We’re going to discuss, rationally and without political vitriol, the shortcomings and virtues of the wealth tax proposed by presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). This critical evaluation will be rooted in what Warren’s campaign website calls the “Ultra-Millionaire Tax.” Our assessment is not favorable, but unlike many who denigrate the plan, we actually read […]
We’ve spoken a lot in this space about IRAs: traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, backdoor IRAs and so on. And we’ve always presented these vehicles as fairly conventional, plain-vanilla places to save for your golden years. After all, IRA stands for individual retirement account. Or does it? There are any number of ways you can take […]
In normal times, investment advisors often tell you to diversify your portfolio into three broad categories: equities, fixed income, and cash equivalents. What proportion you put into each bucket is a judgment call, as is the frequency with which you rebalance your portfolio. And of course, the art lies in picking the right vehicles within […]
The American middle-class family has three major reasons to put money aside. The first is buying a starter home. The last is, as you already know, retirement. But there’s that one in the middle that often gets neglected by investors and advisors alike: your children’s college education. The 101 on 529s The most commonly referenced […]
The sad truth about recessions is that you could already be in one and not know it. The most commonly agreed-upon definition of a recession is two consecutive readings of negative growth of a country’s gross domestic product. Considering that these readings are conducted quarterly, the economy could have been contracting for quite a while […]
There sure have been a lot of big-name initial public offerings (IPOs) so far this year, and a lot more in the pipeline. Already we’ve seen Zoom, Slack, Beyond Meat, Chewy, Fiverr, Pinterest, Uber, and Lyft. Still on deck are AirBNB, Postmates, Robinhood, and WeWork parent The We Company. Traditionally, retail investors have been unable […]
The good news – and there’s plenty of it – is that the economy is doing very well. The U.S. economy just notched its 121st consecutive month of expansion. That is, it has been more than a decade since America experienced two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP), which is what defines a […]
Some of the most hackneyed suggestions you’ll hear from financial advisers is, “Don’t invest with emotion.” We’re going to gently push back on that notion a little. The reasons why you invest are deeply emotional because the stakes are high. This isn’t about scorekeeping, it’s about ensuring that your loved ones—yourself included—are provided for when […]
Quick: What’s the biggest source of debt in the U.S.? If you answered “mortgages,” you’d be right. But that’s almost too obvious. What comes next? Cars? No, that’s third. Credit cards? Not even close. Medical bills? Someday, maybe. It’s student loans – the bankruptcy-proof ones you can never get out of until they are all […]
If you are like most of us, you haven’t thought too deeply about your retirement savings for some number of years. With the W-4 form, you might have made a selection the day you were onboarded and haven’t given it a whole lot of attention since. You get your periodic statement from your retirement plan, […]
Let’s be honest. The field of Democratic presidential hopefuls resembles a scattershot pattern of personal brands and single-issue campaigns. Even if that weren’t demonstrably true, we could guard against charges of partisanship by conceding the same could be said of the Republican field four years ago. But there’s one contender with one message that’s worth […]
Despite all the hype about the benefits of tax reform at the federal level, wage earners across America have learned to take the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 with a grain of SALT. In this case, SALT is an acronym for “state and local taxes.” Until January 1, 2018, these were deductible, to […]