Personal Financial Planning

With some schools expected to stay closed for a while, many families are considering hiring a nanny or tutor to help care for children while parents work and to help their kids keep learning.  Childcare is expensive.  Average childcare costs range from $17,193 per year in the South to $24,815 in the Northeast – not too different than a year at a public college, we've se

With the tax-filing deadline behind us, many people are suffering tax-related sticker shock.  What would it take to have a better tax-season next year?  Here is a quick checklist of ideas; not all will apply, and of course there are caveats and limitations to almost every one of them.  We’ll get detailed and down in the weeds when strategizing with your personal situation i

There is no minimum age on Roth IRAs, only the requirement that a person needs to have earned income*.  OK, it’s true that babies have a hard time finding work, but as kids get summer jobs or are able to work in a parent’s business, a Roth is a great tool for savings. 

When you turn 65 you become eligible for Medicare.  Part A is free, but Medicare Part B is based on the income reported on your tax return from 2 years ago.  But is that a fair way to determine the cost when your income level may have changed in the meantime?

I saw the lowest mortgage rates I’ve seen in a long time this week.  With rates this low, it’s time to check to see how much you could reduce your monthly mortgage payment or speed up your pay-off date. 

How do you know if it's time to refinance?

It's worth exploring refinancing if:

Most people have some preferences about how they would like their life’s work and accumulations distributed or cared for, but many have avoided facing the sobering task of putting their preferences on paper. Whether you are updating an existing plan or creating a new estate plan, one roadblock to moving forward can be the process of finding an estate attorney. 

Donor Advised Funds have received a lot of attention lately.  A quick primer: They let you make a tax-deductible contribution into designated investment accounts which can grow until you make distributions to charities of your choice.

When investments are down, one financial strategy is to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth while the value is reduced so you pay taxes on the decreased value. If and when the market rebounds, that rebound will be in the Roth’s tax-free environment.

We are excited to announce Sharon Weaver’s paper “Scaffolding or Enabling? Implications of Extended Parental Financial Support into Adulthood” has been published by the Journal of Financial Therapy.

As I discuss estate planning with my clients, I inevitably think about my personal estate plan.  My kids will inherit what will seem like a lot of money to them, considering how frugally they were raised (downside of being brought up by a financial planner!).  I want them to manage it well, understand why I made the estate planning decisions I did, and I have some ideas about ways the