Do You Know Who Your Beneficiaries Are? June 28, 2018 Why you should periodically review beneficiary designations. Your beneficiary choices may need to change with the times. When did you open your first IRA? When did you buy your life insurance policy? Are you still living in the same home and working at the same job as you did back then? Have your priorities changed [...]
Is It Time to Stop Procrastinating About Your Financial Plan? June 28, 2018 Some things to think about as you get started with your strategy. First, look at your expenses and your debt. Review your core living expenses (such as a mortgage payment, car payment, etc.). Can any core expenses be reduced? Investing aside, you position yourself to gain ground financially when income rises, debt shrinks, and expenses [...]
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Including Digital Assets in Your Estate Plan June 1, 2018 What should you know? What should your executor know? When people think about estate planning, they may think in terms of personal property, real estate, and investments. Digital assets might seem like a lesser concern, perhaps no concern at all. But it is something that many are now considering.1 Your digital assets should not disappear [...]
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How New Tax Laws Affect Small Businesses May 29, 2018 A recap of the major changes impacting corporations and closely held firms. The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act changed the tax picture for business owners. Whether your company is incorporated or held closely, you must recognize how the recent adjustments to the Internal Revenue Code can potentially affect you and your workers. How have things [...]
What Women Shouldn’t Retire Without May 29, 2018 A practical financial checklist for the future. When our parents retired, living to 75 amounted to a nice long life, and Social Security was often supplemented by a pension. The Social Security Administration estimates that today’s average 65-year-old female will live to age 86.6. Given these projections, it appears that a retirement of 20 years [...]
Wealth Management with Memory Disorders May 29, 2018 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 [...]
Beware of Lifestyle Creep May 29, 2018 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 [...]
The A, B, C, & D of Medicare May 29, 2018 Breaking down the basics & what each part covers. Whether your 65th birthday is on the horizon or decades away, you should understand the parts of Medicare – what they cover and where they come from. Parts A & B: Original Medicare. America created a national health insurance program for seniors in 1965 with two [...]
Managing Money Well as a Couple May 29, 2018 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 May 29, 2018 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 [...]