By Graham Ewing, CFP®, MBA, Director of Financial Planning Standards After signing their estate documents, most people put them in a drawer and move on with life. Life keeps moving after that, though. A grandchild arrives, or the friend you…
We’ve all heard the myth that crossing into a higher tax bracket means every dollar you earn suddenly gets taxed at that higher rate. But that’s not how it works.
December 31 closes more than the calendar year. It closes the window on RMDs, Roth conversions, and charitable moves that only count if they happen before then. Here's what to do before the year runs out.
When you hand your retirement savings to an advisory firm, one of the first things you want to know is who is making the investment decisions. Not a software platform. A person, or in our case, a team.
You've contributed to the TSP for twenty years. Do you know whether that money went into Traditional or Roth, and whether it was the right call for your tax situation? If you're within a few years of retirement, the answer determines when you pay taxes on a balance that took a career to build. Here's how to decide which one fits where you are now.
Have you recently welcomed a child or grandchild into the world? They might be eligible for a financial head start. Here’s how to open a Trump Account and access $1,000 seed money from the federal government.
Your military pension is a benefit for your lifetime, not your family's. It stops the day you die, and for a surviving spouse who was counting on that income, the drop can be sudden and steep.
By Madison Bennett, CFP®, CFT-I™ The Medicare mail starts arriving in September, and most of it looks just like last September's, which can make it tempting to skim and move on. However, integrating this review into your broader financial planning…
You spent 30 years living below your means. Your adult child needs help buying a home, and you have the money sitting right there in your retirement account. Many parents in that moment aren’t asking whether they can afford it… they’re asking whether saying no makes them a bad parent. Here’s how to think through that answer without putting your retirement at risk.
Most retirees know they have to take their RMDs. Fewer realize the timing is largely up to them, and that choosing wisely can have real tax consequences. Madison Bennett walks through the key timing decisions around required minimum distributions: what drives the choice, how to use your RMD for tax withholding, and when a qualified charitable distribution might make more sense than a standard withdrawal.