Buying the Stairway to...Retirement? What is your plan for making the transition from working life to retirement? Will you need to depend on money that you've saved while you were working? Most people do. How then will you replace your paycheck in a way that is dependable and gives you the confidence that you will be able to weather any financial storms that may arise? Consider building a bond ladder. Living Expenses The first step is to figure out how much... read more
Health Savings Accounts (HSA) Are you one of the growing number of employees who find themselves with an HSA as part of your health insurance offering by your employer? Do you take full advantage of your ability to make a contribution? First of all, if you are eligible for an HSA, that means that you also have a high-deductible health plan which is a requirement for you to have an HSA in the first place. If your employer opened this account for you, you may not have taken the tim... read more
Pay Yourself First Are you currently maxing your contribution to your 401k or 403b? If not, you may be missing some big tax and retirement benefits. Three of the most important things to understand in order to capture these benefits are: Reducing Your Current Tax Bill Compounding Investment Dollars Clearing the Hurdle to Get Started But how big are the benefits? Is it really that important? Endogenous Factors Your ability to contribute to your ta... read more
Hearsay You may have heard your neighbor say he can. Or a family member. Or a co-worker. It may be a question that you kick around in your head once in a while. Especially when it seems "obvious" that it is time to buy or sell in the market. Secrets Maybe there is a secret rule out there that you could find, if only you knew the right person? With all of the "smart" people that claim to have a special strategy to beat the market, h... read more
Imperfect At the end of the day, your life does not fit any perfect guidelines as you encounter the ups and downs that make life interesting. Being prepared for both is fundamental to financial piece of mind and to being confident that you are able to handle every situation. Cash flow is where the rubber meets the road. How you use it determines how well prepared you are. But how does this fit into a Stock Options discussion? In the first part of this series we look... read more
Unequal Burden In our first of 3 posts on how to approach executive stock options, we covered how to evaluate when to sell your options as the stock price moves up and down. In this post, we will cover the 2nd important factor. Taxes. Three Key Factors Stock Price Taxes Cash Flow - Your Life If you decide to sell your stock options without factoring in the tax effect, you may be leaving significant money on the table... Taxes do not apply e... read more
As the summer temperatures fade in and out of the hot zone, so too does Greece fade in and out of the news. Constant headlines about the possibility of a Greek default are accompanied by an equal number of predictions about what that might mean for world markets. Some interesting facts about Greece. Did you know that the economy of Greece is about half the size of the state of Ohio? Further, while its debt is large at 180% of its GDP, Greek debt represents about one quarter ... read more
A Shiny New Car? How do you decide when to sell your executive stock options? When it's time to buy a new car? When the college bill comes due? How can you be sure that you're getting the most out of these key pieces of your compensation? If you are a successful executive at a large corporation, there is a good chance that you have received some employee stock options and/or some restricted stock as part of your compensation. You are then confronted with having to... read more
I Make a Good Income Do you make a good income but feel like your spending is out of control? Are you surprised that despite having a good job, you consistently feel like you're spending more than what's available? First, let's identify one of the problems. Credit Cards. Yes, in today's world of instantaneous electronic payments and impulse buying at the click of a smartphone, credit cards are a primary reason why your spending may be out of control. ... read more
If someone told you that their financial advisor was on the right side of history, would that sound like a pretty bold statement? What if that person was Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard and the world's first index fund? Would you be more inclined to listen? That is exactly what Jack Bogle said about the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners when he came to speak to our group in November 2014 at our annual conference, right here in Philadelphia. Fo... read more