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 […]
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 […]
As we wind down financial literacy month, I can’t help but think about the recent Marvel release of Avengers: Endgame. Why? First, I grew up a bit of a comics nerd and am now a stalwart believer that 90s X-Men are the best of all iterations of X-Men. Second, I’ve shared the experience of the […]
The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union! Implications for global trade could be disastrous! Implications for the global financial industry could be even worse! The British government is in disarray! People are panicking! But should they? To say the U.K. has weathered worse would be so trite an understatement that even the British – […]