How to ensure your financial life reflects your values and leaves the legacy you intend. We’ve had a special visitor come to our house recently. Every few months (twice this past month), my daughter will wake to a crisp $5 bill (thanks, inflation) under her pillow in place of a tooth she lost the day … Continue reading Values and Legacy: Beyond the Numbers
An ounce of prevention is preferable to the hours a cure could take. Welcome to 2022! I have always been keen to set New Year’s resolutions, but this year I am narrowing my usual long list down to one: to protect my name and accounts from cyber and credit fraud. I invite you to join … Continue reading My New Year’s Resolution: Protection from Fraud
With 2021 coming to a close, and major tax code changes being debated in Washington, now is an opportune time to evaluate three powerful tax strategies, which could be advantageous to you. As an enrolled agent (licensed by the IRS), I’ve spent a good amount of time studying the U.S. tax code, evaluating the … Continue reading Three Powerful Tax Strategies to Evaluate Now
For retirees, choosing the most optimal pension option deserves a rigorous analysis. For many employees in the public and private sector who are facing the prospects of an imminent retirement, the decision of how to take their pension is rife with uncertainty. On its head, the two most basic pension payout options are relatively simple … Continue reading To Annuitize or Not, That Is the Question
While I could say that this past year has been a rollercoaster, that doesn’t quite capture the true depth and range of emotions experienced over the last 13 months. A global pandemic, lockdowns, social distancing, working from home while also (for many) helping our children with school from home and not to mention the whiplash-inducing … Continue reading A Look in the Rearview Mirror
Just before breaking for the holidays, Congress passed the $900 Billion Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 to help households, retirees, small and large businesses, and to provide further aid in vaccine distribution. Here are some important highlights: Economic Impact Payments $600 per adult, and $600 per child, based on income as reported … Continue reading COVID-19 Aid Act of 2021: Key Highlights
A prescription for year-end financial planning. Welcome to October 2020, month seven in what some are calling the New Abnormal. Like many people, I’m growing a little tired of my four walls, and I continue to be grateful for the active bird and insect life in the trees outside my window. And like others, I … Continue reading Tax in the Time of COVID
On occasion, accelerating income taxes can make sense. For many people, the confluence of the global pandemic and subsequent economic recession has potentially caused the following: employment termination, reduced hours, work furloughs, the elimination of RMDs for 2020 (the CARES Act), and significantly less capital gains due to the precipitous drop in the stock market. … Continue reading Financial Planning Tax Tips in 2020
In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) on March 27th, 2020, a $2 trillion stimulus package – the largest in history. More than anything, this is truly a rescue package chalk full of provisions to help support individual Americans, small businesses, large corporations, and, … Continue reading The CARES Act
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) have been modified many times since their introduction forty-six years ago in 1974. Many of the changes have been beneficial – the contribution limits have increased from the original annual amount of $1,500 up to $6,000 in 2020 (unchanged from 2019); in 1986 the addition of non-deductible contributions expanded the access … Continue reading Will the SECURE Act Affect You?
