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.
Over the recent past, more individuals have been taking advantage of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offered in tandem with high deductible health plans (HDHPs). It is estimated that deposits into HSAs will increase by 22% to $53.2 billion from 2017 to 2018 with direct employer relationships being the leading driver of new account growth.
Exchange-traded products (ETPs) have been lauded by investors and investment professionals for helping to democratize investing. The most popular type of ETP is the exchange-traded fund, better known by its acronym ETF. Exchange-traded notes (ETNs) are a lesser known type of ETP. ETNs differ from ETFs in that ETNs don’t hold underlying securities, like stocks or bonds. Rather, they are unsecured debt instruments issued by a bank that promises to pay the performance of an underlying investment, typically an index or basket of securities.
On September 21, 2018, the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) sector structure will experience the biggest change in its history. Specifically, the Telecommunication Services sector will be broadened to include companies from the Consumer Discretionary and Information Technology sectors and renamed Communication Services.
Whether you are a first time home buyer or a seasoned mover, there are many intricate details involved with taking out a mortgage. If you are purchasing or refinancing a home, there may be an opportunity to lower the interest through buying mortgage points. Although a lower interest rate sounds appealing, there may be drawbacks depending on your unique situation.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index looks significantly different today than it did at its inception thirty years ago. For one, the market capitalization of emerging markets companies has increased from $52 billion in 1988 to $5.3 trillion as of May 31, 2018. This underscores the ability of emerging markets countries to contribute to the global economy, especially as global markets have expanded.
Protecting yourself and your family is top priority for most, and households purchase different types of insurance to ensure that they are properly covered from unforeseen events.
A very important form of insurance that people frequently overlook is Excess Personal Liability, which is commonly referred to as Umbrella insurance. Umbrella insurance provides additional liability coverage above the limits established through other basic liability policies like auto and homeowner’s/ renter’s. Umbrella insurance is designed to help guard against large and potentially devastating liability claims or judgments caused from bodily injury, property damage, lawsuits, libel, and slander.
Every couple has its own unique way of divvying up the household’s financial chores. This may mean one spouse is in charge of investments and one spouse is in charge of paying the bills, or one spouse could assume all the financial responsibilities. In the latter case, the responsible spouse effectively assumes the role of the family’s chief financial officer (CFO).
Sector investment strategies have been around for decades and the proliferation of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, have made these investment strategies available to the masses at a relatively low cost. The problem with sector investment strategies is that while businesses change with technological advancements, the traditional sector classification system has remained unchanged.
The financial media loves to write articles about how much money you would have if you invested $1,000 in a particular stock on a particular date. Often times the authors of these articles will reference the best performing stock of the year and trace the history back to the stock's initial public offering, or IPO.
According to the US Department of Agriculture's most recent annual estimate, it will cost a middle-income family $233,610 to raise a child to age 18, ignoring college and inflation. This is a staggeringly high number, but the cost to raise a child with special needs can exceed that number by 5 or 10 times, depending on the child's condition.
If you are a parent with a child in college or paying off debt yourself, you probably are all too familiar with the astounding costs of a college education. With the average annual cost of a four-year private college at $49,320, it’s important to be realistic about how much of the tuition will be funded by student loans.
In the past few weeks, there has been an increase in volatility in stock markets around the globe. The first bout of volatility spanning the last week of January and first week of February was caused by concern the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates at a faster pace than the markets were anticipating.
