Author - Sam Fawaz, CPA, CFP®

With about 10,000 baby boomers on average retiring every day, it’s not unusual for me to talk to clients and prospects who are anxious about the future of social security and medicare. Some clients, despite evidence and advice to the contrary, have gone ahead and filed for social security benefits even if it meant they would potentially reap hundreds of thousands of dollars less over their lifetimes, because they are worried that the systems are going “bankrupt”.

Given the stories and rumors that seem to float around endlessly about the imminent demise of social security and medicare, it is understandable …

Ever since I became a tax preparer in 1980, a federal deduction for state and local income, property or sales taxes have been available to taxpayers as an itemized deduction, generally without limitation. The idea behind the deduction, at least as it relates to state income taxes, is to grant taxpayers some degree of relief from double or triple taxation of the same income.

Of course, each year, thousands of professionals use their creativity and ingenuity to try to figure out the best ways to lower your federal taxes, including optimization of your state and local tax deduction. You know …

You probably know the well worn disclaimer in the investing world, “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” It’s essentially how many investment firms wow you with statistics about their past performance, only to remind you that your future results may never match theirs. OK, fair enough, so how about present circumstances? Do they portend the future?

It’s human nature to focus more on the present than the future, which is in line with our basic instinct of survival. After all, if we don’t take care of the here and now, there may not be a future, right?

Marketing …

With the threat of a trade war, the appointment of a new National Security Advisor, and potential war drums being pounded, the markets took a pounding of their own last week. After a robust recovery, the stock markets now seem intent on re-testing the February 8th lows.

As stocks went on sale again, there didn’t seem to be a lot of bargain hunters stepping in to take advantage of the lower prices. The S&P 500 lost 5.9% over five days, its worst week since January 2016.

This action follows a by-now-familiar pattern: the Trump Administration announces tariffs—this time on Chinese …

It’s no surprise that more and more of my clients (and prospects) are coming to me as they approach retirement and are increasingly anxious about how to make the transition from accumulation of their retirement funds to distribution of those funds. Questions like “when should I claim social security, how much is safe to withdraw each year, what account should I take it from first, how will taxes affect my retirement, how should I safely invest during retirement, what should I budget for healthcare costs, what medicare plans are best for me?” are among the many questions on pre-retirees’ minds.…