It’s that time of year – TAX TIME! That means time is running out to maximize your 2021 IRA contributions if you haven’t already. Wait, what? I can still make an IRA contribution for the 2021 tax year? Yep! It’s one of those weird and wonderful...
How to Save Money for Your Children
Starting a family is one of those key times in life to re-evaluate your saving and spending habits. As any parent will tell you, raising kids can be costly! A little planning can go a long way. So where do you start? Many parents think of...
What To Do When Life Throws You a Curveball (as expressed by refrigerator magnets)
“When something goes wrong in your life, just yell “PLOT TWIST!” and move on.” I saw this on a refrigerator magnet recently and thought it was a great way to view change in one’s life: with a combination of humor and grit. However, it’s not always that easy....
Philanthropy Feels Good… Strategic Philanthropy Feels Better!
When was the last time you felt happy after giving something? It feels great, right? That feeling that you have made a positive difference in the world – no matter what you gave, exactly – can really brighten your day. Your generosity may be even...
The Search for Answers
If you are searching for an answer to almost anything today, you can probably find it on the internet. It’s amazing to think that, over the past 30 years or so, we have created an accessible resource of human knowledge so vast that many of us now rely on it for...
Important End of Year Tax Tips: Things to Do Now
There has been a lot of concern recently over the landscape of taxes in the US, and what next year might look like for our tax system. At the time of this writing, we are still waiting (some of us with bated breath) to see what Congress finally passes in the final...
Essential Estate Planning Documents
... from the Perspective of a Financial Planner (I am not an attorney!) Estate planning can get complicated, and sometimes people put it off exactly for that reason. Who wants to be digging into dusty legal documents when there are other, more pleasant things to do...
Should I Use a Trust for My IRA Beneficiary?
Last month we discussed the different types of beneficiaries you can name on your IRA accounts. The beneficiaries with the most perks were the “eligible designated beneficiaries,” like a spouse. But what about naming a Trust as beneficiary? Isn’t...
Are You Leaving a Benefit to Your Beneficiaries? Or a Headache?
I want to talk for a moment about Beneficiaries. How you designate your assets may or may not seem important to you, but it will be extremely important to those you leave behind. This is called Estate Planning, and it’s jokingly referred to as the way you...
3 Things to Consider When Shopping for a Home
Ah, summertime, and the height of home buying season! Add to that a red-hot real estate market right now, and you’ve got a lot of people with home-buying on their minds. But in addition to the excitement, there can be a massive amount of overwhelm. ...
Considerations When Combining Finances
“Should we combine our finances??” It doesn’t matter where you are in your life. This is a big, important question any time you are considering a partnership. There are several ways to approach the question of combining finances. Here I’ll describe the two I see...
You Are the Conduit
“You can’t take it with you” is a common phrase I hear when it comes to money. Another great one I heard this week from a client is, “we are all just conduits.” In other words, money flows through us while we are here, and continues to flow, even after we...












