How to Avoid the Mutual Fund Tax Trap
It seems that every year in December we get a multitude of calls from clients regarding a pretty common occurrence for mutual funds, but nonetheless an often misunderstood one. December is the time of year when most mutual funds pay out their capital gains to shareholders. While generally speaking, a capital gain means an investor […]
How My Father’s Death Transformed Our Practice
“We believe it is important to stay fit physically and financially. Our Wealthfit™ process is at the core of everything we work with clients to accomplish over their lifetimes.” – Joe D. Franklin – CFP® I still remember how everything was turned upside down in September of 2008. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were placed […]
Is Warren Buffett Giving Contradictory Advice?
A Discussion of Passive vs. Active Warren Buffett is widely acknowledged as the greatest investor alive today. Last year he was ranked the third wealthiest person in the world, down from number one a few years back. Despite his roots as a value investor whose favorite holding period is forever, in recent years he has been […]
Laddering versus Chunking
Many times clients come to us to find a better rate than what their bank is offering when a CD is coming due. Sometimes they are looking for the best short term rate because they fear interest rates are going up and want to have the money available sooner rather than later. Other times they […]
Social Security Offices Are Misleading Retirees
Last month I had a client ask me about a social security strategy that is going away on April 30th of this year. They wanted to explore the possibility of using the file and suspend strategy. In this case both spouses were 63 years of age. Of course, this issue is confusing because the file and […]
Beat The Clock -Last Minute Qualified Charitable Deductions
Congress has passed the “extenders bill” for 2014 (the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014). President Barack Obama just recently signed this into law. This bill revived qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) for 2014 only. There are NO transitional rules allowing 2014 qualified charitable deductions to be made in 2015 so you must get your 2014 it done before the end of […]
Wall Street’s Pigs and Wolves
Waiting for the Fat Pitch – Your Investment Strike Zone
As baseball season arrives and my umpiring schedule is already starting to be booked with games, I thought it would be fun to illustrate how the game of baseball can be used in relation to investing. For example, when I’m behind the plate calling pitches, I’m looking for several pieces of information to help me […]
