This year’s wildfires, record rains, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and potential for earthquakes should all act as reminders that you should be prepared for a disaster. Sure, it will take some effort on your part and you may never be affected by a disaster, but if you are, you will sure wish you had been prepared.…
If you’re saving for a child’s college education, at some point you’ll want to familiarize yourself with a college net price calculator, which is an invaluable tool for estimating financial aid and measuring a college’s affordability. Available on every college website, a net price calculator gives families an estimate of how much grant aid a…
Bil Lako, CFP®, explains that while a 401(k) is a solid start for retirement, investing doesn’t end there. you may also want to save for other goals, so you still need to understand what you’re doing.
Comparatively speaking, of all the different types of life insurance available, term is usually the least expensive. Generally, term life insurance provides protection for a stated or defined period of time, usually from one year to 30 years. If you die during the coverage term, your beneficiary receives the death benefit from the policy. But…
Some years back, it was not uncommon for parents to put their investments in their dependent children’s names to take advantage of their children’s lower tax rates. Although the Uniform Gift to Minors Act legally made a child the owner of money put into his or her name, this didn’t stop parents from routinely putting…
By: Tim O’Pry | Chief Security Officer In our Cybersecurity 101 seminar we discussed the top 3½ things you should do to improve your security online. One of these was to regularly monitor your credit using Credit Karma so you would know if your credit score was changing and more importantly if someone had queried…
Death can be expensive. Bil Lako, CFP®, explains why you need to plan for liquidity in your estate, especially if there are illiquid assets you intend your heirs to keep.
What is the Medicare Open Enrollment Period? The Medicare Open Enrollment Period is the time during which people with Medicare can make new choices and pick plans that work best for them. Each year, Medicare plan costs and coverage typically change. In addition, your health-care needs may have changed over the past year. The Open…
The most important attribute of a cash reserve is its availability in time of sudden need. And while a federally insured savings account is considered one of the safest places to put money being reserved for emergencies, when interest rates are low, you may want to consider other alternatives. When selecting ways to invest your…
Although Congress has been promising to repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT), they failed to do that when they passed tax reform in 2017. Instead, they lessened the effects of the AMT by increasing AMT exemptions (an amount of income exempt from AMT taxation) and raising the income thresholds for when the exemptions are phased…
