What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
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Once again, it’s the season of generosity. In addition to considering gifts for your loved ones, you might want to think about charitable gifts as well. But what should you know before making gifts to charities? And what impact might these gifts have on your financial and tax situation? First, you may want to create a gift budget by deciding just how much you will give to charitable organizations over the rest of the year. Next, look closely at the groups to whom you wish to contribute. You can...
As you go through life, you’ll have various financial goals — and to achieve them, you’ll need to invest. But just recognizing the need to invest is not as useful as matching specific types of accounts or investments with specific goals. How can you make these connections? Let’s look at some common goals and how they could possibly be met with appropriate accounts and investments: • Saving for a down payment on a house – When you’re saving for a down payment, you want a certain amount of mon...
We all make mistakes in many areas of life. These mistakes are usually fairly harmless — we took a wrong turn while driving, used the wrong ingredients in a recipe and so on. But sometimes, our mistakes can be costly — especially those connected to investing. Here are some of the most common investment mistakes: • Too much buying and selling – some people find it exciting to constantly buy and sell investments in the pursuit of big gains. Yet, frequent trading can work against you in a couple...
If you’ve invested in an IRA for many decades, it may well turn into a key source of income for your retirement. Still, you might not deplete your IRA in your lifetime, especially if you also have a pension or a 401(k) and other investment income. So, if your IRA still has sizable assets after your passing, it would likely end up in your estate plan. If you leave your IRA to grown children or other family members, could they be hit with a big tax bill? Here’s a little background: Up until the...
If you’re a long-term investor, your portfolio may stay fairly stable over time. However, that doesn’t mean you will never sell any investments. But when should you sell — and why? Here are some scenarios to consider: • If an investment has consistently underperformed – For one reason or another, some investments may not live up to your expectations. Rather than holding these investments in the hope that they will eventually show consistently positive returns, you might be better off selling the...
Paying for health care can be challenging — but are you taking full advantage of all the resources available to you? You might have access to a Health Savings Account or a Flexible Spending Account, so let’s look at both. An HSA is a personal savings account used to pay health care costs. If you’re enrolled in a high-deductible health plan, you also may be eligible to contribute to an HSA. You aren’t taxed on the money you put into this account or on the earnings generated from your contributions, as long as withdrawals are used for qualifi...
If you own a small business or are self-employed, you’ve always got plenty to do, but you can’t forget about the days when you’ll be less busy — that is, when you’re retired. How can you prepare for that time of your life? One key step is establishing a retirement plan for your business or yourself. And thanks to the 2022 SECURE 2.0 Act, you can now receive tax credits for opening and administering a 401(k), SEP-IRA or SIMPLE IRA. These aren’t the only plans available for small businesses...
You’ll find some big differences between traditional and speculative investments — and knowing these differences can matter a great deal when you’re trying to reach your financial goals. To begin with, let’s look at the basic types of traditional and speculative investments. Trxaditional investments are those with which you’re probably already familiar: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, government securities, certificates of deposit (CDs) and so on. Speculative investments include cryptocurrencies, foreign currencies and precious metals such as g...
To be successful in most endeavors, it’s important to develop good habits — and that’s certainly the case for investors. And the earlier one develops these habits, the better. So, if you have teenagers who may be starting to work at part-time jobs, now may be a great time to introduce them to investing — and one place to begin might be a Roth IRA. As you may know, a Roth IRA is a popular retirement savings vehicle — its earnings can grow federally tax-free, provided withdrawals aren’t ta...
