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Categories for Financial Planning

  • How To Use Qualified Charitable Distributions For Charitable Giving

    Posted Date July 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 3 min readEach year, millions of Americans make donations to charitable organizations and receive something in return – a tax break. However, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act curbed this tax advantage because it reduced the number of people eligible to claim a charitable deduction by raising the standard deduction. For 2020, the standard deduction is $12,400 for individuals and $24,800 for married couples filing jointly. If your list of deductions is not greater than those amounts, there is no tax benefit to itemizing – which means you might not be able to claim your charitable donation.... View Article

  • Why Sequence of Returns Risk Matters Now

    Posted Date June 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 3 min readThat year or two when you are closing in on your retirement date, followed by a year or two after you retire, are the worst times for a sustained market decline. Market analysts call this scenario the sequence of returns (SOR) risk – because once your principal has been significantly reduced, there’s not enough time in the market left for you to recover those losses. Two things will likely happen. First, the amount of retirement income you can withdraw each year is irrevocably reduced. For example, if you were planning to withdraw 4 percent a year... View Article

  • Prospects for Investing in the 2020s

    Posted Date May 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 4 min readThe third decade of the 21st century started out with a vigorous economy, record low unemployment levels, and benign inflation. But late in the first quarter over the span of two weeks, investors faced the fastest stock market correction in history. With an unpredictable assailant like a global virus, short-term actions by Congress and the Federal Reserve will need time to see if they are effective. Ultimately, the fate of the U.S. and global economies, which in turn will impact the investment markets, is dependent on how long the COVID-19 outbreak continues and if there is... View Article

  • The Economic Impact of Coronavirus

    Posted Date April 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 4 min readIn the days ahead, the COVID-19 pandemic will likely be described in economic terms as a Black Swan. This phrase is used to describe an event that: 1) was unpredictable; 2) causes severe and widespread consequences; and 3) in hindsight was determined to be wholly predictable. What will be interesting going forward is how much the virus, and its impact on the economy and financial markets, ultimately affects individual portfolios. It’s worth noting that many economists spent the whole of 2019 cautioning that a recession and market correction was imminent. To what extent investors took heed... View Article

  • SECURE Act Seeks to Help Americans Save More for the Golden Years

    Posted Date March 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 4 min readAt the end of 2019, Congress passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act as part of a year-end appropriations package. This bill is designed to address specific issues related to retirement savings plans in an effort to help Americans save more for retirement. Retirement Plan Contributions People are living longer, and a decrease in employer-sponsored pensions has resulted in retirees relying more on Social Security benefits than in the past. So first, the SECURE Act eliminated the age limit on traditional IRA contributions so that people who work into their 70s and... View Article

  • Safety vs. Probability: Planning For Retirement

    Posted Date February 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 3 min readAs we progress through life, we find there are certain things we can control and others we cannot. However, even with the things we can’t control, we can exercise good judgment based on facts, due diligence, historical patterns and a risk/reward calculation. These strategies play an important role in retirement planning. When it comes to accumulation, spending and protecting your nest egg, financial analysts rely heavily on safety and probability planning strategies. For example, a probability-based approach generally refers to investing. In other words, prices of stocks and bonds will vary over time, and as investors,... View Article

  • Economic Correlation: Cyclical and Non-Cyclical Stocks

    Posted Date January 1, 2020 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 3 min readA rising tide might lift all boats, but the same cannot be said for the economy. When the U.S. experiences robust economic growth, certain sectors of the stock market tend to rise while others hold steady or even decline by comparison. The stocks of companies that experience higher revenues are typically categorized as cyclical. In other words, their good fortune rests mainly on consumers being gainfully employed and having ample discretionary income with which to buy more goods and services. Take, for example, auto manufacturers. Sales typically increase when more people can afford to buy a... View Article

  • Gross Domestic Product: A Primer

    Posted Date December 1, 2019 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 4 min read The economic indicator known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represents the dollar value of all purchased goods and services over the course of one year. It is comprised of purchases from all private and public consumption, including for profit, nonprofit and government sectors. There are four components that are added to calculate the GDP: Consumer spending Government spending Investment spending (this includes business, inventory, residential construction and public investment),   Net exports, meaning the value of goods exported minus the value of goods imported The government calculates and publishes the GDP rate on a quarterly basis... View Article

  • What to Expect and How to Prepare for a Recession

    Posted Date November 1, 2019 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 5 min readEconomists generally determine that the country has fallen into a recession after two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Since 1967, the United States has experienced seven recessions. The thing is, predicting a recession is a little like predicting a tornado. Experts are never exactly sure if or when one will occur, but they can cite when conditions a ripe for one based past experience. The good news for predictors is that the economy follows a similar pattern of indicators in the months leading up to a recession. The bad news is that... View Article

  • How to Inflation-Proof a Retirement Portfolio

    Posted Date October 1, 2019 Posted Time 12:00 am Published in

    🖨 Print⏱ 4 min readStatistics indicate that the average life expectancy is longer than it used to be, but empirically we see this every day among elderly people who have lived much longer than they probably expected. This phenomenon spotlights a particular component of retirement planning that was not as significant in the past as it is now: long-term inflation. While we’ve not experienced annual inflation rates this century as high as the latter part of the 20th century, inflation can balloon at any time. But what can be even more devastating to a retiree on a fixed income is... View Article

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