Your Turn What are your goals for 2018? When setting your goals for the new year, it’s important to focus on a few things. Make sure your goals are yours. Whether it is decluttering your workspace, reducing debt or losing weight, your goals must be yours, not what someone else thinks you should do. That leads to a few questions …
Retirement Savings Checklist for 2018
When people make their resolutions for the new year, money is one of the most common themes. Whether it’s paying down debt, increasing savings, deciding to start a business or planning a vacation, money often touches our goals for the new year, whether directly or indirectly. Making sure your retirement savings is in order should be a priority for you …
Behavioral Economics and 401(k)s: Using Plan Design to Fight Irrationality
By: Chad Schollaert, AIF, CRSP, Retirement Services In October, Professor Richard H. Thaler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. While past winners of the award included groundbreaking works that address large-scale macroeconomic theories and issues that may lack relevance to the average retirement plan participant, Professor Thaler’s work resonates loudly with material implications for both individual retirement investors …
Tax Reform Arrives
By Jack Davidson, CPA, CFP® On Tuesday, December 19th, the House passed the tax reform bill with a vote of 227-203. The tax bill hit a late snag on Tuesday afternoon, as the Senate parliamentarian noted that the House-passed bill contained three minor provisions that violated Senate rules, thus requiring slight modifications. After further deliberations, the Senate passed the bill …
It’s Time to Look at Year-end Planning
As the year draws to a close, we begin to think about taxes and planning for the upcoming year. There’s no telling what the tax rules will be for 2018, but we might as well take control of what we can — our own spending and planning. Stay disciplined over the holidays with your budget and remember the extra $10 …
Tax Reform for Nonprofits
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the long anticipated tax reform bill over two weeks ago on Thursday, November 16th. While the new taxation rates for both corporations and individuals have consumed the majority of headline news, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also incorporates several divisive provisions which may significantly impact a number of nonprofit institutions. Some of the …
Getting Your Affairs in Order
Recently someone was complementing these articles and said how valuable the information in them was to them. One of her family members died recently and she wanted to make sure that her own affairs were in order. Unfortunately, we see unexpected, untimely deaths at surprisingly young ages more than we would like. And with the devastating massacre in Las Vegas, these …
Unwinding the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy and How It Can Impact Your Portfolio
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve enacted numerous monetary policies to help stimulate the fragile US economy. The Fed aggressively cut the short-term federal funds rate to nearly zero to encourage lending from banks and financial institutions and spending from consumers and corporations. As the economic outlook weakened further, it also announced its decision to buy mortgage-backed securities …