Helping pave the way towards financial freedom
What would make your life better? A new house or car? A bigger paycheck or bank account? It’s easy to want more when you think of being happier and living better. And there’s little doubt that money can buy some (more) happiness. But the happiness we get from money is fundamentally limited. It leaves us…
It is no secret that the IRA tax code can be confusing. Filers sometimes misinterpret rates and end up believing they must pay more than they usually do. Understanding marginal and effective tax rates are important for tax planning purposes. A funny anecdote is the story of Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Every year…
The month of September ended on a sour note, with most indexes dropping for the first time in many months. The moderate decline was enough to erase the quarter’s prior gains, resulting in a relatively flat quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the quarter slightly negative, and the S&P 50 was slightly positive (see…
In my previous piece, I covered some tools of the tax-planning trade, as well as how to deploy them for tax-efficient investing. But tax planning isn’t just for your investments. Life happens. Often, we cannot predict its next moves. But we can weave each event into the tax-planning fabric of your financial life. Following are…
Whether you’re saving, investing, spending, bequeathing, or receiving wealth, there’s scarcely a move you can make without considering how taxes might influence the outcome. No wonder people get nervous when there’s lots of talk about higher taxes, but little certainty on what may come of it, and who it might affect. How do we plan…
“The American marketplace is an economic jungle. As in all jungles, you easily can be destroyed if you don’t know the rules of survival. … But you also can come through in fine shape and you can even flourish in the jungle—if you learn the rules, adapt them for your own use, and heed them.”…
I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far. And I say this when a lot is going on in the world right now. We are living in interesting times and I try to stay connected with friends and family to what’s going on in their lives (if you are one of them and…
Are You Too Frugal? I work with people who either have money or like to save money. Many times my clients have good incomes. Sometimes money arrives by gifts or inheritance. But sometimes, people focus on being frugal so that they can save more (and this is OK too!). These people tend to revolve their…
Equity markets continued to move higher in the second quarter, and the year-to-date and 1-year rolling returns are looking superb! Almost too good to be true, some would say. But the uptrend continues as the pandemic is waning and the economy is booming. Let us not forget where we were one year ago – swimming…
Losing a friend or family member is tragic. No one looks forward to it, but it happens. And if you get a notification that you have just inherited an IRA – you’ll need to know what your options are. So what are they? Rules have changed regarding inherited IRAs. And for some reason, I’ve seen…