Author Archives: David John Marotta

David John Marotta was interviewed on Radio 1070’s Schilling Show discussing getting your finances in order.

Since your employer’s plan usually has the most limited number of choices, pick the best it has to offer that fits with in your over all plan.

Putting all of your retirement eggs in one basket is easy to carry, but risky. Fund your employer’s plan with no more than is necessary to get the match and then fund your Roth IRA and build your taxable savings.

Bear markets are often a precipitous decline followed by a slower and steadier recovery. Volker’s Bear is rare in that a slow and steady decline was followed by a sharp precipitous recovery.

The result of this data breach is that anyone with this information will be able to pretend to be you and apply for credit in your name at any time in the future. There is only one way to guard yourself against this possibility: Lock down your credit.

None of these services makes up for the fact that your sensitive information has been accessed. And after this breach you should assume that every scam artist has all of your information.

Equifax admitted recently that hackers gained access to the sensitive identify and financial information in their database for 143 million people (44% of the U.S. population).

The Dave Ramsey website has a list of upcoming classes in the Charlottesville area with start dates varying from September 13 through October 11.

Financial planning is simply doing what it takes to give you the means to do what you want. The poorer you are the more you need financial planning. You don’t have any margin for mistakes.

One of the problems with government reporting regulations is that personal information is made widely available for abuse.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) changed the rules and required all financial institutions to move pricing their money market from a stable $1.00 price per shares to a floating net asset value.

Gold advocates will often go to great lengths to tout the advantages of owning gold.

There can be great value in the sage advice of a fee-only fiduciary advisor. Even if they brought no value for their investment management, they could still bring great value for their help in comprehensive wealth management. While a competent … Read More

Most of the assets you use to fund your retirement will come from compounded growth.

A fee-only financial advisor can provide the decades of support and encouragement to make financial planning, effective life planning.

For many investors, a fee-only advisor pays for themselves in reduced expenses alone.

David John Marotta was interviewed on the Schilling Show discussing the minimum wage, and the reasons keeping (or raising) a mandatory minimum wage could actually hurt some workers.

Risk is about understanding your own greed, fear and pride.

Sometimes the change can be in a direction you did not expect.

You can’t invest for the future in the future. Don’t let your fear of the future ruin your future.

Every pay period, pay yourself first. You won’t miss what you don’t see.

Failure to plan for retirement is the primary reason why retirement plans fail.

Retirement doesn’t give you a second chance. Measure twice and retire once.

Families that consider generational financial planning techniques can reduce the burden of taxes on the family as a whole.

I normally try to refrain from “bashing the competition,” but in this case, the competition’s practices are, at least to me, a moral issue.

Find out today how much you should be saving and investing this month! If you think a $1 million dollar portfolio is overkill, you haven’t really run the numbers.

You are unlikely to need funds for any long-term care episode until about age 85. Given the long time horizon, we suggest investing your HSA for appreciation.

This portfolio uses all TD Ameritrade no-transaction fee exchange-traded funds with the exception of Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE).

When you use a bond laddering strategy with funds, rebalancing to your asset allocation naturally buys and sells bond funds as appropriate.

David John Marotta was interviewed on radio’s The Schilling Show discussing Health Savings Accounts and the recent Healthcare bill passed by Congress.

Don Phillips suggests that the best advisors help their clients focus on what can be controlled and not fret about the rest.

You would think that rebalancing a client’s portfolio would be standard in the industry. Unfortunately, it is not.

A dollar saved on taxes is worth more than an extra dollar of income because the extra dollar of income is in itself taxable.

Exact asset location depends on the percentage of a portfolio held in each of the three types of accounts as well as the percentage of the portfolio which is to be allocated to each selected sector. But the boost in after-tax returns is well worth the effort.

We do not believe that investing should be expensive.

An advisor’s job is to recommend the optimum asset allocation regardless of how the client might answer a survey about risk tolerance.

When you finish your tax preparation, it is time to begin tax planning.

Saving money is not enough. You need to save and invest.

“Develop spending discipline. People too often forget that the real enemy of investment is consumption.”

Dividends and interest received from U.S debt obligations can be deducted on many state tax returns.

David John Marotta was interviewed on the Schilling Show discussing trickle-down economics and taxes.

Do mutual funds with 5-star Morningstar ratings have better future returns?

Less gouging doesn’t make T-shares meet the high principles-based fiduciary standard.

HSAs have so many advantages over traditional IRAs that you should continue funding your HSA as long as possible and build as large an HSA investment balance as you can.

David John Marotta was interviewed on the radio 1070’s Schilling Show discussing the difference between obstruction and resistance.

Commission-based firms want either to be exempt from the Fiduciary standard or else given the title anyway.

Politics matters less to our financial success than the ordinary decisions we face every day.

A gone fishing portfolio is a portfolio of just a few stocks which should weather the ups and downs of the market fairly well while only rebalancing twice a year. Here are three hand-crafted gone-fishing portfolios for 2017.

A gone-fishing portfolio has a limited number of investments with a balanced asset allocation. This year I limited myself to 13 investment vehicles with two changes from 2016’s calculator.

A gone-fishing portfolio has a limited number of investments with a balanced asset allocation. This portfolio uses all Vanguard mutual funds.