Is your advisor held to a fiduciary standard, or a suitability standard? Do you know the difference, and what it can mean to your investments?
January, 2019:
Focus On The Future
This post was inspired by a recent conversation I had with a former student. As is customary in my classes, I encourage students to contact me if they have questions while in the “real world” after graduation. The student was contemplating contributing the maximum to a Roth IRA for 2018 – which is $5,500, and then potentially doing the same for 2019 – which would be $6,000. His concern was market volatility. He was afraid of contributing to the IRA, then seeing is lump sums of $5,500 and $6,000 respectively plummeting if the market were to drop substantially. I told him to look at it from this perspective. The middle letter in the acronym IRA stands for retirement. This young man is 22 years old, planning to retire in 30 to 40 years. I told him that he could consider contributing the maximum to his Roth IRA every year, regardless […]
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Life Insurance: Protect Your Most Important Asset
You may think that your most important asset is your home, your nest egg, your priceless collection of Etruscan snoods. Your most important asset is you – your human capital. Your human capital is your current and future economic contributions to your family. Perhaps you’ve gone to college and majored in a profession to pursue a career. You may have earned advanced degrees and designations to increase your knowledge, professionalism, and income. All of this increases your human capital – your ability to earn, substantially, over your lifetime. Now that you have a family, a spouse and kids to support, you need to hedge your human capital, you need to protect it in the event it’s lost – should you die unexpectedly. No one likes talking about death. Even writing these words, it’s hard to type them. But it’s necessary to convey the importance of life insurance. Life insurance protects […]
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Are Resolutions Worth It?
After the first of the years it’s common of individuals to aspire to change their lives for the better. Many individuals come up with New Year’s resolutions – with aspirations of accomplishing certain goals or tasks that have eluded them in the past. But do resolutions really work? In other words, what good is a resolution without action? Granted, I am being nitpicky. But think of it this way. If I were to write down a handful of resolutions that I wanted to achieve in 2019 and beyond – they would simply be words on paper. Don’t get me wrong, having the resolutions or goals listed is an excellent start, but again, until they’re acted upon, nothing will happen. All the words and intentions in the world are nothing without action. So how can we convert resolutions into measurable acts? First, do one thing today that is an action toward […]
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The 457(b) Special Catch-Up
If you’re a governmental employee, you may be aware that your employer offers a 457(b) retirement plan. Additionally, you likely know that like a 401(k), the 457(b) allows you to contribute $19,000 annually to the plan with an additional $6,000 catch-up for those aged 50 or older. What you may not be aware of is the special catch-up provision the 457(b) offers. This special catch-up provision allows a governmental employee that is within 3 years of the normal retirement age (as dictated in the plan) to contribute up to twice the annual amount ($38,000 for 2019). To take advantage of this special contribution the plan sponsor (employer) must allow it in the verbiage of the plan. Additionally, the employee must have unused contribution amounts from prior years. In other words, an employee can contribute twice the amount normally allowed if that employee has unused contributions from prior years; they didn’t […]
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Should I Itemize or Use The Standard Deduction?
Taxes (Photo credit: Tax Credits) As you prepare your tax return, you have a decision to make about your tax deductions – you can choose between itemizing and using the standard deduction. But how do you choose? The Standard Deduction is just what it sounds like – a standardized deduction that you can choose to utilize by default, and you don’t have to do a lot of recordkeeping through the year in order to use the the standard deduction. In order to itemize deductions, you need to save receipts from various deductible expenses through the year, and use those to prepare your itemized return. Oftentimes it is a foregone conclusion, once you understand the differences between itemizing and the standard deduction. Standard Deduction vs. Itemizing: Facts to Help You Choose Each year, millions of taxpayers choose whether to take the standard deduction or to itemize their deductions. The following seven […]
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
The latest in our Owner’s Manual series, A 401(k) Owner’s Manual, was published in January 2020 and is available on 
A Medicare Owner’s Manual, is updated with 2020 facts and figures. This manual is available on 
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An IRA Owner’s Manual, 2nd Edition is available for purchase on Amazon. Click the link to choose the 
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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”.