We’ve all said it…“I’ll start on January 1.” Whether it’s hitting the gym or eating more vegetables, every year millions of Americans make resolutions to better themselves. Besides building strength with a yoga practice, the new year is a great opportunity to bulk up your financial muscle. As a wealth advisor for over 20 years, I have spoken to thousands of people about their fiscal goals. Through these conversations, I have identified five key considerations that I recommend you examine every January to best position yourself going into the new year.
Paying taxes is something you can’t escape; but being aware of new tax rules and revised federal deadlines can make preparing and paying your taxes a little less painful each year. Here are five major tax revisions – plus noteworthy cutoff dates – every baby boomer needs to know ASAP to avoid late fees, cash in on potential savings and prevent future tax burden headaches.
So, your kid is the next LeBron James or Megan Rapinoe. Congratulations, but this article isn’t for you, because your child is either going straight to the pros or is an elite athlete and will likely have many scholarship offers. You can skip the rest of this article and save yourself the 10 minutes. But if your child is competitive in their chosen sport and you’re looking for some guidance on how to get a college athletic scholarship, then you’ll find this beneficial.
Nobody minds market volatility when it’s in the upward direction. But recently we’ve gotten plenty of the type of volatility that we don’t like so much as investors, the kind that inspires headlines with words like “plunge” and that end with exclamation points.
In pre-pandemic times, the end of March marked a significant milestone for the college-bound, as most universities aimed to deliver their regular admission decisions to thousands of anxious students. And yet even the college admissions cycle was not immune to the impact of COVID-19, as many colleges extended their regular decision deadline.
It is no secret that kids can cost a pretty penny – raising a child from birth to 18 years of age can eclipse $230,000, an annual expense of nearly $13,000. Once you get past parenthood’s sticker shock, as well as the early sleepless nights, many parents (and grandparents) start thinking about preparing for future expenses.
Concerns about market downturns certainly come as no surprise. After all, steep corrections and crashes can be disconcerting for even the most steely and disciplined investors.
Diversifying your investment portfolio means putting together a mix of stocks, bonds and other investments with your financial goals, time horizon and risk tolerance in mind.
Medicare is an area that practically every American will encounter when planning for retirement. It sits at the intersection of health and wealth in your financial life plan, and so often surfaces across a range of long-term planning conversations.
On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law. Since then, the U.S. Treasury Department has issued guidance to clarify and, in some cases, expand the provisions of the CARES Act dealing with retirement accounts and the relief offered to retirement account owners and/or beneficiaries.
What do you get when you assemble a dozen or so of nuclear science’s greatest minds, give them access to the world’s first electronic general-purpose digital computer, and spend $2 billion during the height of World War II? An atomic bomb of course, and a sophisticated simulation technique code-named Monte Carlo.
For many, correctly answering the question, “When should I begin to take my Social Security benefits?” is a critical step toward making sure their retirement income and savings last at least as long as they do.
