Divorce Planning, Newly Independent Women
Joseph Goldy, CFP®, CDFA®
Understanding the CDFA® Designation: Your ...

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.

Understanding the CDFA® Designation: Your Financial Ally During Divorce
Pharmaceutical Professionals, Stock Options, Financial Planning
AnnaMarie Mock, CFP®
Science Meets Finance: How The Scientific ...

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. 

Science Meets Finance: How The Scientific Method is Applied in Financial Planning | Ep. 6
Financial Planning, Financial Tips, Net Worth
Stephanie Burke
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.

Understanding Your Money Script
Financial Planning, Financial Tips
Edward Leach
The Dependent Care FSA – An Overlooked Benefit ...

In talking with clients about the benefits their employer provides during the open enrollment season, one often overlooked benefit if clients have dependents is the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA).

The Dependent Care FSA – An Overlooked Benefit During Open Enrollment Season
Financial Planning, Financial Tips, Healthcare, Investments, Life Planning, Savings
Edward Leach
3 Reasons Every High Net-Worth Family Should ...

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are not only a savvy investment option but also offer numerous benefits, especially for high-net-worth families. An HSA is a tax-advantaged savings account designed for individuals with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses. While the utility of HSAs is universal, they hold advantages for high-net-worth families and have steadily grown in popularity since their inception.

3 Reasons Every High Net-Worth Family Should Fund a Health Savings Account

Financial Planning

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A Challenging Time for Divorcees Who Keep the Marital Home

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A Challenging Time for Divorcees Who Keep the Marital Home

I recently read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about how anyone with a low-rate mortgage may not realize the actual value of their asset. In the current world of 7%-8% mortgage rates, anybody with a sub-4% mortgage rate owns a precious asset. Viewing a loan that needs to be repaid as an asset is counterintuitive. But any loan from a bank at 3.5% when rates on Treasury Bills and CDs are at 5% has significant value. By the Journal author's estimate, some $1 trillion in value has passed from banks and bondholders to homeowners. 

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High Rates Don't Put the Brakes on Stocks

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High Rates Don't Put the Brakes on Stocks

Some investors have asked if stocks make sense in a world where short-term US Treasuries yield north of 5.5%. 1 While a notable relationship exists between high short-term interest rates and stock market returns, it's important to understand that correlation does not imply causation. Here's a breakdown of the dynamics:

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Why Stock Valuations Are Not Predictive of Future Portfolio Returns

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Why Stock Valuations Are Not Predictive of Future Portfolio Returns

Financial markets are complex and unpredictable. Valuation metrics, such as price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios, enterprise value-to-EBITDA, and the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, have traditionally been seen as indicators of a stock's intrinsic worth and, by some, predictors of future returns. However, the belief that valuations can reliably forecast future markets deserves a deeper investigation into why they may not serve as a crystal ball for investors. 

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Three Questions Answered Regarding your Company's Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)

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Three Questions Answered Regarding your Company's Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)

A Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) is a form of compensation that some companies use to reward their employees. RSUs represent a promise to give an employee a certain number of shares of company stock at a future date, typically once certain conditions are met, such as a specified vesting period or performance goals. RSUs are a common form of equity-based compensation used in publicly traded and private companies.

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How to Find a Good CPA

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How to Find a Good CPA

If you are a reader of the Wall Street Journal, you may have seen three articles in the past nine months that addressed the issue of a significant shortage of accountants. According to the most recent data from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the number of US students graduating with either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in accounting dropped 7.4% during the 2021–22 academic year from the year before, the largest one-year decline since at least 1994–95.

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Reducing Student Loan Balances Using Programs Offered

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Reducing Student Loan Balances Using Programs Offered

Student loan payments resumed on October 1st after over three years of forbearance. More than 30 million people are returning with existing loans, and 13 million new borrowers and recent graduates are entering the system for the first time since the Covid-related forbearance. Regardless of whether everything is appropriately structured for the first federal loan payment, you should still review your student loans to ensure everything is in order and understand your new payment. 

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3 Reasons Every High Net-Worth Family Should Fund a Health Savings Account

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3 Reasons Every High Net-Worth Family Should Fund a Health Savings Account

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are not only a savvy investment option but also offer numerous benefits, especially for high-net-worth families. An HSA is a tax-advantaged savings account designed for individuals with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses. While the utility of HSAs is universal, they hold advantages for high-net-worth families and have steadily grown in popularity since their inception.

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How Money Can Buy Happiness (Part 2)

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How Money Can Buy Happiness (Part 2)

Earlier this year, I explained two principles you can follow to obtain the most happiness from your spending https://www.highlandplanning.com/learning-center-1/how-money-can-buy-happiness-part-1. In today’s article, I will cover three more concepts that can help bring more joy in your life with your spending. Below are the five principles outlined in the book Happy Money.

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A Look Back at The First Half of 2023

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A Look Back at The First Half of 2023

The S&P 500 index rose 16.9% on a total return basis over the first half of of 2023. If you factor in July, the index is up over 20%. After a challenging year for investors in 2022, when the index lost almost 20%, it’s hard to complain about this year’s progress. With the S&P nearly doubling the long-term average annual return in 2023, it’s easy to say the market is healthy and all companies are doing well, right?

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4 Fundamentals of Financial Planning Success… and to Becoming a Better Pool Player

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4 Fundamentals of Financial Planning Success… and to Becoming a Better Pool Player

Ever since I was a teenager and first watched the movie The Hustler, I’ve been hooked on shooting pool. I loved watching the two main characters, Fast Eddie Felson, played by Paul Newman, and Minnesota Fats, played by Jackie Gleason, battle it out on the pool table.

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The Pass-Through Entity Tax

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The Pass-Through Entity Tax

The "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" (TCJA) of 2017 brought a significant shift in the taxation landscape for individuals and businesses. One of the changes was the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). This limit impacted the tax strategy of many high-tax states, pushing them to find ways to mitigate the impact of this cap on their taxpayers.

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Investment Diversification Strategy: Just How Diversified Are You?

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Investment Diversification Strategy: Just How Diversified Are You?

One of the most fundamental principles of investing is diversification. Diversification does not overload your portfolio into any investment but instead spreads the risk across different areas. Ideally, your portfolio is invested in several diverse types of investments, but as you'll see below, there is more to diversification than buying stocks, bonds, or funds.

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How to Evaluate a Job Offer - Salary, Benefits, Stock Options, and More

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How to Evaluate a Job Offer - Salary, Benefits, Stock Options, and More

Deciding to accept, reject, or negotiate a job offer is very important and requires much forethought to assess all the components in the offer letter. Before diving headfirst, ensure your potential new employer matches not only your compensation expectations but also your values.   

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Family Goal Setting: "The Three Questions Every Frantic Family Should Ask." [Book]

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Family Goal Setting: "The Three Questions Every Frantic Family Should Ask." [Book]

"The Three Questions Every Frantic Family Should Ask" is a book by Patrick Lencioni, a renowned author, speaker, and consultant on organizational health. The book aims to help families overcome the stress and anxiety of modern-day family life. Lencioni draws from his extensive experience in organizational health to provide practical insights and tools that families can use to build healthier relationships, communicate better, and achieve greater success in their personal and professional lives. 

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The World Wide Web 30 Years Later

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The World Wide Web 30 Years Later

April 30th marked the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web being introduced to the public for the first time. Tim Berners-Lee was a 37-year-old researcher at CERN, a physics lab in Switzerland when he created the first website and launched it on the Web as we know it today. 1.8 billion websites later, Lee's invention has revolutionized the way human beings interact and learn on a global scale.

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What Should You Review When Laid Off?

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What Should You Review When Laid Off?

Reviewing and adequately reacting when handed a severance package can be daunting. A flood of emotions and concerns can cloud your judgment and lead to rash decision-making. It's essential to pause and compose your thoughts before proceeding because some of your benefits will still be extremely valuable to your short and long-term plan.

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Solar Energy Tax Incentives: What's New for 2023?

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Solar Energy Tax Incentives: What's New for 2023?

According to the Department of Energy's SETO (Solar Energy Technologies Office), provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will reduce the cost of installing rooftop solar by an average of $7,500, with taxpayers expected to realize an additional average savings of $9,000 on their electricity bills over the system's life.

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