Whether you have $100 or $1,000,000, you want to see your investment grow. Ideally, you would like to see that money grow a lot without the investment risk. Unfortunately, the risk/return tradeoff concept in investing tells us that greater returns come with greater risk. There is no magic formula that will allow you to guarantee…
The 29th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) in 2019, found that two-thirds of U.S. workers (67%) are confident in their ability to live comfortably throughout their retirement years (up from 64% in 2018). Worker confidence now matches levels reported in 2007 — before the 2008 financial crisis.…
The popularity of investing in index funds has been gaining interest in recent years. Index mutual funds are not a new concept – they have been available for over four decades, and exchange-traded funds (“ETF”) for more than ten years. What has changed is the number of investors putting money into these funds, which has…
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which passed in December 2017, made fundamental changes to the U.S. tax code, and 2018 returns were the first time most taxpayers could see the practical impact of these changes. In an April 2019 Gallup poll, 43% of Americans said they were unsure how the new tax law…
Most Americans will eventually receive Social Security and Medicare benefits. Each year, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds release lengthy reports to Congress that assess the health of these important programs. The newest reports, released on April 22, 2019, discuss the current financial condition and ongoing financial challenges that both programs…
The IRS recently issued its annual list of tax scams. The list highlights various scams that taxpayers may encounter, many of which occur during tax filing season. Here are some of the scams that are highlighted on the list. Phishing Phishing scams usually involve unsolicited emails or fake websites that pose as legitimate IRS sites…
This time of year finds many of our client families vacationing somewhere near the equator. When they return home, they sometimes bring back more than just a tan, returning as an owner of a timeshare and unsure of whether or not to add ‘proud’ to that ownership title. 2018 marked eight consecutive years of growth…
When we consider our own mortality, most of us have a few wishes in common. We want to be in our own space, with people we love and avoid suffering. These requests feel obvious, almost like basic human rights. But, a surprising number of people pass without having achieved any of these three wishes. Here…
For those of you with a charitable heart over 70.5, you might have donated to your favorite charity directly from your IRA last year. This gifting strategy, technically called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), has increased in popularity over the past 12-months, thanks to recent tax reform. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017…
As CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals, we are intimately familiar with the term ‘fiduciary.’ It means to put the best interests of others (in our case, our clients) above all else. It’s hard to imagine a job with more fiduciary responsibility than that of a military serviceperson. Veterans, you are called to put the best interests…