A gone-fishing portfolio has a limited number of investments with a balanced asset allocation that should do well with dampened volatility.
Late last year, the IRS proposed asking charities to collect sensitive donor identity information for any charitable gift of more than $250.
Adding a little bit of Chile to your portfolio can boost returns and reduce volatility.
These are just some examples of the creative beneficiary designations, but the important part is to dream big about what your wishes are.
We do not recommend using stop loss orders. Now, it appears that the New York Stock Exchange agrees.
The backdoor Roth strategy involves contributing after-tax funds to a traditional IRA.
We’ve written about how to select securities but in this article we are going to apply those principles to the process of selecting a specific fund for a specific sector of the economy.
David John Marotta was interviewed on WINA’s “Real Estate Matters” show with Michael Guthrie, talking about how it is still a good time to buy a house.
While many investors say they want a low-correlation portfolio, they don’t want to actually experience a low-correlation portfolio.
Here is a simple way to think about commercial property.
While Santa Claus usually brings something positive for the markets, it isn’t enough to worry about jumping in and out of your investments.
“Nothing has provided greater risk control over the long term than equities, which are historically without principal risk over 30-year periods…”
That is a tremendous advantage for businesses in states with less regulatory burden.
For children with lower incomes, there is an opportunity to give them appreciated stock to shift the capital gains to a lower tax bracket.
Being prepared is always a good idea, but so is knowing the costs associated with being prepared.
“In 34 years as a financial advisor, he has seen many people flunk retirement, but investment performance has never been the cause.”
The kiddie tax was first added to the tax code in 1986 for children under age 14. Now, it can burden them until they are 23.
The national average life expectancy is not a good measure for our clients’ life expectancy. That means planning beyond ages 82 and 85.
Financial Christmas gifts don’t need to be a piggy bank. They can be more serious and more meaningful than that.
A fundamental fiduciary principle is to avoid self-dealing.
The Journal of Financial Planning featured a nice column by Harold Evensky entitled “These Innovative Research Papers Deserve Your Attention.”
Will substitutes sacrifice some of the customization of trusts but avoid the accounting complexities.
October showed a sharp reversal of the movements of Resource Stocks.
David Marotta was interviewed recently on radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show discussing some of the government’s broken promises
After you reach the age of 70 1/2, the IRS requires you to begin taking minimum distributions from your traditional retirement accounts.
Any tax which is ultimately going to be owed is owed by April 15th. Otherwise it may be subject to interest and penalties.
Examining past Bear Markets can help provide some context when we experience the next one.
Assumptions about these adjustments to your net worth should be made carefully and conservatively.
It is better to leave stock to a family member in your estate plan than to gift them the stock while you are alive.
Annual required minimum distributions must be satisfied before any additional amounts are converted to a Roth IRA.
Here are seven sage investing lessons from the J. Paul Getty era.
Carefully computing and adding your Social Security early retirement safe withdrawal rate can safely boost your early retirement standard of living without jeopardizing your future finances.
ObamaCare was always going to be a bad law and now, five years in, that should be clear to everybody.
The lessons of each bear market are visible with the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight.
We highly recommend a Donor Advised Fund for generous investors.
For a calm investor, a crash will just mean that the stocks you would have bought anyway are temporarily on sale.
A crash is defined as an index dropping at least 50% from some previous high. Since 1950, there has been exactly 1 stock market crash in the S&P 500 Price Index.
The shortest answer is yes, you can. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
David John Marotta was interviewed on radio 1070 WINA discussing which retirement accounts you should fund for the best tax outcomes.
When the market drops, resist the impulse to “do something.”
You can only contribute to your Roth IRA if you have what the IRS calls “earned” income. This makes it all the more important to contribute to your Roth IRA every year you can.
I’m on the borderline for being able to contribute to a Roth IRA. How do I determine how much I can contribute?
Regardless of the reason, if you have put too much money in your Roth IRA, the solution is the same.
I have earned income but my wife does not. Can I contribute to my wife’s Roth IRA?
Staying the course when an index investment is down is very uncomfortable in the short-term but usually the best course of action in the long run.
Even over the income threshold, you may still be able to add funds to your Roth IRA with what is called a backdoor Roth.
Differing legislation makes one of the two preferable.
Those costly mistakes are a fifth of a million dollars in most cases.
You’ve opened your HSA and funded it for several years. When should you stop funding it?
David John Marotta was interviewed on radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show discussing market volatility.