Money management involves several things.  It involves everything from the creation of a budget, to the maintenance of emergency cash reserves.  Some of us live rigidly by our budget constraints, and others merely check the balance at the end of the month to see if there’s anything left.  Most of us fall somewhere in the middle.

From a financial planning standpoint though, having a budget is critical.  How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are? 

Section 529 Plans were created under the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 for the purpose of allowing people a tax advantaged way to save for the higher education expenses of a beneficiary.

At a high level, the account is owned by one person, and a successor owner is also named. Usually, these are parents of a child who is the beneficiary of the account, however anyone can own a 529 plan for the benefit of a child. Anyone can make a contribution to the account for the beneficiary.

Deposits into 529 plans are considered gifts.

Thoughts On The Outlook For 2019

David R.

According to industry sources, almost 46% of adults responded to surveys by admitting they either did not contribute to an employer’s retirement plan, or contributed very little into such plans.  Only 16% of the respondents said they invested more than 15% of their income, and virtually all of the respondents acknowledged that they knew more should be invested toward retirement goals.

Someday we will all retire, or at least slow down.  The question is, how prepared will you be for that day? 

It seems that after a relatively quiet and positive 2017, that 2018 has seen the resurgence of volatility.  Remember that markets are discounting mechanisms.  This means that assumptions about the future are priced into current values.  Market valuations of one year ago had priced into themselves an assumption about the coming year, in terms of economic activity, earnings, interest rates, and other quantifiable metrics.  Since that time, we’ve seen the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and the imposition of tariffs among other things. 

Death, sickness, disability, and other happen.  They just do.  Often times, situations such as these appear suddenly.  An unforeseen diagnosis, or a disability caused by an accident, or death, can be devastating to otherwise solid financial plans.  Sudden and unforeseen are two words that you never want associated with long term financial plans.  Therefore, the management of risk must be proactive.  It can’t be reactive.

I help clients with situations like these is by encouraging them to insure their lives, health, and income long before a catastrophe occurs. 

The term durable, as it pertains to retirement income, implies that you can’t outlive the income, and neither can the market take away, or erode the income.  Examples of durable income would include Social Security, or pension income.  For the income to be durable, the source must offer guarantees upon which the investor can rely for the production of that income.  In contrast, non durable income would simply be the amount that we hope to sustain from a non guaranteed source, over time.