I’ve always wanted to do pro bono financial planning work, but never found the right opportunity. Local FPA chapters will host walk-in clinics which were never my thing. I developed a financial literacy program during my active years in the Junior League, but I wasn’t involved in launching or teaching the courses. I have taken…
Personal Finance
Other People’s Money
My dad tells this story about his Finance 101 class in college in the 1970’s. The finance professor walks up to the chalkboard and writes ‘O – P – M’. He points to the acronym with the chalk and circles it while telling his students that the first rule of finance is to use “Other…
Should You Consider a DAF?
Lately, I’ve been having a lot of conversations about donor-advised funds (DAFs). DAFs are like mini private foundations, allowing an investor to take a charitable deduction upfront, invest the funds to grow tax-free, and distribute donations to charitable organizations in future years. When funded with appreciated securities instead of cash, an investor receives the double…
Retirement Planning for the Gig Economy
You may have never heard of it, but there is a feature in the tax code that allows an employee in the gig economy to set up a personal 401(k) plan. It is called a Solo 401(k), although in reality, it is no different than a traditional 401(k) plan except that there is only one…
Buy Buy Buy!
It’s that time of year again. Can you feel it? The pressure to buy things – gifts, decorations, food, wine. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday – they all have deals you must be sure not to miss. Even if you keep the price of each gift reasonable, you are expected to get a…
More Money, More Problems?
On a long car trip this weekend, we found ourselves scanning through FM radio stations. Somewhere in east Texas, the 1996 ballad “Mo Money Mo Problems” from the late hip-hop artist Notorious B.I.G. began playing. If you don’t know the song, here is the chorus: I don’t know what they want from me It’s like…
Yield Curve Inversion in the Mortgage Market
Mortgage rates are at their lowest levels in three years. A mortgage refinance boom is underway. As yields on long-term U.S. Treasuries have come down, so have mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rate reached almost 5.0% in November 2018. It fell to 3.90% last week. According to the Mortgage Banker’s Association, refinance rates are 180%…
The Biggest Taboo – Inheritance
Talking about money is a big taboo. We might brag about a stock pick or a successful real estate deal we were invited to join. But rarely do we tell our friends how much money we earn or our actual net worth. That would be impolite. And no where is money a bigger taboo than…
Worrying About the Wrong Risk
Humans are notoriously bad at evaluating risk. Perhaps this is because there are two parts to calculating risk – the probability of an event and the magnitude of loss. It’s the probability that trips us up. We worry about shark attacks and terrorism when the chances of experiencing either of these risks is minute. In…
Catch-Up Contributions
If you are like most people, you may have put off a few years of retirement savings when you were younger. Perhaps the cost of raising children took precedence over retirement savings. Daycare can cost as much as a mortgage payment, and college tuition is astronomical. Perhaps you withdrew funds from your 401(k) to start…
