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).
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.
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.
In a previous article titled “The Estate Planning Essentials”, I identified the documents needed for a comprehensive estate plan. Although this can be a morbid topic most want to avoid thinking about, reviewing the documents not only ensures your financial legacy is passed in accordance with your wishes as smoothly as possible but guides your agent to ensure your medical and financial wishes are addressed. So, how often should you review your estate planning documents?
Inflation is all everyone has been talking about for two years. Inflation reaching 40-year highs has wreaked havoc on consumers' wallets and caused market uncertainty.
The inflation story in 2021 was propelled forward by supply chain disruptions following the shutdown of the economy due to the COVID stay-at-home orders. This broad statement of supply chain disruptions expands to the physical transportation of products and a shortage of workers and materials
Would you believe it if someone told you that you could improve sleep, reduce stress and anxiety, and boost your mental well-being by reducing social media and news intake? About four months ago, I decided to conduct a self-experiment where I reduced the time spent on social media apps and watching news channels.
Shakespeare wrote ten dramas, each with a different story and cast of characters. However, his tragedies follow the same five-act formula: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution. Every play, movie, and television shows from Shakespeare's time to today follows the same five-act sequence. Our culture's art and entertainment reflect our innate expectations of the hero's rise, fall, and resolution. Likewise, our expectations for the economy and financial markets are no different.
Leonardo DaVinci wisely said, "Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Realize that everything connects to everything else." Financial planning integrates art and science through a dynamic process. The art is subjective and experienced while exploring goals and aspirations and making decisions. The science is objective and visible in the tools to develop projections analysis.
Walter Mischel, psychologist and professor at Stanford University conducted an experiment in the 1960s about delayed gratification and published his findings in 1972. In the study, a researcher explained to a child they could either have one marshmallow immediately or two marshmallows if they waited 15 minutes.
As of Friday, the 29th of July, except for the NASDAQ market, the US equity markets recovered somewhat from the bear market correction. A bear market is a loss of 20% from the previous high. In the first six months of 2022, the equity market had lost over 80% of what it gained in 2021 and entered a bear market correction.
There seems to be a list of five things for anything you can think of to improve your odds of success. Pareto’s Principle (the 80/20 rule) states that 80% of the results will typically come from 20% of the cause. If a list of five things can truly make a difference in your life, that is an excellent return on your behavior.
During a recent financial review with a couple, we discussed inflation. The wife asked me, “So, what is cyclical inflation.” I used the term illustrating the difference between temporary, transitory inflation and built-in, cyclical inflation. It suddenly occurred to me that those are some fancy words. What do they mean in plain talk?
Recently, we had a client report that a fraudster had stolen her identity. It seemed that someone may have obtained access to her email address and was creating havoc with her online accounts. We immediately told her to go to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) website, www.identitytheft.gov, to report the incident and follow some immediate steps to start dealing with the breach.
In Part 1 of F.I.R.E., we explored the meaning behind the movement and the different variations, while Part 2 of F.I.R.E. provided some context on common misconceptions. With that backdrop, we are going to outline how to quantify your definition of F.I.R.E.
With over $5 trillion in 401(k) plans across the United States as of 2019, this qualified retirement plan's continued popularity is without question. Although the amount of 401(k) money invested in company stock has declined in recent years, according to the Investment Company Institute, investors still have about 6% of plan assets concentrated in their employer's stock.
In the last two weeks, big news items were the announcements from Apple and Tesla that they will be splitting their stock on August 31st. Apple will split its stock 4 to 1, meaning you will receive four shares for every share you own as of August 24th. The split will be Apple's fifth stock split in forty years. Tesla will split their stock 5 to 1 by issuing an additional four shares in a dividend for every share you own as of August 21st.
