As we embark on a new year, there's no better time to take control of your financial future by thoroughly reviewing your cash flow. If having a vision and establishing goals is the touchstone for a financial plan, this essential financial practice sets the foundation for achieving your goals and ensuring long-term financial stability.
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.
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.
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.
Walter Mischel, psychologist and professor at Stanford University conducted an experiment in the 1960s about delayed gratification and published his findings in 1972. In the study, a researcher explained to a child they could either have one marshmallow immediately or two marshmallows if they waited 15 minutes.
As of Friday, the 29th of July, except for the NASDAQ market, the US equity markets recovered somewhat from the bear market correction. A bear market is a loss of 20% from the previous high. In the first six months of 2022, the equity market had lost over 80% of what it gained in 2021 and entered a bear market correction.
There seems to be a list of five things for anything you can think of to improve your odds of success. Pareto’s Principle (the 80/20 rule) states that 80% of the results will typically come from 20% of the cause. If a list of five things can truly make a difference in your life, that is an excellent return on your behavior.
During a recent financial review with a couple, we discussed inflation. The wife asked me, “So, what is cyclical inflation.” I used the term illustrating the difference between temporary, transitory inflation and built-in, cyclical inflation. It suddenly occurred to me that those are some fancy words. What do they mean in plain talk?
Recently, we had a client report that a fraudster had stolen her identity. It seemed that someone may have obtained access to her email address and was creating havoc with her online accounts. We immediately told her to go to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) website, www.identitytheft.gov, to report the incident and follow some immediate steps to start dealing with the breach.
In Part 1 of F.I.R.E., we explored the meaning behind the movement and the different variations, while Part 2 of F.I.R.E. provided some context on common misconceptions. With that backdrop, we are going to outline how to quantify your definition of F.I.R.E.
With over $5 trillion in 401(k) plans across the United States as of 2019, this qualified retirement plan's continued popularity is without question. Although the amount of 401(k) money invested in company stock has declined in recent years, according to the Investment Company Institute, investors still have about 6% of plan assets concentrated in their employer's stock.
In the last two weeks, big news items were the announcements from Apple and Tesla that they will be splitting their stock on August 31st. Apple will split its stock 4 to 1, meaning you will receive four shares for every share you own as of August 24th. The split will be Apple's fifth stock split in forty years. Tesla will split their stock 5 to 1 by issuing an additional four shares in a dividend for every share you own as of August 21st.
The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 to set a standard for identification cards. As of December 2013, the Department of Homeland Security implemented an enforcement plan schedule that was modified in 2018 by President Trump. The Act sets a minimum-security standard for licenses and prohibits Federal agencies from accepting identification cards that do not meet the criteria.
The President signed The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Act (SECURE Act) into law on December 20, 2019, and many of the changes became effective on January 1, 2020. In an earlier article, “SECURE Act”, we discussed the basics of what the SECURE Act intended to accomplish.
Benjamin Franklin wisely observed that “nothing can be said to be certain, except for death and taxes”. Centuries later, this still rings true. Most earned income will be subject to taxes and tax withholding as determined by Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. Form W-4 is an IRS form you, as an employee, complete directing your employer on the amount of pay to withhold from every paycheck for federal taxes. Accurately completing your W-4 is beneficial to you because it can prevent overpayment of your taxes, putting more money in your pocket. It can, also, avoid underpayment of your taxes, which ensures that there will be no unexpected tax bill or penalty due.
