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? →

Starting in 2011, the first wave of “baby-boomers” – Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – reached retirement age. The term tsunami may be more apropos than wave, however. According to Health and Human Services (HHS), more than 10,000 Americans will turn age 65 every day for the next decade1. While turning age 65 does … Continue reading Continuing Care Retirement Communities →

Click here to view a PRINT VERSION of this article. Picture this: It’s a bright summer day and you decide to take a visit to your local botanical gardens to enjoy the sunny weather. While you are strolling down the path, you spot a patch of lavender flowers and lean down to smell the sweet … Continue reading Psychology and Money: A Primer on Behavioral Finance →

Back in 1946, a nuclear physicist working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Stanislaw Ulam, was convalescing from an illness.  Unable to binge Netflix (as I do when recovering under bed rest) he instead amused himself by playing solitaire.  Ever the mathematician, Ulam began wondering about the statistical probability of a successful solitaire game.  As … Continue reading How I Stopped Worrying About Uncertainty and Learned To Trust the Numbers →

A few years ago, a new client asked me to review a “universal” life insurance policy that she bought in the early 1990’s. The insurance company had recently increased her annual premiums by a whopping 32% and the policy would soon lapse unless she opened up her wallet. Suffice it to say, she was equally … Continue reading Universal Life Insurance in a Low Rate Environment →