As we close out the third quarter of the year, it's a natural time to pause and take stock of your progress toward your financial goals. By this point in the year, nine months of progress, challenges, and decisions have shaped where you stand today. With three months ahead, there's time to fine-tune your approach, close gaps, and position yourself to finish the year strong.
As we approach the year's final quarter, it’s the perfect time for a retirement plan check-up. Even if you set your 401(k) contributions months ago, life has a way of shifting the numbers — salary increases, bonuses, or payroll changes can all affect how much you are actually putting away.
As we embark on a new year, there's no better time to take control of your financial future by thoroughly reviewing your cash flow. If having a vision and establishing goals is the touchstone for a financial plan, this essential financial practice sets the foundation for achieving your goals and ensuring long-term financial stability.
Anyone who has gone through a divorce knows how emotionally challenging and financially complex it can be. While attorneys handle the legal aspects, a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® focuses specifically on the financial implications of divorce. This specialized designation equips professionals with the expertise to guide clients through the intricate financial aspects of divorce proceedings, ensuring better outcomes for their financial future.
Anna Marie Mock, a fee-only certified financial planner at Highland Financial Advisors, discusses the dynamic interplay between art and science in financial planning. Drawing inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci's philosophy that "everything connects to everything else," she emphasizes that financial planning is an art involving subjective goal-setting and a science-driven by objective analysis tools. In this video, Anna explains how the scientific method can be applied to financial planning, using equity compensation as a concrete example.
As we enter the transformative period of 2025 and 2026, retirement planning strategies—especially Roth IRA conversions—deserve renewed attention. The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBBA) has reshaped the U.S. tax landscape. While much of the new law extended or clarified existing provisions, the ripple effects on Roth conversions are significant.
On July 3, Congress passed a major tax-and-spending bill that Republicans call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and President Trump signed the bill into law on July 4. While this legislation doesn't radically change the tax landscape like the 2017 overhaul, it does bring new planning opportunities and potential pitfalls depending on your income level.
Ed Leach, Partner and Wealth Advisor, is joining the Board of Directors for Passaic County Habitat for Humanity starting this January. By stepping into this volunteer leadership role, Ed will contribute his personal time and energy to advancing Passaic County Habitat’s mission of building homes, communities, and hope.
The recent settlement between the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and various plaintiffs marks a significant turning point in the real estate industry. This agreement, which resolves allegations of anti-competitive practices, took effect on August 17th and could substantially change how homes are bought and sold across the United States.
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.
Revelations around the collapse and government takeover of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) dominated the news over the weekend. Except for the distractions provided by March Madness brackets and the Oscars, the word of failing financial institutions brought back bad feelings for everyone. Ironically, the film Everything Everywhere All at Once not only swept the Oscars but aptly describes the swiftness in which SVB collapsed.
The Super Bowl Indicator is a market phenomenon first introduced in 1978 by New York Times sportswriter Leonard Koppett. His findings revealed that the outcome of the US stock market (measured by the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average) could be predicted by the winner of the Super Bowl in the National Football League
U.S. college tuition costs have skyrocketed over the last few decades, leading to an unprecedented number of students needing to finance the burden through student loans. As of August 2022, student loan borrowers owed a collective nearly $1,750,000,000,000 in federal and private student loan debt, with the average borrower owing $28,950.
As the well-known saying goes, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. The idea of taxation can be traced back to 3000-2800 BC when the first known taxation system took place in Ancient Egypt. Since then, there have been many changes and additions to the tax laws, with one point remaining certain; no one wants to receive a large tax bill that they weren't expecting.
Our prayers and thoughts are with the Ukrainian people who are suffering immeasurably at the hands of the Russian military today. To characterize this as "geopolitical risk" that will impact our portfolios seems insensitive. Millions of Ukrainian people woke up today with plans to go to school and work, meet up with friends, or start vacations, and instead have bombs falling on their cities as Russia commits to war on their land.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
T.S. Eliot, The Rock, 1932
What does Eliot’s critique of modernity, which holds that we are losing something valuable in our lives as we pursue technical progress, have anything to do with investing and personal financial planning?
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend the 29th annual SRI Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The SRI Conference is the premier annual gathering of sustainable, responsible, and impact investment professionals working to direct the flow of investment capital toward a truly sustainable future.
