Strategies to Defer Taxes
As Ben Franklin noted, the two inevitable forces of life are death and taxes. But just like you can use healthy habits to stave off the former, you can employ strategies to avoid the latter. One way to do this is to defer taxable income from one year to a later year to postpone payment […]
What is SECURE Act 2.0 and How Can It Affect Your Retirement?
This December, Congress passed the Securing a Strong Retirement Act, or SECURE Act 2.0, which includes some big changes in its sweeping 1,650 pages. Since we know no one wants to read 1,650 pages of Congressional writing, we’ve done the work for you and will broadly explain here how it changes the way Americans save […]
Managing a Concentrated Stock Position
In life, people say “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” In investing, we use a big fancy term that means the same thing: diversify. Investors are told to spread their money across many stocks and indexes to protect against risk. This works to protect your money by limiting volatility and allowing your gains […]
Strategies for Cash Alternatives
Introduction Cash alternatives, often used to fund a cash reserve , can be a useful financial tool for investors because they provide a low-risk place to hold money until it is needed for a future purpose. Convenience is the principal benefit of cash alternatives. They typically pay a relatively low rate of interest, so their […]
Rising Rate – Strategies for Handling Bond Risk
Federal Reserve monetary policies can affect the entire fixed-income market, and the prospect of rising interest rates is a major concern for bond investors. Regardless of the rate environment, however, bonds are a mainstay of investors who want to generate income or dampen the effects of stock market volatility on their portfolios. With that in […]
Investment Basics: How Should You Choose the Mid That’s Right for You?
Now that we’ve explored what investing is, the importance of risk tolerance, and the different investment types available to you, we can figure out how to create a mix that fits your goals and personality. There are several resources available to assist in asset allocation, including interactive tools and sample allocation models. Most of these […]
Investment Basics: Types of Investments
In section 2, we explored how investing requires a certain amount of risk tolerance, along with how to consider where you might land on the risk tolerance scale between conservative and aggressive. In this section, we’ll discover the different assets you can invest in, their levels of risk, and introduce the concept of asset allocation. […]
Investment Basics: Risky Business? The Nature of Investing
In section 1, we introduced what investing is, along with why people invest their money rather than save it in cash. In this section, we understand that everyone’s unique, and so are their investing goals, needs, and style. The investment plan that’s right for you depends largely on the level of comfort that you have […]
Investment Basics: Why Invest?
I once had a very conservative client whose family convinced him to speak with me. This was someone who would have hidden all his money under his mattress if he could since he didn’t trust banks and didn’t like the idea of putting his money at risk at all. At that time, putting his money […]
Private Family Foundations
What is a Private Family Foundation in a General Sense? A private family foundation is a legal entity created, funded, and operated by a single family for the primary purpose of making charitable donations. Such foundations are given tax-exempt status due to their charitable mission, meaning that contributions to the foundation from family members are […]