Baby Registry Guide from a Financial Planner (Updated 2024)
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Now that we’ve been parents for a few months, I can confidently say all of these items vastly improved our journey into parenthood.

2023 Babies: Start Saving for College Today!
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For babies born in 2023, here are the amounts that should be saved starting at birth to cover four years of college expenses at age 18.

New Parent Financial Checklist
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To help you get a good financial start as parents, here’s a financial checklist for new parents.

Baby Registry Guide from a Financial Planner
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There are many questions that first time moms ask their veteran friends. Among the top list is, what do you really need to care for a baby?

Q&A: How Much K-12 Tuition Can I Reimburse from 529 Plan?
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By flowing money through a 529 account, a Virginia tax payer could receive a $575 discount on their private school tuition.

Roth IRAs, 529 Plans, and Financial Freedom (Megan Russell on FamVestor Podcast)
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On Monday, October 26, 2020, Megan Russell was interviewed by Sunny Burns and Sunmarie Burns of the FamVestor podcast.

Cloth Diapers: A Lesson in Investing
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This isn’t the kind of article you think it is. My daughter wore disposable diapers.

Practical Advice on Hiring Your Children
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Here’s some advice from one daughter employee to a would-be parent employer.

What You Need to Know Before You Invest
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When I was a teen, my grandfather George Marotta passed down to me his copy of “What You Need to Know Before You Invest” by Rod Davis. I recommend this book as way to gain a baseline understanding.

Financial Planning for the Young and Non-Affluent
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“We have simply not been able to serve those who really need us the most.”

Everyone Deserves a Fiduciary Standard of Care (or Why We Have a Service Level with No Minimums Now)
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Thank you, Robert, for your email and your readership. I hope that everyone enjoys our new “Do-It-Yourself” service level.

No One Will Loan You Money For Retirement
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If you have to choose between your retirement or your children’s college savings, choose your retirement.

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

Q&A: My Baby was Gifted Cash. What Should I Do with It?
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As the parent, it can be hard to know what to do with a cash gift for a baby.

The Route from Wealth to Well-Being
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We don’t write a lot about how to spend money, but an international study published this year claims to have found the route from wealth to well-being through spending money.

Generational Financial Planning Within The Kiddie Tax Limits
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Families that consider generational financial planning techniques can reduce the burden of taxes on the family as a whole.

Do Children Need To File A Tax Return To Fund Their Roth IRA?
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The IRS does not require dependents whose gross income is only earned income to file a tax return if the amount is less than a certain amount.

Family Financial Lifecycle
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Before the children arrive, squirrel away some money. When the children go out on their own you get one last chance to save for retirement.

Ten Principles for Teaching Children about Money
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Here are ten principles for teaching children about money.

Family Budgeting
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If a budget isn’t a team effort, one member of the family will hold the purse strings and everyone else will be resentful.

How To Instill Good Financial Habits In Your Children
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Give your children experience spending their own money.

Can I Contribute To A Roth IRA If I Don’t Have A Job?
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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.

How to Save for Large Fast-Approaching Expenses
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The average married couple has dreams of multiple children, annual vacations, and homeownership, but planning for these expenses can be challenging.

Five Principles Of Spending
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How to judge if your money was well spent.

How to Open a Roth for Your Child
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Someone has to be proactive about your child’s retirement and every year you don’t open a retirement account is another year you’re holding back compound interest.

The Benefits of Saving and Investing Early
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Any money you put away and invest now will have the longest time to grow, due to the magic (or actually, the mathematics) of compound interest.

The Complete Guide to Your Washing Machine
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The complete guide to saving money while washing your clothes. What temperature should the water be? What cycle should I use? What detergent should I use?

The Complete Guide to Your Clothes Dryer
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The complete guide to saving money while drying your clothes. Should I air dry? Can I line dry inside? Is there ever a case when my dryer is cheaper?

The Complete Guide To Your Dishwasher
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The complete guide to saving money while getting your dishes clean. Does hand washing save money? Should I pre-wash? How full should I fill my dishwasher?

How Much Life Insurance Does a Parent Need? ($ ?s)
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Some suggest using ten times your take home salary as a rough rule of thumb when determining life insurance. Like all such rules, this rough guide is found lacking in many situations.

One Income: The Fiscal Challenges for Stay-At-Home Moms and Dads
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Financial planning means supporting the goals of stay-at-home parents to be with their children.

Fund a Teenager’s Million-Dollar Retirement
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We teach teenagers a lot more about sexuality than we do about money. This can confuse them about what they should be learning. Give this article to a teenager and encourage him or her to start a Roth IRA.

Squirrel Away Money While You Can
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Franco Modigliani won the Nobel Prize for a simple technique that squirrels know intuitively from birth. You have to squirrel away some nuts during times of plenty so you can survive during times of scarcity.

Radio: Giving Your Children a “Rich” Mindset
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David Marotta and Megan Marotta were featured on October 11, 2011 on radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show discussing the importance of teaching your children about money and giving them a “rich” mindset.

Financial Planning For Kids With Special Needs
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Parents with disabled children must have an estate plan to provide without disqualifying them from receiving public assistance.

Coping with College Expenses
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Students are graduating with larger debt loads than they were 10 years ago. Public four-year college borrowers graduate with an average of $19,800 in debt; their nonprofit private college counterparts graduate owing $26,100.

Start Saving for College the Day They Are Born
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My youngest is a first-year student at the University of Virginia. My coauthor Matthew’s youngest child was born only a month ago. There is no such thing as saving too early.

Tackling College Costs at the Eleventh Hour
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Don’t borrow or withdraw money from your IRA.

Prepaid Tuition Programs May Be Fool’s Gold
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Prepaid programs are not safe. They just assume a different type of risk.

529 Plans: What’s Important?
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If you are one of the 92% with children under the age of 18 who haven’t started a 529 plan, we encourage you to meet with a fee-only financial advisor soon. You can never start too early, and it’s never too late to do something.

Joshua and the Wall of College Savings
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In the past three years Joshua’s account has grown a whopping 76.6% averaging 22.5% per year.

Start College Savings the Day They Are Born
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If you are not saving for college you are falling behind.

A College Degree is Worth a Million Bucks
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Education matters. He who doesn’t teach his son a trade teaches him to steal.

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