Financial success in 2000 and beyond can be hard to come by , unless you have “the book.”
Written as an investment resource, “Financial Success in the Year 2000 and Beyond” goes against conventional wisdom and strategies, said Lance Pelky, founder and chief executive officer of San Diego-based Pelky & Associates.
As a financial investment adviser, Pelky and 12 other like-minded individuals from across the country collectively wrote the book, which focuses on how to accumulate and keep wealth, he said.
While the book covers a range of topics, Pelky specifically wrote about retirement planning. The topic fell in line with his day-to-day job, since most of his clients are between 40 and 80 years old.
Many people were told to put their money into retirement plans because they would be in a lower tax bracket upon retiring, Pelky said.
Instead, Pelky has found that most retirees stay in the same, or sometimes higher, tax bracket.
Raised by Depression-era parents, most baby boomers have been taught to have their homes paid off by the time they retire, he added.
“When you take money out of the retirement plan it’s fully taxable as ordinary income and there is nothing to offset the tax because the house is paid off,” he said.
The traditional method of having all your money in a pension or retirement plan just doesn’t work any more, he said.
“There is no right or wrong way to retire,” Pelky said. “But the wrong way to retire is to have all your money in a retirement plan and have your house paid off.”
If retirement is not planned properly, an individual may not use much of the money they have accumulated for fear of taxes, he said.
In addition, 50 to 70 percent of money and assets accumulated can be lost to taxes upon the death of an individual, Pelky said.
“The biggest fee you will ever pay is not a front-end sales charge, it’s not a back-end charge or a high management fee. The biggest fee you will ever pay is the IRS fee; it is the taxes,” Pelky said, quoting the book.
Pelky has worked in the industry since 1984 and founded his six-employee firm seven years ago.
Since going out on his own, Pelky has also taught financial investment classes at local colleges. He currently teaches extension courses at Chapman University.
The book is available at Barnes & Noble stores and through Amazon.com for $39.95.
