Blog
What’s on our mind? You can read about it in our blog. Whether it’s ideas from the industry or emerging trends, you can read about it here. And once in a while, we may throw in a movie review or some other surprise. So keep checking in. We’re glad to have you reading along.
Our Love Affair with Debt
Sometimes, continuing debt seems to be a way of life for many of us. In 2023, total credit card debt in the US exceeds $1,000,000,000,000 – that’s 1 TRILLION dollars!! The average credit card APR in the 3rd quarter 2023 was 21.19%....
Read MoreWhere Should I Put My Important Stuff?
We all accumulate important papers and documents over time. One of the dilemmas we may face is how to store them securely so we can find them again when we need to. There’s a veritable plethora of personal information...
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Do You Really Need Disability Insurance?
When I was studying for the Certified Financial Planner exam, we were taught that the probability of disability at most ages before retirement is greater than the probability of death. In fact, 25% of today’s 20-year-olds may be...
Read MoreWe're All Getting Older - Planning for a Potential Long-Term Care Need
WHY do we plan for anything? We plan in advance to create a well thought out process to achieve a goal that may require several steps. Intuitively, it seems that it would be difficult to construct a plan to achieve that goal at the...
Read MoreRisky Business
What Is risk? Do you take risks? Do you know where you have risk? To many of us, risk is just another four-letter word. It may just represent a mysterious obstacle to success. Risk broadly, means exposure to the possibility of a loss...
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Should You Make a Trust the Beneficiary of Your IRA?
People generally leave their IRAs to individuals when they die—often to a spouse or to a child. But there may be good reasons sometimes to leave IRAs to a trust. Some of these reasons may include the following: Working around...
Read MorePlease Mind the Gap
Our life span refers to the number of years we may live. Our health span refers to the number of years we may spend in good health, free from the chronic diseases and the disabilities of aging. For many of us, there’s a gap...
Read MoreShould You Carry Umbrella Insurance for a Rainy Day?
Your property and casualty insurance normally provides liability coverage for you and your family. If your car crashes into someone else, liability car insurance may pay for your legal defense and any judgments or settlements. Or if a...
Read MorePet Care Planning
Many people who have pets consider them as part of the family. They are often in family photos, sometimes their birthdays are celebrated, and I know of one instance where an obituary announcing the death of a pet was published in the...
Read MoreEthical Wills: Passing on Values Instead of Valuables
Often when we begin a conversation about estate and legacy planning, we start with the basic premise of what (and in what amount) do you want to go to who?Do you want your home to go to your children? A nest egg to go to your...
Read MoreHow Do Work and Earnings Affect Your Social Security Benefits?
In a nutshell, this is how work affects your Social Security benefits: You may be able to collect Social Security retirement and survivors benefits even if you work. However, if you are under full retirement age (age 67 for...
Read MoreLesson Learned from Recent Bank Failures: Are Your Bank Deposits Fully Insured?
On Friday, March 10, 2023, regulators shuttered the Silicon Valley Bank of Santa Clara, CA, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) assumed control of the bank. By Sunday night, March 12, regulators also shut down another...
Read MoreIs it Time For You to Begin Financial Planning?
When should you begin financial planning?This is not to be confused with “When should you seek out financial advice?” Most people can benefit from some form of financial advice or consultation at almost any point in their...
Read MoreYear-End Tax Strategies
There is more certainty regarding tax laws at the end of 2022 than there was at the beginning of the year. In August, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act. This legislation focused on climate- and...
Read MorePlanning for the Sandwich
We all dream of a desirable life. The goal is being able to spend time where we want, doing what we want, when we want, with those people we want to be with and with the knowledge we can afford to do it. Planning for this kind of...
Read MoreTHE “SIMPLE” §529 PLAN
A §529 Plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan legally known as a “qualified tuition plan,” sponsored by states, state agencies and educational institutions. There are two types of §529 plans: prepaid tuition plans...
Read MoreUsing Asset Location to Minimize Taxes
Asset location is a tax-minimization strategy that takes advantage of different types of investments getting different tax treatments. Using this strategy, an investor determines which securities may be appropriate for which types of...
Read MoreIs COBRA Worth It?
No, this is not about dangerous or poisonous snakes. Unlike its African namesake, this COBRA is not to be feared or avoided. Quite the contrary, it may offer you protection. COBRA is the acronym for a law, the...
Read MoreIs Delaying Social Security A Good Idea?
At the Family Wealth Decisions Group we often advise clients to delay claiming Social Security if they can afford to do so. To be sure, other factors must be considered such as their health status and whether they have sufficient...
Read MoreCredit Score v. Credit Report: Why You Should Be Checking Both
We at Family Wealth Decisions Group are a wealth advisory firm, and technically cybersecurity may not fall strictly under the purview of wealth advisory. However, our mission is to have a significant positive impact on the lives of our...
Read MoreOptions for College Savings
College can be a time of fun, exploration, self-discovery and learning for many a child (or grandchild), but for many that experience also comes at a steep cost. In 2019-2020 the national average “sticker price”...
Read MoreDo You Need a Financial Caddie?
Earlier this year I watched Jon Rahm nail an 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the U.S. Open. This followed an even more impressive 24-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole. It was an extraordinary finale. Had Jon miscalculated...
Read MoreYour Medicare Game Plan
As you approach your 65th birthday, the topic of Medicare may begin popping up more and more often. For those who are new to it, Medicare can seem to be overwhelming and complicated, both to understand and to enroll in. Although many...
Read MoreMaximizing Social Security Benefits for Same-Sex Couples
On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision concerning same-sex marriage. In United States vs. Windsor the court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal recognition of...
Read MorePasswords 101: Passphrase and Replacement Method
These days with information at the tips of our fingers, your private information may find itself at the tips of someone else’s fingers. More often than not, it is a question of when and not if your information gets stolen or one...
Read MoreTips and Tools to Help Your Savings
You may have heard that you should always have an emergency cash reserve of six months’ worth of expenses[i], or that you should be saving 20% of your income[ii], but after taxes, insurance, expenses and just plain old spending,...
Read MoreWhen Your House May Not Be Your Home
Home title fraud occurs when someone fraudulently transfers title to your property from you to them. The consequences can be disastrous as the fraudster may then be able to borrow against the property or even sell it out from under you...
Read MoreFamily Caregiving
We probably have all heard that the Millennials (born between 1996 and 2010) have passed the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) as the most populous generation in America according to the Pew Research Center’s analysis of...
Read MoreIs Your Important Information Organized?
Every time my Mom goes away, she calls me and tells me where she is leaving her information. This includes her Will, Health Care Proxy and a sheet of paper listing all her bank and investment account information, which includes,...
Read More'Tis the Season... To Be Careful
‘Tis the Season…To Be Careful ‘Twas the holiday season, when all through the land, online shoppers clicked quickly to get gifts in hand. But while they were adding treats and toys to their carts, a holiday scammer...
Read MoreDon't Get Caught in a Mutual Fund Tax Trap!
This year my uncle discovered that he had to pay capital gains tax on a mutual fund he owned, even though he had not sold the fund. Moreover, the fund had decreased in value during the year. What happened? Capital gains distributions...
Read More5,000 Burpees 3,000 Squats and 25,000 Rope Skips in 2020
On November 17th, 2019 I started the Burpee Mini Challenge of 50 burpees per day. If you don’t know what a burpee is, a standard burpee begins in standing position moving into a squat, then stretch your legs out to a plank,...
Read MoreFactors to Consider When Updating Insurance Coverage
With government health care policies always uncertain and the memory of super storms still fresh, now is a good time to review insurance policies coverage, insurance needs, and emergency. Insurance coverage tends to be the stepchild...
Read MorePersonally Speaking... Bringing My Daughter Home
I suppose when we look back on this period years from now, we will all have our stories, just like we have stories about 9-11 or Superstorm Sandy. We will remember phrases such as “social distancing,” “flattening the...
Read MoreA Coronavirus Scam
That’s right. Apparently, scammers are using the societal anxiety about coronavirus to engineer scams. The Wall Street Journal on 3/4/2020 published an article by James Rundle, Catherine Stupp and Kim Nash detailing some of these...
Read MoreQualified Charitable Distributions - A Strategy Whose Time Has Come
Qualified Charitable Distributions were originated to encourage people to make charitable contributions from their IRA accounts. The QCDs were first introduced in 2006 and had to be “renewed” annually until finally it was...
Read MoreDoes the Secure Act Make Your Retirement More Secure?
So now you may be able to delay Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) until age 72 instead of 70 ½. And now you may be able to contribute to an IRA after age 70. However, an inherited IRA can no longer be “stretched”...
Read MoreHow Much Should A Financial Plan Cost?
When I was young, I remember my dad coming home from work one evening very upset about the cost of a repair on our car. This was the first automobile we owned and because we didn’t have a lot of money, he bought very used car....
Read MoreWho is Legally Responsible for Your Parent's Long-Term Care Costs? Answer: It May Be You!
Long-term care can be expensive. Recent estimates put the monthly cost of nursing home care at over $7,400. This is the national average. In New York the average cost of care may be over $12,000 per month.1 Who pays this expense?...
Read MoreIT'S SIMPLE - BUT IT'S COMPLICATED
Simply stated, my goal as an advisor is to obtain a better outcome for my client. Some examples might be: A better retirement A better inheritance for the family A better charitable plan A better business exit strategy That sounds...
Read More6 Things You Should Know for the End of Windows 7
As you may have noticed, thanks to the update windows that may be popping up on your screen (Apple/Mac users need not continue), Windows 7 is going to be entering its End of Life Phase on January 14, 2020[i]. So here are some things we...
Read MoreWho's Really Getting Cheated When You Cheat on Your Advisor?
Do you have more than one financial advisor? If you do, you’re not alone. Since 2008, the practice of using more than one financial advisor has grown[i]. Understandably, people are concerned about giving a single individual...
Read MoreHow long should you keep your tax records? Hint: It's probably not what you think.
Over the years, many of our clients have come to us with this question. Some have an idea or may have heard something regarding how long they should keep their tax documents. What many of you probably know is that there is a statute of...
Read MoreA QBI Conundrum?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December 2017 made massive changes in the tax code, possibly the most complex of which is the new “Qualified Business Income (QBI)” deduction. This provision may allow owners of...
Read More5 Money Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
5 money mistakes and how to avoid them By HorsesMouth, LLC Have you ever heard someone say that experience is the best teacher? Here’s another one–there are no mistakes, just lessons. Well, I would like to take a slightly...
Read MoreGive Yourself the Gift of Credit Protection This Holiday Season
With Thanksgiving done and the gift-giving season around the corner, as we say here at Family Wealth Decisions Group: ‘tis the season to freeze your credit. While all seasons are good seasons to freeze you credit, it is...
Read MoreTis the season….. for Medicare
This is just a brief reminder that the annual Medicare open enrollment period begins October 15th and it runs through December 7th. Medicare participants will be receiving information in the mail (if they haven’t already) about...
Read MoreEvaluate your Life Day!
Is life getting too hectic? Too busy? Too crowded? Are you living your life task to task? Are you going day to day without a moment to stop and think? If any of this sounds familiar, then this year you may wish to observe a very...
Read MoreClean your Virtual Desktop Day!
Get out some buckets, grab a rag… but hold the water, it’s Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day! Have you ever looked at the home screen on any of your devices and wondered how THAT happened? You may have once had a clean...
Read MoreThe Burning Special Needs Planning Question
We have several clients with children or other family members who require assistance to make it through their day... and who will continue to require assistance to make it through the rest of the days of their lives. Often, these...
Read MoreFinancial Advice Beyond the College Dormitory
Congratulations! You’ve earned your degree. Now what? The transition from school to a career can be daunting. Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) in the 1967 classic “The Graduate”, was a new college graduate...
Read MoreDEALING WITH AGING - FAMILY CAREGIVING PLANNING
Within the next hour, 327 elderly people may be treated in an emergency room for a fall--that's one fall every 11 seconds . (Horsesmouth, 2017) Even more unsettling is that three of them may die from that fall – about one every...
Read MoreIs your Wi-Fi KRACKed?
You may have already read about this issue or heard about it on the news. A Wi-Fi vulnerability recently discovered by researchers (https://papers.mathyvanhoef.com/ccs2017.pdf) is being referred to as KRACK. Apparently, it affects WPA2...
Read MoreTwo Key Retirement Income Questions
As adults, we know the importance of saving for retirement. BUT what happens as we enter retirement? We have been saving money all of our lives and now we are transitioning from saving money to spending what we’ve saved. We are...
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