When planning for retirement, we often focus on the accumulation phase: saving diligently and investing wisely. We spend 40 or more years of our lives focused on building the proverbial “nest egg,” but after retirement, things change and so should our financial focus.
How much do you like the rewards you get from your credit cards? Are they worth any additional costs to your purchases? These are questions to consider as the Credit Card Competition Act is reintroduced to Congress, after failing to pass in 2022.
The definition of retirement in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is as follows, “withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from active working life.” I find this definition rather vague. If I was to define retirement, I would describe it as having the option to not work full-time if one chooses.
In what can only be described as my personal mid-life crisis, we are in the middle of a whole home renovation that has us displaced for up to six months and wondering what we were thinking. Nevertheless, the house has been through the demo phase and is starting in on the rebuild phase as I write this.
I always find it instructive when we ask clients a few questions to assess risk tolerance, something that is not an easy task given the emotions attached to investment dollars.
Recently, we worked with a client with an aging mother living in the United States but who has health benefits in a different country. One of the client’s concerns was having to cover a potential health bill for his mother because the family would prefer she seek care in the United States rather than go back to her country to use her government issued health care.
We’re in the midst of an election year that, according to polling, very few Americans are excited about. Those seeking relief from political debate will need to wait to the end of 2025 and perhaps beyond thanks to the expected political battle over the expiration of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA).
In this installment of financial planning basics articles, we discuss an aspect of setting up and managing your 401k account that a lot of people ignore or don’t put a lot of thought into – beneficiary designations.
It can be nerve-racking investing at all-time highs in the stock market. Should it be? The data says no.
I personally don’t believe in New Year resolutions – I think you can start doing something new, different, or better at any time that is right for you! Having said that, the beginning of the year is a great time to get a jump on managing your taxes.
