Greetings!
Happy New Year! We want to thank you for your continued interest in our monthly newsletters and look forward to delivering more informative and fun-filled editions in the coming year.
As always, please feel free to forward and share our newsletters with your family, friends and co-workers.
Have a great month!
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 SPECIAL ALERT
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The $100,000 of adjusted gross income cap for conversion of qualified funds such as IRA's to Roth IRA's is gone for the tax year 2010. Converting a Roth generally makes sense if you expect to be in the same or a higher tax bracket during retirement and you're able to pay the tax bill with other funds. Also of note, people converting in 2010 can elect to defer the tax and report 50% of the conversion on their 2010 returns and the balance on their 2012 returns. With the top income tax
rate of 39.6% likely to return in 2011, that election may not make sense depending on your current tax bracket.
If you wish to review your current situation further, please contact our office today!
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Term vs. Whole Life Insurance
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Most
people want enough life insurance to make sure that their spouse and
family can continue to maintain the lifestyle they had while the
primary breadwinner was alive. You should take into account your
family's expenses, burial costs, existing debts and in some cases,
funding of a college education, when calculating how much coverage is
desired.
Choosing the right type of life insurance depends on
your age, your family's needs and your retirement plans. There are two
basic types of life insurance policies - term and whole life.
Term insurance
- Offers protection for a specific period of time - usually ten,
fifteen, twenty and thirty years. This policy normally has level
premiums and pays a benefit only if you die during the period covered
by the policy. If you stop paying premiums, the insurance coverage
will terminate. The coverage ends at the end of the term but can be
renewed, if you qualify medically, usually at a higher premium because
you will be older and possibly not as healthy as you were previously.
Whole life insurance
- Also known as "permanent life insurance", this is protection that is
valid for as long as you live and your premiums are current. By
choosing to pay a premium that does not increase as you grow older, you
average out the costs of your policy over your lifetime on a yearly
basis. The important feature of whole life insurance is that it builds
cash value - a sum that increases over the years on a tax-deferred
basis. If you cancel your policy, you can get the current cash value
in a lump sum. To access your funds while the policy is active, you may take out your cash accumulation via the withdrawal of dividends or through a policy
loan.
Over the past few years, a different design of a whole
life policy has been introduced that allows the policy holder to enjoy
greater cash value build-up. To learn more about this type of policy,
please call our office (908)359-2861 or visit www.amwellagency.com.
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For Better Health...
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Late night eating causes more weight gain than eating during the day. Recent finding: Mice that ate when they would normally have been sleeping gained 2.5 times more weight than mice that ate during their usual waking hours.
Don't start drinking alcohol for your health. Research shows that moderate alcohol consumption has cardiovascular benefits-but claims of other benefits for alcohol are uncertain. Example: A 6 1/2 year follow up on a study that initially linked alcohol to improved mobility found that it was lifestyle factors that were beneficial-not the alcohol. Bottom line: Weight control and regular exercise are far more important for health maintenance and improvement than alcohol consumption.
Sleep linked to diabetes risk: People who get too little or too much sleep are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The optimal amount of sleep is seven to eight hours each night. Compared with people who get that much sleep, those who get five hours per night or less have a 24% higher risk for diabetes. Those who sleep nine or more hours per night have a 48% higher risk.
Cherry juice relieves muscle pain. Recent finding: Runners who drank pure tart cherry juice immediately after a long run had 23% less pain than those who drank a placebo cherry drink. Tart cherry juice has strong anti-inflammatory properties that also could help fight arthritis and heart disease. Tart cherry juice comes from the Montmorency, or sour pie, cherry and may have properties similar to anti-inflammatory medications.
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Fun & Useful Web Sites
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Wine wisdom: Best low-cost wines...food/wine matching...label decoder...wine-tasting and other online forums and more. www.wineloverspage.com
Time to relax: Choose a meditation that fits your needs, then listen to it online or print it for reading aloud. www.learningmeditation.com
Your pet questions answered: Veterinarians, animal behaviorists and other experts answer questions online. The free service is available 24/7. www.televets.com
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___________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
Robert Loss
The Amwell Agency
908-359-2861
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Quote of the month
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"For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher and poet.
1803-1882
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Did you know that...
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 ...a baby picture can protect your wallet? In a recent study, 88% of people who found wallets with photos of a smiling baby returned them...
compared with 53% of people who found wallets with a photo of a cute puppy...48%, a happy family...and 28%, a contented elderly couple. |
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Referral Corner
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We always love to have new people become part of our inner circle of friends and family. If you know of someone
looking for insurance and investment services, please send them our way.
Simply send them this
newsletter, and have them bring it in to the agency or call our
office and we will give you $10 worth of NJ Instant Lottery Tickets!
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Visit Bob on Facebook
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