Can I Deduct a 529 Contribution to an Account I Don’t Own?
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Unfortunately, the answer is that you cannot. The 529 account owner receives any state tax deductions for contributions make to their account.

We Added 2 New U.S. Stock Sectors to Our Allocations
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We decided to add two new sectors after generating several hundred efficient frontier graphs of various United States classifications, industries, and sectors over a variety of time periods.

How to Claim Your Virginia State Tax 529 Contribution Deduction
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Form ADJ of the 760 lines 8a – 8c are where you report miscellaneous deductions.

Risk-Return Analysis of Freedom Investing
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In this article, I am reviewing the quantitative measurements and performance metrics of Freedom Investing to see how its risk and return compare to the EAFE Index, its benchmark.

How to Designate Your Donor Advised Fund as a Beneficiary of Your IRA
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You may or may not want to leave anything to your favorite charity. However, if you do, there are often advantages to using a Donor Advised Fund over designating the charity directly.

Virginia 529: What Counts as a Unique Account for Per-Account Deductions?
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Oddly enough, what qualifies something as a unique account is both a unique account registration and investment portfolio selection.

How to Add, Edit, or Remove a Trusted Contact at Schwab
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This designation gives both Schwab and your financial advisor the permission to contact the named individual if either of us were ever concerned that you or your finances were being taken advantage of.

Impact Investing Could Do the Opposite of Its Intentions
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If a morally questionable idea is a valuable money maker, then your avoidance of that fund will only give more wealth to those whose conscience is clear investing in it.

#TBT How to Budget for Emergencies: Trip to Hospital
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This is the financial shock of a trip to hospital. It is upsetting, expensive, and unexpected.

Six Reasons to Sell for a Loss
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Even though a holding has gone down, there can be several advantages to selling it anyway. Here are six reasons you may want to sell for a loss.

Account Balance vs. Time-Weighted Return
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In market downturns, often the newest investor reports recovering the fastest due to a simple reporting error.

Hong Kong Still Has a Place in Freedom Investing
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Hong Kong has always been an anomaly: a tiny, extremely free country with an expiration date in 2047.

The Best Way to Fund a Charles Schwab Account
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After you have opened your account, there are many methods of contributing to or funding your Charles Schwab account. The best and easiest four methodologies are as follows.

Before August 31: Another Chance to Redistribute Your 2020 RMD
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This latest notice now gives both seniors and heirs who have not yet been able to put their formerly RMD funds back into their IRAs the chance of redistributing those funds to the IRA that distributed them.

More Freedom Investing Added to Marotta’s Schwab IIP Asset Allocation (June 2020)
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As a result of new fund additions, we added five new country-specific funds to our Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolio asset allocations.

Can the Misery Index Predict a Second Drop?
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There are many possible futures which could produce any number of outcomes that would be normal market volatility.

A 25-Year Review of Freedom Investing
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These findings together demonstrate how Economic Freedom seems to have been a valid factor for higher expected returns than investing in the EAFE Index alone.

This Month, We Leveled Our Small Cap Value Allocation (June 2020)
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As we are still in the midst of COVID-19 quarantines, we will have to wait to see what continuing or lifting restrictions actually does to companies, their expected earnings, and their market pricing.

#TBT Can I Contribute to Both a SEP and a 401(k)?
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The IRS very clearly says, “Yes, you can set up a SEP for your self-employed business even if you participate in your employer’s retirement plan at a second job.”

How to Spend: Waste Nothing
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The presumption that there is always more fun to be had has a two-fold positive effect on my life.

How to Open an Account Using Schwab.com
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If you want to open a Scwhab account to be hand-traded by Marotta, then one option for opening that account is to use Schwab.com’s online account open.

Our Answers to Form CRS Conversation Starter Questions
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As part of the requirements, the SEC wrote passages which must be included verbatim in each relationship summary. Some of that required text are so-called conversation starter questions.

How To Spend: Purchase In Season
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When I was really young, I did not realize that food had a season. What a privilege of our modern era!

How to Transfer Your Economic Impact Payment Card Into Your Bank Account
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It took me one hour to complete from start to finish. Hopefully, now that I have bumbled my way through it on my own and documented the steps, it takes you less time.

Do Children Need To File A Tax Return To Fund Their Roth IRA? (2020)
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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.

Yet Another Chance to Redistribute Your 2020 RMD
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Hopefully, this extension helps some take advantage of this welcome relief.

Energy Stocks Have Been Disappointing Recently (April 2020)
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Diversification means always having something to complain about. Recently, it has been energy.

This May 2020, Our Dynamic Tilt Tilted Away from Energy
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For many whose Energy sector has experienced large losses, lowering your sector allocation might effectively mean holding onto the shares that you currently own without adding more.

Q&A: How Do I Calculate My Withdrawal Rate for My Stability Allocation?
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Each of us either has a withdrawal rate or a savings rate, as we are each either contributing to or withdrawing from our invested accounts.

Q&A: Can You Fund a Roth IRA After Filing Your Taxes?
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You always have until the tax filing deadline to make your IRA contributions regardless of when you file.

Q&A: Can I Undo My Roth Conversion? (2020)
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Unfortunately, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act back in December 2017, Congress eliminated the ability to undo Roth conversions, so there isn’t a way to undo a conversion.

How to Use a Coronavirus-Related Distribution to Reverse Your RMD (2020)
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In this way, those with inherited IRA distributions they would like to reverse or those with distributions no longer eligible for regular 60-day rollover contributions may be able to still complete either a Roth conversion or IRA redistribution with those assets.

This 2020, The IRA Contribution Deadline Isn’t Until July
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Because the due date for filing Federal income tax returns has been postponed to July 15, the deadline for making contributions to your IRA for 2019 is also extended to July 15, 2020.

#TBT When Partial-Year HSA Contribution Limits Don’t Apply
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If you have recently lost your health insurance or recently signed up for a new one, you may want to watch out for these rules.

Remembering The 2008 Crash as a Financial Planner
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Sometimes, you don’t get a second chance to be brave.

Remembering The 2008 Crash as an Investor
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I knew the market was going down, but I accidentally took Bogle’s advice and didn’t peek at my own accounts.

How to Calculate Your Roth Contribution Phase-Out and What To Do With It
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What can you do when you are in the middle of the Roth IRA contribution phaseout range?

#TBT Safety Second
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In 2013, we went whitewater rafting on the American River in California. Our guide’s speech inspired this powerful thought piece about disaster recovery that has a message for today.

Should The Welfare Hypocrisy Critique Keep Me From My Tax Credit?
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Pagans accept Christmas presents. Self-estranged children accept inheritance. Libertarians accept tax credits.

Q&A: Should I Contribute to My Roth 401(k) During a Bear Market?
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Nothing changes during a Bear Market when it comes to where you should save and invest.

How to Use Your 401(k) to Convert Only Your IRA’s Nondeductible Basis to Roth
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If you have an accepting employer plan, you could consider rolling the pre-tax funds into your 401(k) this year while converting your nondeductible basis cleanly to a Roth IRA.

The RMD Waiver in the CARE Act of 2020 is a Repeat of 2009 Legislation
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Hopefully, this bit of tax history gives seniors and heirs a bit of comfort in taking advantage of this welcome relief.

How a Stability Allocation Helps During a Bear Market (and What To Do If You Forgot One)
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While the appreciation allocation helps you achieve your financial goals, introducing a stability allocation into your portfolio can prevent your portfolio from running out of money.

Q&A: Do I Need to File Schedule H for My Child’s Wages?
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I do not need to file Schedule H and imagine that most parent household employers also do not need to file this schedule.

CARES Act Creates a $300 Charitable Contribution Deduction for the Standard Deduction
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Congress enabled those who are taking the standard deduction to deduct $300 of charitable giving if they do not itemize.

If You Act Fast, You Can Undo Your 2020 RMD Thanks to the CARES Act
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Among the temporary measures, Congress waived required minimum distribution (RMD) requirements for only tax year 2020.

Funding a 3-Year-Old’s Roth IRA
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My daughter was employed at her first job, earned her first income, and was able to fund her Roth IRA for the first time.

Roth Conversions are More Valuable During Bear Markets
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Convert something today. Convert because the markets are down, or maybe convert just because you likely won’t regret it in 30 years when the markets will likely be up a lot more than they are now.

Bear Markets Look Worse on Schwab.com
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Now that we are in the midst of a bear market, investment returns are down 20% or more and Schwab’s personal value chart makes it look even worse.

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