As 2025 approaches, significant updates to employer-sponsored retirement plans are set to impact how employees can save for retirement. These changes, including increased contribution limits and enhanced catch-up provisions, offer new opportunities to maximize tax-advantaged savings.
Are You Leaving Your Family Unprotected? Part 2: Disability Insurance
When building a financial plan, many people focus on investments, retirement accounts, and life insurance. However, one crucial component is often overlooked: disability insurance. Your ability to earn an income is your most significant financial asset. Protecting it is as vital as safeguarding your home, car, or retirement savings.
Maximize Your Charitable Impact and Minimize Taxes: How to Donate Appreciated Stock and Equity Compensation
Donating appreciated stock and equity compensation is a powerful way for savvy investors, pharmaceutical executives, and high-income earners to reduce tax liability while supporting meaningful causes. By leveraging appreciated assets like stocks or restricted stock units (RSUs), donors can avoid capital gains taxes, diversify their portfolios, and preserve liquidity for other financial needs.
Choose Collaboration Over Conflict: How Mediation Empowers Better Solutions
Mediation offers couples a dignified, collaborative path forward when life circumstances require critical legal decisions about their future. As a trained family law mediator, Zoe Cassotis guides New Jersey families through productive conversations that lead to thoughtful, mutually beneficial solutions. Her confidential mediation approach helps people maintain control of their decisions while saving time and money, creating positive outcomes that respect both parties' needs and values.
Tax Traps: The Hidden Costs of High-Yield Savings vs. Stock Market Gains
The current interest rate environment has driven many to explore high-yield money market accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) as viable investment vehicles. With interest rates on these instruments at levels unseen in over a decade, it's easy to understand the appeal. However, there is an irony in using these vehicles as long-term investment strategies, especially when compared to the potential tax advantages the stock market offers.
Preparing for Your Performance Review
Year-end review season can be an excellent opportunity for those in the workforce to receive feedback on your job performance and push your career forward. Sometimes, year-end conversations can create anxiety, especially if you plan to negotiate a promotion or pay raise and aren’t quite sure what direction the conversation will take.
My Biggest Investment Mistake
During my first year in college, I read my first investment book, "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham, widely regarded as one of the greatest stock traders ever. Filled with excitement, I took copious notes, convinced I had stumbled upon the secret to success in the stock market. With this new knowledge, I eagerly deposited $600 into a trading account and made my first trade, purchasing ten shares of Columbia Sportswear Company stock ($COLM) at $56.80 per share.
Maximizing Your Benefits: A Guide to Open Enrollment Season
As the end of the year approaches, it’s time for one of the most critical financial planning opportunities for employees: open enrollment. Whether you’re re-evaluating your benefits or making selections for the first time, open enrollment is a golden opportunity to make choices that align with your financial goals and needs.
Understanding the CDFA® Designation: Your Financial Ally During Divorce
Anyone who has gone through a divorce knows how emotionally challenging and financially complex it can be. While attorneys handle the legal aspects, a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® focuses specifically on the financial implications of divorce. This specialized designation equips professionals with the expertise to guide clients through the intricate financial aspects of divorce proceedings, ensuring better outcomes for their financial future.
Are You Leaving Your Family Unprotected? Part 1: Life Insurance
You’ve worked hard to build a stable life for your loved ones, but are you taking the necessary steps to protect their financial future? Life insurance is a crucial tool that provides peace of mind, ensuring that your family won’t be burdened with financial worries if something happens to you. It’s an essential part of any comprehensive financial plan, whether it’s to support your family’s needs or to preserve the stability of a business.
Should You Keep the Marital Home After Divorce? Key Financial, Practical, and Emotional Considerations
Deciding whether to keep the marital home after a divorce is one of the most significant financial and emotional decisions newly independent women face. While it may seem logical to hold onto the house, there are numerous factors to consider—financial feasibility, practical living conditions, and the emotional impact on you and your children.
The Ultimate Guide to Retirement Plans for Dental Practice Owners: SEP IRA, Simple IRA, 401(k), and Cash Balance Plans Explained
As a dental practice owner, planning for your retirement is essential—not just for your future but for your practice's long-term success and your team's well-being. Choosing the right retirement plan can be overwhelming, with options like SEP IRA, Simple IRA, 401(k), and Defined Benefit Cash Balance Plans. Each of these plans offers unique benefits and challenges, so it's crucial to understand which option best aligns with your financial goals and practice needs.
Science Meets Finance: How The Scientific Method is Applied in Financial Planning | Ep. 6
Anna Marie Mock, a fee-only certified financial planner at Highland Financial Advisors, discusses the dynamic interplay between art and science in financial planning. Drawing inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci's philosophy that "everything connects to everything else," she emphasizes that financial planning is an art involving subjective goal-setting and a science-driven by objective analysis tools. In this video, Anna explains how the scientific method can be applied to financial planning, using equity compensation as a concrete example.
Understanding Your Money Script
What are your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about money? What about your partner, and do they differ from your own? Sometimes, the conflict we experience around money in our personal lives can be attributed to incongruent money scripts with those with whom we share finances. Let’s dive into the term money script and how understanding it can help us achieve our financial goals.
Beyond the Surface: Uncovering the Hidden Causes of Pain in Fitness and Finance
As I approach my thirties, I've noticed that my body doesn't bounce back from workouts as quickly as in my high school and college years. The days of waking up fresh after an intense workout without a second thought are behind me. Now, I realize the importance of adding mobility work and stretching to my weekly routine. Lower back pain and tightness have become recurring issues, mainly due to sitting more throughout the day and most likely lifting too heavy without perfect form.
Avoid the Post-Divorce Money Trap: 3 Essential Tips to Protect Your Financial Future | Ep. 6
Discover the hidden financial dangers many newly independent women face after divorce. In this video, Certified Financial Planner™ Joe Goldy shares three vital strategies to prevent overspending, manage your finances, and secure your future. From creating a "fun money" account to working with a CFP®, learn how to navigate your new financial landscape confidently. Don't miss out on these expert tips—subscribe for more insights!
How Pharmaceutical Executives Can Maximize Their Financial Health | Ep. 5
In this video, AnnaMarie Mock, a fee-only Certified Financial Planner at Highland Financial Advisors, walks you through the third step in maximizing the financial health of pharmaceutical executives: defining a purpose for your human and investment capital. Drawing from her personal experiences, AnnaMarie explains the importance of setting clear, specific, and attainable financial goals. She also outlines a step-by-step framework—Identify, Quantify, and Solidify—to help you create a purpose for your assets and achieve long-term financial freedom.
How You Buy and Sell a Home is About to Change
The recent settlement between the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and various plaintiffs marks a significant turning point in the real estate industry. This agreement, which resolves allegations of anti-competitive practices, took effect on August 17th and could substantially change how homes are bought and sold across the United States.
Why Long-Term Investment Strategies Shouldn't Be Driven by Federal Reserve Interest Rate Decisions
As a financial advisor, I often hear clients express concern over the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions and how these might impact their long-term investments. While it's natural to be attentive to such economic indicators, focusing solely on interest rate changes when planning your long-term investment strategy can be a misstep. Here’s why it’s important to maintain a broader perspective.
What are the Critical Estate Planning Documents for Every Dental Practice Owner? | Ep. 5
In today's video, Certified Financial Planner™ Ed Leach delves into a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of estate planning for dental practice owners. For both your personal and business life, ensuring the correct legal documents are in place with updated beneficiaries is essential. This video will provide a quick overview of all the estate planning documents and their purpose for your financial health.