I’ve yet to meet someone who likes paying more to the IRS than they are required to.  The below article from the WSJ highlights a common IRS penalty that you want to make sure you are avoiding, penalties on under payments. You can click on the article below to read it all, but for the quick version here are two take-aways for me: Getting it wrong and facing under withholding penalties are magnified because interest rates are so much higher these days. Withholding from IRA distributions treats those payments as being made throughout the year, even if the payment comes out in Q4. This c ..read more

With the U.S. presidential election approaching, many investors are asking themselves: “Should I adjust my portfolio ahead of this election?” While you may be seeing worrisome headlines from both sides of the aisle, it is important to understand the historical correlation between the U.S. stock market and our presidential elections. Our consensus is that although elections may cause short-term movement (noise) in the markets, we still are confident in the long-term financial plans we have constructed with our clients, regardless of which candidate is elected. This echoes the wise words of o ..read more

Money Isn’t Scary is a weekly podcast I host focused on supporting women in creating a healthy and empowered relationship with money. I have a huge passion for psychology and understanding the root cause of our thoughts, emotions and behaviors around money. I recently had the honor of talking with Meg Lefauve, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the Disney Pixar film, Inside Out. It was so cool to be able to talk to Meg and learn more about the inner workings of a movie that has had such an impact on me and my parenting journey. The movie was one of the first of its kind to bring emotional ..read more

Oftentimes as Financial Planners, we can get caught up in the numbers and deeper analysis of financial concepts for our clients. As helpful as this is, there’s another component to helping you feel comfortable and confident around your money: working through your relationship with it. Recently I was featured in an ‘Ask the Experts’ column for Womans World magazine where I addressed money fears and how we can tap into the bigger picture to move through them.  Here are a couple of the questions I was asked in the interview, although not all made it into the article I wanted to share some ..read more

Seth is back with another installment of “What’s New(s)?”  highlighting the topics that he’s following closely which might have an impact on you, as well as some others that he thinks you might find interesting or fun.  Maura Healey released a $750MM tax reform plan for the state of Massachusetts.  Among the notable proposals: Raising the estate tax threshold from $1MM to $3MM Reducing the tax on short-term capital gains from 12% to 5% Increasing an annual child and family tax credit from $240 to $600 per any dependent under 13 or older than 65 Increasi ..read more

Spring is in the air and college acceptance letters are rolling in. In addition to acceptance letters, schools may also provide a financial aid offer letter. This letter will include details on the financial aid that the school is offering the prospective student and could be comprised of federal loans, grants, and/or scholarships. In reviewing these letters, it’s important to know that schools have a process for students to request an adjustment of the financial aid offered known as a financial aid appeal. If you would like to learn more about this process, the following College Aid Pro art ..read more

As you may have seen, in the last 48 hours Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by their regulator, after suffering a run on its deposits (think: It’s a Wonderful Life).  It had 220 Billion in assets and a market capitalization of 16 Billion less than 2 days ago. This is still unfolding and it is not yet clear whether un-insured depositors will be made whole, but regardless, there are many SIVB clients and employees that will be dealing with some difficult days ahead.  For many of us, seeing these headlines brought back unpleasant memories of the last time we had bank runs – Lehman Br ..read more

Seth is back with this year’s first installment of “What’s New(s)?”  highlighting the topics that he’s following closely which might have an impact on you, as well as some others that he thinks you might find interesting or fun.  Ben Carlson, an investment professional and author of the fantastic blog “A Wealth of Common Sense”, updates his own asset allocation quilt each year and 2022 has been published!  The asset allocation quilt is intended to show how the performance of different asset classes can deviate year-to-year, further highlighting the benefits of diversificati ..read more

Seth is back with another installment of “What’s New(s)?”  highlighting the topics that he’s following closely which might have an impact on you, as well as some others that he thinks you might find interesting or fun.  Included in the Omnibus spending bill that the Senate passed earlier this month was the SECURE Act 2.0 which includes a number of changes to the retirement planning landscape.  Simplification was clearly not a goal with SECURE Act 2.0 – funding retirement accounts just got much more complicated!  Some of the most notable provisions included in the ..read more

Seth is back with another installment of “What’s New(s)?”  highlighting the topics that he’s following closely which might have an impact on you, as well as some others that he thinks you might find interesting or fun.  A recent Morningstar study found that investors earned ~9.3%/year in mutual funds and ETFs over a decade while the funds themselves returned ~11%.  What’s the reason for the difference between fund return and experienced investor return?  Bad decisions.  Morningstar found that poorly timed transactions led investors to miss out on higher retur ..read more