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.
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).
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.
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.
For the first time since December 2018, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted at its March meeting to raise the federal funds target rate range by ¼ percent to 0.25% - 0.50%. Following this initial increase, the median voting member expects seven more rate hikes in 2022 and an additional four hikes in 2023.
There has been no shortage of volatility with global equity markets on a rollercoaster ride this year. A steep drop in prices scares investors and heightens our senses to pay attention to avoid making mistakes. However, this fear can lead to indecision or taking no action.
Our prayers and thoughts are with the Ukrainian people who are suffering immeasurably at the hands of the Russian military today. To characterize this as "geopolitical risk" that will impact our portfolios seems insensitive. Millions of Ukrainian people woke up today with plans to go to school and work, meet up with friends, or start vacations, and instead have bombs falling on their cities as Russia commits to war on their land.
As we head into the throes of tax season, investors will be getting a slew of tax documents to report on their tax returns. Tax filing can be complicated even further by adding equity compensation into the equation because there can be (1) multiple tax reporting forms for one transaction, (2) different tax treatments based on the type of compensation (3) specific rules for varying strategies.
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?
The new year has begun, and with it come changes to monthly benefits and costs for Social Security and Medicare. On the positive side, Social Security recipients will see a 5.9% cost-of-living increase in their benefits, the largest since Ronald Reagan was President. Unfortunately, due to various factors, Medicare is also experiencing the most significant increase in Part B and D premiums in the program’s history.
An incentive stock option (ISO) is a form of equity compensation where the employee has the right to buy shares of the company at a discounted price with special tax treatment. An ISO is a long-term incentive that replaces cash compensation and encourages employees to contribute to the company’s growth and development, hoping the options grow in value over time.
Around this time of year, investors may notice a drop in value in their mutual fund positions due to the funds paying out their annual capital gains distributions. It is important to realize that when this payout occurs, it will cause a drop in the fund's value since the fund's share price is reduced by the capital gains distribution, making it appear that the fund lost value.
Recently there has been considerable debate about providing investors with less than $5 million opportunities to invest in private equity (PE). A prior SEC chairman said, “the requirement that allows only wealthy investors access to PE does not provide the same investment opportunities to smaller investors.”
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.
