leverage wealth today to purchase several rental properties, which would provide them with a steady monthly income in the form of rental checks. Of course, those who have no interest in being a landlord will choose a different strategy.
Pensions, Social Security, stock dividends: There are numerous revenue sources that will augment your current savings so you can enjoy a rock–solid foundation of income every single month. If you want to learn how to make the most of what you have now, a financial advisor can give you all the advice you need to secure your future.
Efficient Tax Planning
When there are millions of people who file their taxes on their own every year, it may seem as though a task like tax planning would be reserved for the wealthy. But a good financial advisor will tell you that the basics of tax planning should be used by everyone, and this is true even if they take the standard deduction and file EZ forms.
Tax Planning in Nashville, Tenn.
Tax planning is more than just knowing what your charitable contributions were for the year and estimating the capital gains and losses on different assets. When you partner with a financial advisor, you can hand over the responsibility to a professional who not only understands the tax codes and how they can help or hurt your bottom line, but also how those same tax codes factor into the margins of your portfolio. What’s more, they’re thinking about your financial health today as well as several decades down the road.
Efficient tax planning is based on a general framework with a simple underlying premise: there’s no need to tip the government. In real-world terms, this may mean opening up a trust, shuffling your accounts, or executing a 1031 exchange. If you’re used to relying on an accountant instead of a financial advisor, you don’t need to be told just how valuable it can be to talk to someone who can steer you in the right direction.
A financial advisor simply takes it all one step further. Because they often handle so many of your other financial decisions, including income and estate planning, they have insights that an accountant simply doesn’t. If you want to work with an expert who will listen to your plans and help you map out the best course to get there, The FedUp Group staff is ready to help. Advisor Timothy McCleskey Jr. isn’t just there to listen, he’s there to take strategic action to get you where you want to be. Considering how much money you can lose to taxes over the years, this particular service often yields some of the best possible ROI.
Maximizing Social Security
Social Security has had its fair share of ups and downs since its debut in the 1930s, though it’s clear that its reputation has lost its luster in the recent past. What was once a beacon of hope for many has ended up being a pittance for seniors who are trying to survive. There is some truth to this, but there are also plenty of shades in between the sometimes extreme predictions.
A qualified financial advisor would never tell a client that they could trust Social Security as the primary source of their income, as there’s too much fluctuation in the government’s decisions for there to be any guarantees. What they will tell you is that discounting the benefits of Social
Security would also be a mistake.
How to Maximize Social Security
Maximizing Social Security is a financial concept that ensures you get as much as you’re entitled to. After having paid into the system for decades, there’s no reason not to get some of that back in the form of a monthly benefit check.
If you’re curious about what your check will actually be, online estimators can certainly be a place to start, but a financial advisor can tell you not to get too invested in that number. A few simple questions can only go so far in telling you what you’ll really be earning. Your check is determined by the course of your career, so the value of your check will depend on everything from the industry you worked in to how long you spent on the job.
To get what you deserve, it starts with knowing the rules of the program. At The FedUp Group, you can work with an advisor who knows not just what the forms are asking, but how to calculate each number so it thoroughly reflects the entirety of your work history. If you don’t want to leave any money on the table, it helps to partner with an expert who’s looking out for your best interests.
Tax Free Retirement
Whether you’re referring to the local, state, or federal tax code, it’s rare to hear them described as “free.” There may be a few breaks hidden in all the verbiage, but the reality is the everyday American is used to paying their fair share.
However, there is a lot more to all of these codes than you might be aware of, and you may be able to use the laws to your advantage once you know what your options are. If you’ve heard of a nearly tax–free retirement, though, a financial advisor can tell you that it’s well worth looking into more deeply.
How to Have as Close to a Tax–Free Retirement as Possible
By the time you reach retirement age, it’s normal to accrue numerous assets. The more you have, the more options there are when it comes to organizing and optimizing them. A financial advisor isn’t there to command their clients; they’re available to partner with in long–term decisions about wealth.
Tax–free planning can be an important part of your future income and estate. A financial professional knows the rules that govern your tax bracket, and then they consider how charitable giving, trusts, real estate, and capital gain deferrals all factor into your bottom line. Some people will want to set aside a certain amount of money every year for their favorite cause, others will want to put money aside for their loved ones.
Whether you want to pay for your grandchildren’s educations or finance a trip to the other side of the world, working toward a tax-free retirement can mean having more choices in your life. It can mean having enough income every month to give yourself a thick cushion between your expenses and your assets. At The FedUp Group, advisor Timothy McCleskey Jr. can tell you more about how different options will impact your portfolio, and how to best navigate your responsibilities as you head into your retirement years. Once you know what’s available to you, it’s easier to feel confident about the next steps to take.
Health Care
When people in debt are asked what kinds of bills they have, it’s not uncommon for them to pin it down to medical costs. What they don’t often talk about are the specifics behind those bills. The uncertainty of what’s covered and what isn’t, not to mention the variability between health
facilities today, can be enough to make anyone nervous. If you’re wondering how to financially prepare for health care in the future, whether primary or emergency care, it can help to consult with a professional who has done their homework.
Talking to a financial advisor can help you build your health care plans as a part of a steadfast quest to manage your assets before and during your retirement. At The FedUp Group, you’ll meet experts who can tell you more about what it means to protect your assets during even the worst health care crisis imaginable. From the insurance coverage you choose to your personal health care preferences, the right advisor can help you be ready for anything.
Health Care and Financial Planning
For some people, health care is a primary presence in their life. Maybe they have family health risks, such as a history of heart disease, or maybe they’re just very aware of how their choices today affect their body tomorrow. For others, they may not give it as much thought, as they generally feel healthy on a day–to–day basis.
No matter which camp a person falls into, though, they need to consider how everything from hereditary conditions to the increasing costs of health care will impact their income planning for the future. They also have to think about what kinds of treatments they prefer and how they would pay for it all. (Those who subscribe to a more holistic approach of health care may want to visit an acupuncturist or a nutritionist every month to maintain their health.) An advisor will consider not just who you are, but also what you want from your health care, and they’ll tell you how you can cover the costs of everything from standard appointments to in- home care after a major surgery.
Life Insurance
Life insurance can be an ambiguous form of insurance, often because it’s more likely to be set up by an employer than on one’s own. Unlike your car insurance policy, which was likely chosen thanks to research into what kind of coverage you’d receive, the specifics of a life insurance policy may not always be understood by the policyholder or their families.
A financial advisor may not seem like the right place to turn for help when it comes to your life insurance, but it’s an important part of your estate planning. Consider the fact that a reputable advisor will know not only what your assets are, but how you want them to be handled in the future.
How to Choose the Right Life Insurance Policy
The best type of life insurance for you has everything to do with your lifestyle and personal preferences. This includes the needs of your loved ones, of course, but it’s also about how you want your golden years to proceed. There are some life insurance plans that can be used by the policyholder as a type of failsafe savings plan. In the case of an extreme emergency, the policyholder can essentially cash in the partial value of their account, so they don’t have to dip into debt.
At The FedUp Group, you’ll work with an advisor who can tell you more about what that would mean for your long–term financial planning. They can also tell you more about the trade–off between the sticker price of the policy and the benefits the insurance carrier will provide. Term life insurance is a popular policy because it’s an affordable option. The catch is that the policy has an end date (say, the 25th birthday of your youngest child). If the policy isn’t used, the benefits are dissolved and the holder will need to choose a new plan if they want to have coverage.
The right financial advisor can give you the specifics about different policies, and can also point out what you and your family will be facing should certain situations arise. Having an advisor work with you to choose a policy as a part of your overall asset management strategy can help you preserve the wealth you worked so hard to build.
Investment advisory services provided by Tucker Asset Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Guarantees are subject to the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Products and features are subject to state availability. Not endorsed by or affiliated with any governmental entity.