Understanding What Drives Higher Prices Can Help Improve Retirement Planning According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey, 83% of workers are concerned that the higher cost of living will make it harder to save as much as they want toward retirement. If you’re like most retirement savers, you’ve likely had concerns [...]
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is scheduled to sunset. Get your planning done soon so you don't miss out. "Due to personally owned life insurance and estate growth over time, more clients than you might think could be impacted by the estate tax sunset." The current estate tax exemption amount is historically high, but it’s [...]
The State of Play In a July 21 open letter posted on social media, President Biden wrote that he has concluded “it is in the best interest” of the Democratic Party and the country for him to “stand down from reelection” and subsequently posted on X that Vice President Kamala Harris has his “full [...]
Key Takeaways Inflation expectations over the next 12 months have convincingly improved, giving the Federal Reserve (Fed) reasons to pivot. We will likely notice improving inflation dynamics later this week. Risk appetite improved as investors considered bringing cash off the sidelines and into capital markets, pushing the markets to new all-time highs. Building permits, [...]
The Two Faces of Debt - Good Debt vs. Bad Debt Understanding Good Versus Bad Debt Can Help You Make Smart Financial Moves Credit card debt is a huge challenge for many people. According to Debt.org, Americans owe $986 billion on credit cards, surpassing the prepandemic high of $927 billion. While credit card debt [...]
Tools and Techniques Raising a child is expensive. From the day a baby is born until the day they turn 18, a typical family will spend about $310,605 — or about $17,000 a year, according to a recent Brookings Institution analysis of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department.1 If you’re planning to start a [...]
Erick, are there any tricks to paying down credit card debt? I’d love to put the money in my 401(k) instead! Try the avalanche or snowball method. In each you’ll focus on making extra payments to one debt — while continuing to make the minimum payment on all your other debts. With the avalanche [...]
Knowledge is Retirement Power Thanks to the passage of SECURE Act 2.0 at the end of last year, the age for starting required minimum distributions from your 401(k) has been increased from age 72 to age 73 for individuals who attained age 72 after December 31, 2022. It will increase again, to age 75, [...]
Stock Market Performance After Fed Cuts Rates - Historical Perspective Market-watchers have been intensely focused on the Federal Reserve (Fed) this year. Recently, they’ve mostly opined on when the first rate cut might be coming and, generally, making the assumption that a rate cut would be good for stocks. It could be good, but our analysis [...]
As you approach the year's end, it's so important to consider ALL potential tax strategies to optimize your financial situation. Here are some considerations to guide your decisions: Defer Income to 2024: Consider all opportunities to defer income to 2024, especially if you anticipate being in a lower tax bracket. Ideas: postpone receipt of a [...]
