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You can distribute any amount of money to the account owner for any reason, but only distributions which are reimbursing for qualified education expenses are tax and penalty free.

You can distribute any amount of money to the designated beneficiary for any reason, but only distributions which are reimbursing for qualified education expenses are tax and penalty free.

If you are curious about how the online process works for distributing funds from your College America 529 plan, this article is for you.

Any qualified education expense for the benefit of the designated beneficiary which is paid to an eligible educational institution can be paid from the 529 plan directly.

As part of SECURE Act 2.0 legislation, an Individual Roth 401(k) plan is a new account registration type available to Schwab clients.

I was surprised that Charles Schwab’s High Yield Investor Checking account was the only named recommended checking account.

Before you say, “Oh, that doesn’t sound too hard,” you simply haven’t thought of the complexity.

Once you set up your new login, the next time you return to Social Security, you can login using the “Sign in with LOGIN.GOV” button instead and your new credentials.

Furthermore, it is difficult for clients to locate the full account number through simple clicking around the online portal. Instead, you have to know where to look.

We have attempted in this article to provide generic guidance on the topic of calculating your own safe spending rate.

You have until April 15 (or October 15 with an extension) of the next year to finish up your prior year SEP IRA funding.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns using the dynamic tilt and ending June 30, 2024, Developed Freedom Investing had a -0.14% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a -0.02% disadvantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a +0.36% advantage.

While it is possible a trusted contact may provide you with some protection, it cannot replace a durable power of attorney.

In most cases, Schwab’s rules around durable powers of attorney help to protect the principal. However, the same rules can also impede the principal’s agent.

Estate planning is a task which is never useful until it is too late to do it.

On June 2024, Schwab provided an update about viewing and taking your RMD on Schwab.com.

There are no financial hooks, termination fees, or such imposed by our firm.

I think the intent of this list is to make advisors feel under-prepared and thus more likely to sign up for one of the paid newsletters Ed Slott provides. Regardless, here are my answers.

We agree with Kleintop’s assessment that valuations suggest that international equities are poised for more gains.

The CFP Board is compensation neutral, but it is only because of how they are paid.

This simple example demonstrates the importance of expense ratio.

Biden’s state of the union address makes clear who he wants to tax.

We recently had a client fall prey to a sophisticated Schwab Bank scam. They gave us permission to share this fraud story with you to hopefully prevent others from being scammed.

Alas, there is only one thing we can do to help dictate which kind of tax system we face and that is vote.

For our standard gone-fishing portfolio, we made two changes.

This gone-fishing portfolio is our default portfolio which can be used at any custodian.

We recommend this gone-fishing portfolio for investors with brand loyalty to Vanguard.

Last year, our 2023 Marotta’s Gone-Fishing Portfolio was a recommendation of 12 stock investments. This article is to report on the 2023 performance of those twelve stocks.

Once you have calculated the funding requirements for your college savings goals, there are three strategies for funding the accounts.

Taxpayers waiting for final guidance, have seen penalties waived for 2021 or 2022 RMDs, for 2023 RMDs, and now for 2024 RMDs.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending March 31, 2024, Developed Freedom Investing had a -5.8% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +3.83% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a -2.89% disadvantage.

With one memorable password protecting a vault of random ones, you can increase your security immensely while only mildly complicating your access.

These are the seven rules to using a credit card safely.

Converting early can avoid your exposure to tax changes going forward as a Roth IRA is never taxed again.

Last year, eleven countries made our cut-off. This year, twelve do.

Because of Mexico’s current valuation, we believe that it has the possibility to perform well regardless of how this potential conflict resolves.

Our recommendation is to keep money that may be needed within the next six months invested in a money market fund.

Roth conversions can decrease your taxable income and increase your tax savings over the long haul.

The 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) is a Medicare contribution tax on investment income.

Now that we’ve been parents for a few months, I can confidently say all of these items vastly improved our journey into parenthood.

If this level of volatility isn’t your expectation, you are not yet familiar with normal volatility in the markets.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending December 31, 2023, Developed Freedom Investing had a -3.97% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +4.9% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a -1.27% disadvantage.

Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are one of the most important account types, and understanding the difference between Roth and traditional contributions and withdrawals is foundational to tax planning.

While not the most favorable RMD rules imaginable, I’m sure it is still a relief to know that you don’t need to navigate the new SECURE Act rules just because you dissolved the trust.

Hopefully, you didn’t bother looking, and I can be the first to tell you.

What procedure can you put in place to prevent employer match churning? That is still unclear.

After over a decade of broken promises and rising costs, our need for a more sustainable tax system is acutely felt.

While we still cannot call the end of the Bear Market from this performance, today’s returns strongly suggest that 15 months ago, October 12, 2022 was the end of this bear market.

A savings waterfall helps investors navigate the financial complexity available to them.

While an excess or failed backdoor Roth can feel very stressful to solve, it is a normal and quick fix for your qualified financial custodian.