In talking with clients about the benefits their employer provides during the open enrollment season, one often overlooked benefit if clients have dependents is the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA).
Year-End Tax Planning Strategies
As the year draws to a close, it's the perfect time to look at your finances and implement year-end tax planning strategies. With careful planning, you can optimize your tax situation, reduce your tax liability, and save more money for the future. In this article, we'll explore various tax planning strategies that individuals and families can consider to maximize their financial situation before the year-end.
High Rates Don't Put the Brakes on Stocks
Some investors have asked if stocks make sense in a world where short-term US Treasuries yield north of 5.5%. 1 While a notable relationship exists between high short-term interest rates and stock market returns, it's important to understand that correlation does not imply causation. Here's a breakdown of the dynamics:
Why Stock Valuations Are Not Predictive of Future Portfolio Returns
Financial markets are complex and unpredictable. Valuation metrics, such as price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios, enterprise value-to-EBITDA, and the price-to-book (P/B) ratio, have traditionally been seen as indicators of a stock's intrinsic worth and, by some, predictors of future returns. However, the belief that valuations can reliably forecast future markets deserves a deeper investigation into why they may not serve as a crystal ball for investors.
Three Questions Answered Regarding your Company's Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
A Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) is a form of compensation that some companies use to reward their employees. RSUs represent a promise to give an employee a certain number of shares of company stock at a future date, typically once certain conditions are met, such as a specified vesting period or performance goals. RSUs are a common form of equity-based compensation used in publicly traded and private companies.
How to Find a Good CPA
If you are a reader of the Wall Street Journal, you may have seen three articles in the past nine months that addressed the issue of a significant shortage of accountants. According to the most recent data from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the number of US students graduating with either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in accounting dropped 7.4% during the 2021–22 academic year from the year before, the largest one-year decline since at least 1994–95.
Reducing Student Loan Balances Using Programs Offered
Student loan payments resumed on October 1st after over three years of forbearance. More than 30 million people are returning with existing loans, and 13 million new borrowers and recent graduates are entering the system for the first time since the Covid-related forbearance. Regardless of whether everything is appropriately structured for the first federal loan payment, you should still review your student loans to ensure everything is in order and understand your new payment.
3 Reasons Every High Net-Worth Family Should Fund a Health Savings Account
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are not only a savvy investment option but also offer numerous benefits, especially for high-net-worth families. An HSA is a tax-advantaged savings account designed for individuals with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses. While the utility of HSAs is universal, they hold advantages for high-net-worth families and have steadily grown in popularity since their inception.
How Money Can Buy Happiness (Part 2)
Earlier this year, I explained two principles you can follow to obtain the most happiness from your spending https://www.highlandplanning.com/learning-center-1/how-money-can-buy-happiness-part-1. In today’s article, I will cover three more concepts that can help bring more joy in your life with your spending. Below are the five principles outlined in the book Happy Money.
4 Fundamentals of Financial Planning Success… and to Becoming a Better Pool Player
Travel Medical Insurance: Are You Covered for Foreign Emergencies?
Investment Diversification Strategy: Just How Diversified Are You?
One of the most fundamental principles of investing is diversification. Diversification does not overload your portfolio into any investment but instead spreads the risk across different areas. Ideally, your portfolio is invested in several diverse types of investments, but as you'll see below, there is more to diversification than buying stocks, bonds, or funds.
Politics and the Stock Market, Imperfect Together
How to Evaluate a Job Offer - Salary, Benefits, Stock Options, and More
How Money Can Buy Happiness (Part 1)
Family Goal Setting: "The Three Questions Every Frantic Family Should Ask." [Book]
![Family Goal Setting: "The Three Questions Every Frantic Family Should Ask." [Book]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59fa0413692ebe1686955d81/1684178293052-4XSI5DX1GS0W6N0F064D/unsplash-image-SIOdjcYotms.jpg)
"The Three Questions Every Frantic Family Should Ask" is a book by Patrick Lencioni, a renowned author, speaker, and consultant on organizational health. The book aims to help families overcome the stress and anxiety of modern-day family life. Lencioni draws from his extensive experience in organizational health to provide practical insights and tools that families can use to build healthier relationships, communicate better, and achieve greater success in their personal and professional lives.
What Should You Review When Laid Off?
Reviewing and adequately reacting when handed a severance package can be daunting. A flood of emotions and concerns can cloud your judgment and lead to rash decision-making. It's essential to pause and compose your thoughts before proceeding because some of your benefits will still be extremely valuable to your short and long-term plan.
Investing Significant Amount of Cash: Lump-Sum Investing vs Dollar-Cost Averaging
Investing can be a daunting task, especially when you have a significant amount of cash to invest. One of the most crucial decisions is when to invest. Should you commit all at once or spread out your investments over time? This article will discuss the two primary investment strategies: lump-sum investing and dollar-cost averaging.
Are you concerned about being laid off in the life science industry?
Pandemic investments and the continuation of gene therapy spurred the growth of companies in recent years. Still, these same companies are feeling the pinch due to growing economic uncertainty. Life sciences do better than other industries during economic and market drawdowns, but it is not immune to global influences.
What’s Your “Number”?
I often asked this question in high school – it usually involved someone walking away without me finding out.
And now that I have your attention…
In September 2008, the financial services company ING launched a marketing campaign called “Your Number”. You may remember these commercials – they showed busy people going about their day with large six or seven-figure numbers floating over their heads.