Jim Blankenship, CFP®, EA, Author at FIGuide

How to Interview Your (Potential) Financial Adviser

Jul 27 2015

As individuals need help with their finances and investments they will likely turn to the help of a qualified professional. Their future financial adviser may come via referral from a trusted friend or family member, or through an extensive Internet search. The following is a list of questions (and answers to look for) that individuals can ask their potential adviser to see if he or she is likely to be a good fit and more importantly, act in the client’s best interest.

Are you a fiduciary?

If yes, move to question 2. If no, thank them for their time and …

IRAs: Roth or Traditional?

Jul 22 2015

The question comes up pretty often: when contributing to an IRA, should you choose the Roth or Traditional? I often approach this question in general with my recommended “Order of Contributions”:

Contribute enough to your employer-provided retirement plan to get the company matching funds. So if your employer matches, for example, 50% of your first 5% of contributions to the plan, you should at least contribute 5% of your income to the plan in order to receive the matching funds.
Maximize your contribution to a Roth IRA. For 2015 that is $5,500, or $6,500 if you are age 50 or

What to Do if You’re a Victim of Tax Fraud

Apr 21 2015

Hopefully this will never happen to you but in the unfortunate event you become of victim of tax fraud there are some steps that you can take to help alleviate the concern that someone has stolen your identity to file a fraudulent tax return in order to receive the refund.

Generally, the first sign of fraud appears when you try to file our return electronically. Most e-file providers receive acknowledgements from the IRS that the return was successfully e-filed. If a return is rejected, a code will return with the rejection indicating what the issue is. For example, a sign …

File your tax return on time, even if you can’t pay

Apr 08 2015

So you’re up against the deadline for filing your taxes, and when you run the final numbers you discover that you’re going to have to pay a boatload of tax. Panic-stricken, you look at your bank account and see single digits, and there’s nowhere near enough left over on payday to make the tax payment. What should you do? Go ahead and file your tax return on time, even if you can’t pay. If you have all of the information to file a correct tax return on time, you will avoid penalties for not filing. You’ll still have penalties for… Read More

Author - Jim Blankenship, CFP®, EA