What are your investments really costing you? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. It’s not like you’re handed a menu of charges to choose from when it’s time to place your order. Even when you know where to look for investment costs, the information can be difficult to digest. Let’s fill in some of [...]
Not unlike that fine painting, your best tax-planning efforts include meticulous attention to the details, as well as to how each action contributes to your big picture. We view effective tax planning as a way to reduce your lifetime tax bill—or beyond, if you’re preparing for a tax-efficient wealth transfer to your heirs. Leading with [...]
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. But how do we plan when we cannot know? The particulars may evolve, but it seems there are always an array of tax breaks to encourage us to save toward our [...]
The good news for parents and their college-bound kids: The U.S. Department of Education’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) makes it relatively easy to apply for federal and state, and many institutions’ financial aid opportunities in a single session. This “one-stop shopping” certainly beats having to submit separate applications for each source of [...]
WHO ARE THEY? • Financial fraudsters are after your assets. • Identity thieves steal your personal information (often to then commit financial fraud). WHAT DO THEY WANT? YOUR MONEY AND YOUR LIFE • Social Security Numbers, passports, driver’s licenses, and similar identifying information. • Financial account and credit card numbers. • Passwords (or insights about [...]
The next big political fight is quickly approaching – the fiscal cliff or debt ceiling crisis. The last big debt ceiling bout happened in mid-2017. By the end of 2017, the U.S. debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time in history. The Treasury Department expects to run dry of funds mid-summer at which time [...]
About a year ago, a massive Equifax security breach became public knowledge. If there was a silver lining to this infamous event, it likely spurred more consumers to take more measures to protect their identities. Perhaps you’ve frozen your lines of credit, or you’re at least checking your credit reports more regularly these days. All [...]
Have you caught cryptocurrency fever, or are you at least wondering what it’s all about? Odds are, you hadn’t even heard the term until recently. Now, it seems as if everybody and their cousin are getting in on it. Psychologists have assigned a term to the angst you might be feeling in the heat of [...]
Donor-Advised Funds are not new; they’ve been around since the 1930s. But they’ve been garnering more attention as a potentially appropriate tax-planning tool under the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017. Here’s how they work: 1. Make a sizable donation to a DAF. Donating to a DAF, which acts like a “charitable bank,” is [...]
The recent rise in rates has led to a drop in the Housing Affordability Index as tracked by the Federal Reserve. Both existing and new home sales slowed towards the end of 2016 as a rise in rates pushed mortgage rates higher. Rising interest rates tend to increase the cost factor when purchasing a home [...]