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It is common for investors to be surprised by movements in their portfolios, but it is harder to determine if these movements mean that anything should be done.

There are many opportunities to pay your children. If that payment can be counted as earned income, then the child is eligible to fund their Roth IRA.

This is intended to be a brief overview of what you should do once you realize you are overseeing an estate.

The Marotta Investment Committee typically builds portfolios with average expense ratios of about 0.24%.

Is what I’m accomplishing here worth sacrificing the step up in basis? If it is not, perhaps there is a better way to implement your estate wishes.

Portfolio construction is extremely important to achieving your long-term goals. Don’t risk those goals by assuming that individual stock-picking is a superior strategy.

Even though is often the worst choice, most people take Social Security as early as possible, at age 62. This decision reduces lifetime benefits by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For the proper Victorian, acts of love and money should not mix. Although this honest conversion may ruffle Victorian sensibilities, it is a foundation of the trust we forge with our clients.

If you ask, the broker will gladly tell you how much of that type they’d recommend getting, but not whether you need it in the first place.

The required IRA distribution in the year the account owner dies is called a Year of Death RMD.

Taking these few extra steps can maximize your gift’s benefit to both you and the recipient.

“Buy on the dips” is a good strategy only because of the first word.

We recommend that you fund your Health Savings Account (HSA) to the maximum limit each year and that you keep funding it to the maximum as long as you can no matter how much money you have in the account.

Here is a clear guide on how to transfer funds between your Schwab accounts.

More and more family plans are actually composed of many different independent people in the eyes of the government.

There are two ways to run the analysis. One is quick and can be done on the back of a napkin. The other is more detailed, best done in a spreadsheet. In this part one, we will explain the quick math.

These are two simple but effective strategies to help calculate a very good conversion target for this year.

Even the most Roth-loving individuals may have hidden Traditional assets that they do not know they can convert to Roth. Here are just a few places to look.

Even though you would likely benefit from contributing to your 401(k), you might not benefit from keeping your assets there — even if you are the owner.

Our first goal is to be accurate. We want to do the task the right way. This is where workflows help.

Thank you, Robert, for your email and your readership. I hope that everyone enjoys our new “Do-It-Yourself” service level.

These are two ways to benefit from the higher standard deduction while still fulfilling your charitable intentions.

How to go from where you are now to being one of our clients under our “Do-It-Yourself” service level.

Although they are cheaper, the robo-investing accounts are not beneficial to everyone.

The best way to ensure that you save and invest is to automate the process.

These are complex formulas, but they are valuable calculations that show that there is an expected increase of return which will justify selling even a highly appreciated asset.

Be very careful filling out these forms and be sure to ask for help if you need it.

Yes, but if you have complex wishes, you should utilize paperwork.

If you are doing a one-time funding from another account, sometimes the lowest tech option can be the easiest.

Who would ever want unplanned and unintentional financial advice?

Instead of having to nag your spouse to sign paperwork or login online to accomplish these tags, you can manage all of your family’s finances by setting up a power of attorney.

Adding nicknames such as these can help immensely when it comes time to do basic tasks such as Roth IRA funding or withdrawing funds.

By default, your Schwab login will only display your own accounts.

There are two ways to transfer your account to a Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios with Marotta Wealth Management.

In order to move funds between a non-Schwab account (external account) and your Schwab account, you simply need to establish what is called a MoneyLink.

If you have to choose between your retirement or your children’s college savings, choose your retirement.

You deserve advice from a firm where you don’t have to second guess where their loyalties lie.

Incentives matter. If you are going to get a financial advisor, you need to select a fee-only advisor because you need to find an advisor you can trust.

Sometimes, you should do what is right even though it is not what others want.

Wise decisions cannot be made in isolation from their impact on other areas of your financial life.

Failure to perform such periodic reviews is a litigatable fiduciary breach.

You should work with a personalized financial planner, not an impersonal investment manager.

We have four tenets of quality defining our customer service here at Marotta.

Our firm has become known for our method of computing maximum safe withdrawal rates in retirement. Our safe withdrawal rates are based on having what we believe to be optimum asset allocation targets.

Be brave. Fund your Roth. Convert your IRA. Pay your tax bill. Your future self will thank you.

Determining what constituted a safe withdrawal rate was one of the first questions I tackled. After a year and a half of study on the question, I had realized the inadequacy of the 4% rule and found a methodology which provides more useful when advising clients.

I began my DIY journey learning about science, so it feels best to start you there as well.

In general, the statements should match, but matched accounting down the penny cannot easily be achieved.

If you choose to make a QCD, we suggest saving as much documentation as possible.

A question from our readers, “Should I choose to have dividends reinvested or should I receive them in cash and then reinvest them myself?”