Planning Together Ensures You'll Understand One Another's Expectations Nearing retirement is an exciting time. It’s the culmination of the many years you’ve spent working hard and diligently following your retirement plans, and for many, it can be an incredibly meaningful and rewarding phase in your life. Retiring is a very personal decision, and everyone must decide their own perfect timing. This means that couples aren’t always going to be retiring at the same time. Should you find you and your spouse in the position of retiring at different ages, here are three things you should know ..read more

Achieving Financial Security is Just A Few Steps Away What is stopping you from achieving financial freedom? Often in life, the biggest hurdle we have to overcome is ourselves. Too often our mindset or our emotions get in the way of us achieving the goals that we’ve set. This is especially true in our financial lives. Whether it’s the feeling of being too overwhelmed by the task set before you, such as saving for a house or retirement, or it’s unhealthy habits you’ve picked up like late night shopping, it’s easy to feel ill-equipped, disparaged, or completely overwhelmed when it comes to tac ..read more

Review These Reminders Before December 31 Each Year Utilizing qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for your retirement planning is a smart move – after all, earnings on these tax-advantaged accounts grow tax-deferred or even tax-free. In order to make sure you get the most out of them, as well as stay up to date with all account requirements, review the below reminders each year ..read more

Portfolio Returns are Only One Piece of Your Planning Puzzle You max out your 401(k) contributions, you contribute regularly to your IRA and you’ve diversified your portfolio in order to reduce your overall risk. This is a thoughtful and strategic financial plan, right? Well, not exactly. Although many people believe a consistent investment strategy sets them up for their desired financial future, the truth is that investing is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to financial planning. If your investments are the only thing you’re being thoughtful and strategic about, you’re missing s ..read more

This year, investors have been treated to a rare real-world lesson in the mathematics of investing—namely, the fact that after a market decline, it takes a greater market recovery to get back to even.  The first quarter saw a frightening downturn that delivered 20% losses across the U.S. and developed foreign markets.  Then we experienced a breathtaking 20% gain in the second quarter, the fourth-best quarterly rise since 1950.  Work out the mathematics, and virtually all indices are still showing a loss for the year. You can see this dynamic everywhere you look.  The Wils ..read more

While the recent volatility in the stock market, the likelihood of an economic recession, and the proliferation of a global pandemic has had a deep impact on nearly everyone’s portfolio, our clients experienced little to no impact on their retirement income due to our three-bucket investment approach. Here’s how: our number one focus at TriCapital is to put plans in place to help make sure our clients never run out of money. One of the tools we use to accomplish that goal is our three-bucket approach to asset allocation. Since 1926, large stocks have returned about 10% per year while govern ..read more

Just when we thought we had finally seen it all, the COVID-19 pandemic forced oil prices into the negative for the first time in history. Producers were paying as much as $37.63 per barrel as of April 20 to get buyers to take oil off their hands. While one might think finding buyers willing to be paid to accept free oil might be easy, the sharp drop in demand in recent months has lead to a massive oversupply of oil such that buyers have nowhere to physically store it. Some producers have reportedly paid nearly $100,000 per day to lease oil tankers that enable them to store their oversupply a ..read more

By now, you’ve heard reports that the White House has announced federal guidelines for the easing of social distancing orders that have been put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The leadership of different states will have the final say, of course, but the guidelines offer some indication of when we can expect to start congregating again without gloves and masks. There are three phases in the proposed guidelines. (We are apparently in Phase 0 currently ..read more

On March 27 the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to address the unprecedented public health and economic crisis related to COVID-19. This $2 trillion bill is meant to impact both individuals and businesses and contains significant tax-savings measures. It could affect prior tax years while also creating immediate cash-flow. Impact on Individuals Stimulus Checks Perhaps the most impactful provision for American citizens is the CARES Act’s promise of cash payments of up to $1,200 per single individual and $2,400 for a married couple ..read more

As I sit here in my home office looking out at so many beautiful plants just beginning their gorgeous annual blooming ritual, I am reminded of the new awakening we Americans are experiencing. Americans have a long history of pulling together when needed, from 9/11 to numerous world military conflicts and now to the global COVID-19 virus pandemic. Amid the drumbeat of constant bad news these days there are also many good things happening--one just has to look around a little ..read more