The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 gave most Americans a break on their upcoming taxes – but you don’t need legislation to cut your taxes even further with sound investment strategies that focus on tax optimization.
Here are a few ways to help yourself at Uncle Sam’s expense.
1. Shift Toward Capital
Stocks
You have several credit cards and a couple of killer rewards programs. Why not put them to good use and charge every purchase that you can?
It’s smart to get the most out of your credit cards, but do so within a budget and with one thought in mind – “Is a credit card the
One day you appear to be on track for retirement, and the next day the stock market crashes. You were on track for a comfortable retirement at age 67 – or before, with a little luck. Now you may have to work into your 70s before you can afford to retire.
Don’t let
If you are one of the fortunate few who have a defined benefit retirement plan, you have more predictability in your retirement income than most. You can calculate your combined pension benefits and any Social Security benefits that you have earned and have a clear idea of your annual income throughout retirement – assuming you
The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) gave most Americans a break on their upcoming taxes – but you don’t need legislation to cut your taxes even further with sound investment strategies that focus on tax optimization.
Here are a few ways to help yourself at Uncle Sam’s expense.
1. Shift Toward Capital
The average retirement age in the United States has ticked up over the past decade. As you can see in the chart below, as of 2014, the average retirement age increased to 62 and the expected age of retirement is now at 66.
If you look at the state of retirement savings these days, the
Retiring without the worry of running out of money is a major goal for many of us. But what is the best way to ensure that you never run out of money in retirement?
It used to be that many retirees lived off of a pension, interest income, Social Security, or all three. This made
Do you consider yourself a financial risk-taker? If so, what is the standard that you use to analyze risk? If you don’t fully understand risk, you may be looking at the wrong criteria to make the best financial decisions for you and your family.
A recent survey by AMG Funds suggests that very few investors
The opening and closing bells on the major American stock exchanges ring at 9:30 am and 4:00 pm respectively (Eastern Time). If you cannot pack enough trading thrills into that six-and-one-half hour stretch, or your 9-to-5 job does not allow you the freedom to do your own trading at home, you are in luck. After-hours
How can you retire with $1 million in assets? It’s easy… if you start with $3 million! All kidding aside, the best answer is to make a plan that achieves the savings necessary to get to $1 million. We can help you formulate that plan using the following seven tips.
1. Make Saving and Budgeting
If you dabble in online investing, you have certainly been deluged by emailed offers of investing advice and “hot stock tips”. Undoubtedly, some good stock tips are out there, as well as a whole host of questionable ones and some that are outright guesswork. How can you tell the difference? After all, even the best
Stocks Outpace Housing Few can argue that the stock market has experienced great growth under President Trump. The “Trump Bump” consists of an approximate 20% increase in both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 during the President’s first year in office.
Does the same Trump Bump translate to the housing market? A recent study by
One of the biggest mistakes many investors make is not considering the effects of taxes on their returns. Local, state and federal taxes can take a big bite out of your investment earnings.
This makes it critical to formulate strategies for minimizing the impact of taxes on your investments. Here are six strategies that can
Have you ever received one of those love letters from the IRS that says you owe them more money? Occasionally a client calls me in a panic when they receive one. Most of the letters I have seen are due to the client or the tax preparer forgetting to include the sale of a stock
Donald Trump ran a successful Presidential campaign based in part on being unconventional and shaking up the status quo. Those are not properties valued on Wall Street, where predictability and stability are preferred.
While stocks overall have responded positively to Trump’s stated policies, individual stocks have suffered from one of his greatest sources of unpredictability
When picking retirement funds, it’s easy to get confused by the different options available. For many households, saving for the next month is difficult enough, let alone thinking further into the future. To enjoy a happy and financially stable retirement, however, it’s crucial to make the right investments.
Most Americans use a combination of bonds
The end of a year is a time to assess what happened over the past 12 months and look forward to the promise of new opportunities. That is true with most aspects of life, and your financial portfolio should be no exception. Give your holdings a year-end review and consider these strategies as you do
It may be the holiday season, but personal finance is something Americans need to take seriously throughout the year. Keeping everything in check can be challenging, but you can improve your chance of success by using financial technology, or “fintech”, including gadgets and software that make managing your finances easier.
The first aspect of personal
The long-running bull market may have instilled investor overconfidence in stocks when it comes to 401(k) accounts — or it is possible that people just don’t pay attention to the composition of their 401(k) plans. For whatever reason, a study from Fidelity Investments suggests that too many 401(k) accounts are too heavy in stocks and
There are unicorns on Wall Street? Indeed there are, but not the fictional beasts that are a favorite of pre-teen girls. As defined on Wall Street, unicorns are private companies that have valuations of over $1 billion. Generally, these are startups expected to create disruptive growth as they mature.
There are well over 100 unicorns
Are lottery tickets a component of your retirement program? Then you sound like an extreme risk-taker when it comes to investing. Do you throw up every time you hear that the stock market dropped? Then odds are you are a conservative investor.
All kidding aside, it is wise to take time to seriously assess your
Today’s keyword for equities is “volatile.” Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union (the “Brexit”) is just the most recent example of sharp drops followed by a relatively rapid rally. Investors are often tempted to overreact, fearing that they will lose out if they do not act immediately. For nervous investors, navigating volatile markets
There are zillions of investing strategies. Some good, some bad, and some are just…. Everybody knows why they are investing. Correct? Well, let’s invert this and ask ourselves what efficient investing can give us in return. This is where the 4 M’s can drastically improve your net worth if you or whoever manages your money
You can finally see retirement in the horizon – lounging on the beach, jetting around the world, or puttering around in your backyard. Whatever your goals are, you will soon be realizing them, assuming you have saved and invested wisely. How should your investments be rebalanced as you approach your retirement goals? The answer to
For most Americans, a prolonged period of unusually low oil prices is a positive. It costs less to fill your tank at the gas station, and lower transportation costs keep the price of goods relatively low. However, there are a few people who are not happy to see low oil prices — led by those
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a hybrid of stocks and indexed mutual funds. They are purchased through brokers and traded through exchanges just as a stock would be, but they represent a basket of holdings designed to track a particular index or price. The underlying asset could be stocks, bonds, commodity contracts, real estate, precious
Asset allocation models usually refer to the mix of three asset classes in your investment portfolio: stocks, bonds and cash – although cash is sometimes unwisely lumped in with bonds.
The three major issues in picking an asset allocation model are:
Goal – What is your investing goal? As the saying goes, if you don’t
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are an excellent low-cost, low-dollar-entry alternative to mutual funds. With the number of ETFs available today, you can track almost any index or field that you can think of with an ETF that meets your investment goals and risk tolerance.
Potentially High-Performing ETFs for 2016 If you cannot decide what type of
A New Year typically brings hope that if things were difficult last year, they may improve this year – and if things were good last year, they’ll surely get even better! However, if you don’t plan and act appropriately, you’ll soon be lamenting 2016 and longing for a better 2017.
To get you started in
Bad News From Bentonville
Last Wednesday, Walmart shook up the market with a surprising announcement regarding future earnings. The retailing empire based in Bentonville, Arkansas, stunned analysts and investors with their forecast of a 6% to 12% drop in earnings in fiscal 2017. According to Bloomberg, analysts had been expecting a gain of around 4%.