Fee-Only Financial Planning Advice

What’s Going on in the Markets – March 8, 2020

Mar 08 2020

On Monday, March 9, the market celebrates its 11th anniversary of this long bull market with the bull appearing quite tired, coughing and wheezing into that milestone. Yes, believe it or not, we are still in a bull market.

Despite the wild swings in the markets last week, the major indexes managed to close positive on the week for a change. Unfortunately, it was a somewhat hollow victory given that the worries over the Coronavirus have not subsided and an oil price war was started on Friday (read more below).

Volatility in the major indexes continued last week following the …

The Pink Tax Affects Women’s Financial Planning

Mar 03 2020

March is Women’s History Month and part of finding ways to help women find financial stability and use their resources wisely is recognizing the systemic biases that can get in the way of an individual woman’s financial planning. One of these things is the pink tax. If you didn’t know the pink tax is a collective term for when women are charged more than men for goods and services. Sometimes these goods and services are made and marketed specifically towards women and sometimes they are not. And since we know that often women earn less than men for the … Read More

Market Volatility Déjà Vu

Feb 25 2020

By Eve Kaplan, CFP® Every time markets go haywire, it’s worth remembering that volatility is the “the price of admission” to hold something (usually stocks) that outpace inflation and deliver good returns over the long-term. The key point here is delivering good returns over the l-o-n-g t-e-r-m. Do investors know when stocks are going to correct? Usually not? Do they know how much they’ll correct? Definitely not. Is it worth trying to “time” markets by selling when you anticipate a coming correction, and trying to buy back when you think stocks have “bottomed”? Again, definitely not. The same goes for… Read More

Planting New Seeds for Financial Freedom

Feb 18 2020

Valentine’s Day is over and many people have gone into stores to take advantage of discounts on merchandise that did not sell before February 14. CNN Business even wrote about “What happens to the Valentine’s Day flowers that don’t get sold?” in case you ever wondered what happens to surplus flowers. Unlike candy, which may be edible for quite a while, flowers will not stay fresh forever.

According to CNN Business, these flowers are donated, used to educate people studying to be florists, thrown away, or they get composted.

Now what does that have to do with …

Free Tax Filing and Preparation for Military Members

Feb 12 2020

One of the little-known benefits of being in the military is access to free tax filing and preparation services. There are several options for military personnel to file their taxes for free, including free tax preparation assistance on base, and free tax prep software you can use to prepare your own taxes and file your taxes online. Some local communities may also offer free tax preparation. We can’t cover each of the local opportunities, but we can let you know about how military members can get free tax preparation on their military installation or through many online tax software programs.… Read More

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