The Math of Billing Retirement Accounts
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We advocate for billing traditional IRAs to themselves but billing Roth IRAs to a taxable brokerage account. Here is the math of why.

#TBT Four Reasons to Rebalance
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This post reminds us that there are at least four reasons to rebalance where the benefit can be demonstrated or measured.

Freedom Investing in Review (June 2022)
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This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending June 30, 2022, Developed Freedom Investing had a -1.19% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +0.46% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a -0.12% disadvantage.

#TBT Open a Roth IRA Today or Regret It Later
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Roth IRAs have one weakness, but the remedy is to have opened and funded your Roth more than 5 years ago. So do it today!

A Closer Look at Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM)
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FRDM is interesting, but using our country specific funds plus a low cost Vanguard Emerging Market fund allows us to emphasize freedom for as low a cost as possible.

No Way To Tell If This Bear Market Is A Bull Yet
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Rather than trying to time your investments based on one or the other, the advice is simple. Stay the course. Invest. Rebalance.

Life Lesson #7: Talk to the Duck
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This common gift to new computer programmers hides a life lesson for us all.

This Month, Here’s How We Tilted (June 2022)
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This month, the forward P/E ratios showed considerable variation with many sectors returning to a fairer valuation.

Current Inflation vs. Expected Inflation (June 2022)
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Currently, 12-month inflation is 8.58% and the crowdsourced expected inflation is 2.88%. Here’s what to do.

States with Tax-Exempt Interest from U.S. Debt Obligations
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As always, it is best to confer with a tax professional on matters such as these.

#TBT Q&A: Can a 529 Reimburse for Last Year’s Expenses?
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Unfortunately, neither “yes” nor “no” is a correct answer to this question.

A Second Dip Turns to Bear Market (June 2022)
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Stay the course. Rebalance. Don’t peek.

Life Lesson #6: Juggle Your Responsibilities
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Juggling domestic responsibilities is a second shift adults are burdened with. I find this analogy helps me to set my expectations and focus more properly.

How to Spend: Slow Down Spending (Podcast)
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Walking away from tempting purchases is particularly difficult, especially for those who regularly shop, but by training yourself to slow down in your spending, you can concentrate your dollars towards the purchases that create the most joy.

How to Survive High Inflation
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Inflation is like the rain. You must prepare in advance in order to stay dry.

How to Spend: Avoid Advertising (Podcast)
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In this podcast, we discuss the hazard of advertising for your budget and how to not fall prey to marketing tactics.

Today Was An Intraday Bear Market (May 2022)
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The S&P 500 saw an intraday bear market today, dipping over 20% down from a prior high and then correcting back before the day’s close.

Billing Retirement Accounts to Maximize After-Tax Net Worth
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One obscure way we bring value to clients is how we bill them.

How to Change a 529 Plan Account Owner
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While you may think that the account owner needs to stay the same, you can easily change the account owner.

How to Spend: Align With Your Goals (Podcast)
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In this podcast, we discuss why spending is the core of your financial plan, how to align your spending with your goals, and how to use Core Values Budgeting to identify budgeting changes.

Funding a 5-Year-Old’s Roth IRA
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We continued to hire her for several of the same tasks as last year, but also added a few new ones.

#TBT How Long Should I Keep Financial and Tax Records?
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Whenever the IRS challenges you, the burden of producing evidence that your claims are true rests entirely with you.

This Month, We Tilted Away from Singapore (April 2022)
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Singapore is approximately 37.6% in the Financial sector and has yet to increase its domestic interest rates.

Freedom Investing in Review (March 2022)
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This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending March 31, 2022, Developed Freedom Investing had a +1.44% advantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +2.07% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a +1.28% advantage.

An Overview of Our Allocation Changes (March 2022)
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We are constantly reviewing our portfolios’ asset allocations in order to bring them more in line with our Investment Committee’s best practices. Here is a summary of our recent changes.

Best Sub-scores of Economic Freedom for Finding Higher Returns
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This year, we decided to analyze the predictive power of these sub-scores on overall future investment returns.

Marotta Family Saying: Make Half a Mistake

Three generations explain this family saying which teaches one method of mitigating risk.

#TBT Why the Tax on Your Roth Conversion Hurts So Much
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Roth conversions pay off. Repeat it to yourself now. Repeat it to yourself at tax time. Roth conversions pay off.

Transaction Fees for Foreign Issues Changes Individual Foreign Strategy (January 2022)
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At the start of the year, purchases of all of these securities had no transaction fee at Charles Schwab. However in December 2021, Schwab added a transaction fee to some of the holdings.

#TBT How to Report NAP Credits on a Virginia Return
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Luckily, reporting and using your tax credits on your state tax return is very straightforward.

An Overview of Marotta’s 2022 Gone-Fishing Portfolios
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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.

#TBT Do Children Need To File A Tax Return To Fund Their Roth IRA?
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Don’t let stress about tax filing requirements keep you or your child from a powerful opportunity to provide for their future.

Updates to Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios Limited Fund Selection
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Now that the Franklin Templeton funds have been added to the Institutional Intelligent Portfolios platform, we are updating our allocations to use the cheaper funds as their primary targets.

#TBT Tax Table and Tax Computation Worksheet
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The strangest fluke of the tax return is that the actual calculation of how much base tax you owe does not have a form; it has this worksheet.

#TBT Qualified Dividends and Capital Gains Worksheet
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The 25 lines are so simplified, they end up being difficult to follow what exactly they do. So, for those of you who are curious, here’s what they do.

Do Large Roth Conversions Require Backdoor Roth Contributions? (2021)
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Luckily for Roth lovers like us, you don’t have to choose between Roth conversions or Roth contributions.

Can a Grandparent Employ Their Grandchild?
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While navigating the rules may be trickier, your child can still enjoy easy domestic employment even when someone else is the employer.

#TBT Do I Need to Pay Tax on This 1099-R?
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The given numbers on a 1099-R are insufficient to be able to fill out your tax return correctly. Knowledge of what was actually done is required in order to file your taxes accurately.

Q&A: What One-Fund Could a Twenty-Something Invest In?
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Any of these ETFs or mutual funds seem like they could be a good one-fund pick for the long haul.

How to Update Your Contact Information at Schwab
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You can easily update your contact information online through Schwab Alliance.

Changes to Our Technology, Mid Cap, & Small Cap Allocations (February 2022)
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A Technology correction may not happen, but moving more into Mid and Small Cap Value may help allocations even if it doesn’t.

U.S. Investing in Review (December 2021)
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We anticipated Consumer Staples to have a lower expected return but a larger risk-adjusted return and we expected Biotechnology to have very volatile returns with lower correlations to the other sectors. Both of those things happened in 2021.

Few Spaces Left in Marotta’s Online Class (Thursdays in March 2022)
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The class will be held virtually on Zoom each Thursday from noon to 1:00 PM EST between March 10 and March 31, 2022.

Is a SEP-IRA or Solo-401(k) Better?
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A SEP-IRA can be opened any time before you file your tax return and you can make prior-year contributions at that time. In contrast, a solo-401(k) must be opened and contributed to before the year end to count for that tax year.

#TBT How to Report a Backdoor Roth or Nondeductible Contribution on Your Tax Return
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This 2020 article is for tax preparers of the world. If you did a backdoor Roth this year, send it to yours.

Am I Limited to Only One Roth Conversion Per Year?
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Most people are able to do direct rollovers from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. In this way, most people can do any number of Roth conversions in one twelve-month period.

#TBT No One Tells the IRS You Did a QCD Except You
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Be sure to remember to tell your tax preparer that you did a QCD.

Enroll in Marotta’s Online Live Class (OLLI 2022)
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The class will be held March 10 through March 31, 2022 each Thursday from noon to 1:30 PM on Zoom.

#BestOf2021 The Value of Systematic Roth Conversions
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Why do people do Roth conversions? Should I? This timeless article and video answers all your questions.

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