Prioritizing Yourself

By Rick Gibson, CFP®

Panic! At the Disco sings about having high hopes, shooting for the stars, and having a vision. It often can be easy to lose sight of your goals in the midst of a busy schedule. Shoot, it is even easier not to set goals for yourself in the first place. Between work obligations, family commitments, and the occasional global pandemic, you may not even think about giving yourself the time to set goals.

Read More

Hey Gen X! Life has come at you pretty fast!

Laurie Kramer, CFP®

When I stop to think about it, I find it amazing that most of my friends and family (and myself!) are getting within striking distance of retirement. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I started my career in this industry

Read More

I Owe How Much?

By Kristan Anderson, CEBS®, CIMA® | Dir. Of Retirement Plan Services & Dir. Of Financial Planning

For the past few years, we relied on my husband’s start-up business losses as a “saucepreneur” to offset any tax payment shortages throughout the year. In 2021, that strategy failed, for a number of reasons. It never occurred to me that we would have any issue with underpaying our taxes.

Read More

Back to the Basics

On the first Sunday in May, Waitara and I competed in our first horse show of the season at Turner Farm in Great Falls. It rained. It was cold. We had fun, mostly. Dressage is a bit like portfolio management, part art and part science.

Read More

A Deeper Look into Donor Advised Funds and Private Foundations

Cheryl W. Langston, CFP® | Relationship Manager

In the Northern Virginia area, we come across many successful professionals who have significant philanthropic desires. As financial professionals, it is important that we understand different charitable gifting options to explore with the client as part of their financial or estate plans.

Read More

What Got Me Interested in Bitcoin

By Kristan Anderson, CEBS®, CFP® | Dir. of Retirement Plan Services & Dir. of Financial Planning

I recently attended a Fidelity sponsored webinar in which they presented their new whitepaper on bitcoin. In general, I’m skeptical of digital assets such as bitcoin and other digital currencies, as well as Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the like.

Read More

Pets: They are an Investment

By Rasti Nikolic, FPQP® | Associate Financial Planner

We Americans love our pets and are spending more and more money on their care and wellbeing. Based on the May 2021 ASPCA1  survey, 23 million American households acquired a pet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns about potential challenges of pet ownership as people’s lives return to normal, post-pandemic have not yet reached a critical level, according to the survey.

Read More

Need more space? One family’s journey to their dream home…

By R. Jonathan Stolz, CFA | Portfolio Manager

There are many reasons to look for a larger home – feeling cramped in your current space, family changes (marriage, kids, family moving in), increased work from home, and desire to spend more time with loved ones. My lovely wife and I, and our 5 kids, had several of these squarely on our minds when we started our home upgrade journey in 2019.

Read More