Here's my two cents. Or one cent. Most small businesses fail. But a person
could possibly make their small FAILING BUSINESS pay out money $$ in order to assist with early retirement. Maybe you or your wife will have steady employment and a failing business can be just a side job.
Off the top of my head...
1.
Savers Credit. The jist of it is, for most people, they'll save about 20% (or up to $400 at tax time) if you contribute the max $$ of 2 or 4K. Owning a business means you can open a retirement acct like an IRA if your employer doesn't offer one and/or add your spouses name to the business and open one up for them. Max contribution for a married couple is $4000.
This reduces your MAGI. MAGI Must be 40K or under per year for a married couple I cannot see how ANYONE would do any better than saving 20% of 2-4K.unless they already owed a HUGE tax bill. So
about $400 is gained per year.https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-savings-contributions-savers-credit2.
20% off of your energy bill due to reduced MAGI. Gov't program (called LHEAP or IHEAP, something like that) where energy customers are charged a few dollars on their energy bill to cover low income folks.
We gain about $120 yearReduce MAGI to 37K or under for a married couple = 20% off energy bill. Example-
https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/save-energy-money/help-paying-your-bill/care-fera-application-en.pdf3.
REDUCE MAGI to qualify for the States FREE Medicaid program (Medical Plan) , especially if you are already getting a subsidy. Could be better insurance with you paying nothing out of pocket. You may need to sign up for an Health Savings Acct somehow, either accessing one because you now own a business or thru your employer (if you started a side business). Max donation to HSA is $5500 or $1000 more if you are 50 yrs or over. Owe less $$ to your accountant since he won't be dealing with IRS Subsidies. I have a medical plan and our dental care covered, with accident, life etc.. for us. It costs us $400 to add him on to my workplace plan.
This means gaining $400 per month or $3600 per year for us. I just increased my contribution to my 401k to 90% (for one of my employers) so we'll qualify in a few months.
Beware of the Medicaid Estate Program if you are between the ages of 55-64. Might not be worth signing up. Look up the laws in your State.
MAGI must be about 23K per year or below for a married couple to qualify.
So though my husbands business isn't thriving, even if it ever fails, there is reason above to keep it. If just for his medical care and the 20% off (about $120 yr) off of the energy bill.
MAGI must be 37K or below per year for a married couple to qualify. Sign the form once and send it in, you are approved for 2 yrs.
I see us gaining $4000 per yr totalll due to my husbands business, even if it were to begin failing.
And that doesn't count the forced increase contributions to the 401K (in order to qualify for the above ^^ perks so it's alot more$$).. We would not fold up shop for this reason. This is beans compared to most here but for a select few who are in the right circumstance, or re-arrange their life to be, and do not make alot of $$, some of these ideas might be helpful.