We’ve covered a lot of ground with regard to how various tax laws impact your retirement plans: pensions, IRAs, 403(b) and 401(k) plans. But we’ve primarily focused on the US income tax laws (the IRS) affect your plans – and there are many nuances that you need to take into account with regard to state [...]
Posts under ‘financial planning’
What Does A Fidelity Target Date (Freedom) Fund Invest In?
Note from Jim: I’m on vacation this week – hope you enjoy the following post from my friend and colleague, Roger Wohlner, CFP® who writes at the blog Chicago Financial Planner. Roger operates his Fee-Only financial planning practice out of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Fidelity is one of the largest providers of 401(k) plans and like [...]
Principles of Pollex: Debt Reduction
(In case you’re confused by the headline: a principle is a rule, and pollex is an obscure term for thumb. Therefore, this on-going series is all about Financial Rules of Thumb.) Try as we might, there are times when debts just overtake us. Quite often it is one of several things that causes this to [...]
Know Thyself
This ancient two-word phrase, attributed to several Greek luminaries ranging from Socrates to Pythagoras, implores the reader toward introspection. This introspection can be especially helpful when considering how we feel about our financial future – particularly when we are at extremes of emotion. The recent stock market activity has given us plenty of opportunities to [...]
Principles of Pollex: Auto Purchases
(In case you are confused by the headline: a principle is a rule, and pollex is an obscure term for thumb. Therefore, this on-going series is all about financial Rules of Thumb.) Buying a car is such a common activity that many folks don’t give much effort to following any “rules” around this purchase. I’ve [...]
Independent’s Day
Okay, this has nothing to do with America’s celebration of independence from British rule… other than it’s a play on words and you know I can’t possibly resist. No, today’s post is about your own independence from the biases that are infused into advice you might receive from an advisor who is working for an [...]
Investment Returns: What Should You Expect?
One of the things that I always ask clients (in fact it’s on my initial questionnaire that potential clients fill out) is “What is your expected return from your investments?” It can be pretty insightful to see what people are thinking that they should be able to receive in returns from their investments – I’ve [...]
Post-Death Options for Directing a Retirement Plan to a Spouse
There are many cases where an IRA or other retirement plan owner has directed his or her account to someone other than his or her spouse – such as the estate, a trust, or other person(s), or – the owner may not have named a beneficiary at all. It could be that the original owner [...]
The Lost Decade and What it Means
By now you’ve likely heard plenty about the “lost decade” in the stock market: On January 3, 2000, the S&P 500 index closed the day at 1,455.22, and on May 28, 2010, the index closed at 1,089.41 – for a negative return on the nearly 10 1/2 years… I’m sure you’ve noticed in your investment [...]
Tax Diversification for Investments
In past articles I have advocated the concept of spreading your tax-treatment out – so that you have money allocated in three major types of accounts: deferred tax (such as IRAs and 401(k) plans), tax-free (Roth IRAs), and capital gains taxable accounts. The reason behind this is that our fine government has this tendency to [...]
And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".
