What steps can a family take? Besides impacting lives and relationships, dementia can also impact family finances. It may call for another family member to assume money management responsibilities for a parent, grandparent, or sibling. It may increase the risk of financial exploitation, even as we do our best to guard against it. Just how […]
Category: Financial Planning
Beware of Lifestyle Creep
Sometimes more money can mean more problems. “Lifestyle creep” is an unusual phrase describing an all-too-common problem: the more money people earn, the more money they tend to spend. Frequently, the newly affluent are the most susceptible. As people establish themselves as doctors and lawyers, executives, and successful entrepreneurs, they see living well as a […]
Managing Money Well as a Couple
What are the keys in planning to grow wealthy together? When you marry or simply share a household with someone, your financial life changes – and your approach to managing your money may change as well. To succeed as a couple, you may also have to succeed financially. The good news is that is usually […]
Combining Your Finances When You Marry
How separate (or intertwined) should your financial lives be? Some spouses share everything with each other – including the smallest details of their personal finances. Other spouses decide to keep some individual financial decisions and details to themselves, and their relationships are just fine. Just as a marriage requires understanding, respect, and compromise, so does […]
Set Goals as You Save & Invest
Turn your intent into a commitment. Goals give you focus. To find and establish your investing and saving goals, first ask yourself what you want to accomplish. Do you want to build an emergency fund? Build college savings for your child? Have a large retirement fund by age 60? Once you have a defined motivation, […]
The Major 2018 Federal Tax Changes
Comparing the old rules with the new. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made dramatic changes to federal tax law. It is worth reviewing some of these changes as 2019 approaches and households and businesses refine their income tax strategies. Income tax brackets have changed. The old 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6% […]
Financing a College Education
A primer for parents and grandparents. A university education can often require financing and assuming debt. If your student fills out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and does not qualify for a Pell Grant or other kinds of help, and has no scholarship offers, what do you do? You probably search for […]
Facts About Refinancing
Even with interest rates rising, you may want to explore the possibilities. In the first quarter of 2018, the refinance share of home loan applications in the U.S. fell to 40%, the lowest in ten years. Higher mortgage rates had reduced demand for refis.1 Still, the refi is not exactly dead. If you have good […]
Smart Financial Steps After College
A to-do list for the twentysomething. Did you recently graduate from college? The years after graduation are crucial not only for getting a career underway, but also for planning financial progress. Consider making these money moves before you reach thirty. Direct a bit of your pay into an emergency fund. Just a little cash per […]
The Dow Dropped. Do Not Drop Out of the Market.
Last Monday’s plunge was hardly the disaster that some media outlets claimed. On February 5, the Dow Jones Industrial Average took an unprecedented fall. The benchmark dropped 1,175 points, and it was down 1,500 points at one moment during the trading day.1,2 Monday’s Dow loss was severe, but not as catastrophic as certain headlines trumpeted. […]
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