The Roth IRA/Roth 401k is one of the best ways to accumulate and preserve wealth, but perhaps the least understood. A Roth, funded by after-tax contributions, has many appealing attributes, including tax-free growth and tax/penalty-free withdrawals if over the age of 59½, and the withdrawals are at least five years after your first contribution to […]
Summer is fast approaching, and high schools and colleges will soon adjourn. If you have not already found your summer job, now is the time to get started. You want it to be a good experience for you, and you want it to be a good experience for your employer. Here are tips to help […]
According to a leading measure of U.S. residential real estate prices, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index, home prices rose 11.2% year over year in January. With a limited supply of new homes on the market, increased demand from ultra-low interest rates, and stay-at-home dynamics due to Covid-19, the conditions are perfect for higher […]
By now, if you are eligible, you have likely received your $1,400 stimulus check as promised under the $1.9 trillion America Rescue Plan (ARP). For additional information on the ARP, review last week’s article CLICK HERE. If you have not received your check, visit www.IRS.gov, or follow the direct link to GetMyPayment. With the ARP, […]
Stimulus checks began going out on March 17th as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Here is a summary of what you might expect to receive: $1,400 per individual. $1,400 stimulus payment for Joint filers with AGI under $150,000; single filers under $75,000. Joint-filer phaseout = $160,000; single-filer phaseout = […]
With a promising vaccination answer to the Covid-19 pandemic in sight, economic activity is on the rise, and trillions of dollars in fiscal stimulus are coming to aid the recovery effort. There is certainly reason for optimism about the near-term future of the economy. However, the economy’s seemingly good news is not necessarily good news […]
Why do we feel the need to compare ourselves to others? The obvious answer is that we feel it provides us a “benchmark” to formulate future choices and behaviors. But why do we allow others to drive our actions? Why not establish our own internal benchmarks and be content with our ability or inability to […]
The taxman keeps coming… A couple of years ago, congress stealthily changed the law for most owners of retirement plans. Under the old law, if you left your IRA to a person, generally, they were allowed to withdraw the money ‘slowly’ over their life expectancy (popularly called a Stretch IRA). For most people, this meant […]
In our last SquareOne blog, What’s The Deal With Emergency Funds? we discussed what an emergency fund is and what it is not, but you might be wondering how much cash you should have set aside. If you crack open a personal finance textbook, the most common answer you will see is “three to six months […]
According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal government will offer a revised PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loan program tailored specifically to small business owners with less than 20 employees. The goal is to focus on access to PPP loans for small companies, including minority-owned businesses and businesses within underserved communities that may not have […]