The temperatures are starting to cool down and you, like many, may be starting to pack your bags to head south for the winter. However, before you rush off to enjoy the sunshine, make sure you’re properly prepared to leave your home for a few months. Here’s a checklist to help you get ready.
Many of us actively choose our state of residence for professional and other opportunities, or perhaps choose to stay close to friends and family and build a life where we spent our formative years.
Dina Megretskaia and Victoria Tejeda explore how these tax-advantaged accounts can help you save and invest for a child’s future educational needs. Much like your 401(k) plan at work, 529 plans offer a set list of investments and the assets inside can grow tax free.
“Significant life events such as changing jobs, having children, getting married or divorced, illness, or death can and often do change a person’s financial goals. These events don’t always necessitate changes to a client’s portfolio, but they do prompt a discussion about their impact on the financial plan.”
Congratulations! You have four years of tuition, room and board stashed away in your 529 plan, and your child hasn’t even graduated from high school yet. Now you can breathe easily, right? Well … maybe, maybe not.
Like every parent, you want your children to become happy, self-sufficient adults.
The call came out of the blue that afternoon, with terror and tears coming through from my mother. “Your father says we don’t have money to spend and I need to return everything I bought for the last two weeks!” Sigh. This was not an unusual call.
What you can do now to avoid tax planning mistakes in the future.
Let’s face it: There is nothing fun about income taxes. They can be even more unpleasant when you have to cut a fat check to Uncle Sam in April because of a life or work event or change that occurred in the prior calendar year. Perhaps this situation was something you could have planned and prepared for in advance to soften the blow?
As financial planners we are often asked, “Will I be OK in retirement?” Before we even look at a client’s assets and expenses to answer that question, we ask them one ourselves, “What do you want your retirement to look like?”
You and your new spouse have just celebrated what will be one of the most special days of your lives – your wedding. You return home together after the celebration and walk in the door to find a not-so-romantic surprise awaiting you – your first bill as a married couple. Now what?
