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 […]
Financial Fraud is rampant and sophisticated. In the past six months, I know of five cases close to home where people were almost victims of financial fraud. An overview of some of the types of financial fraud shows just how sophisticated and widespread the attacks are. Some cases involve a scammer hacking into a person’s email. […]
Even with modern-day family dynamics, the role of a “financial leader” in a household typically still falls on one person. While most leaders in their pre-retiree years rightly focus on accumulating assets and risk management strategies for protection, a new set of challenges are introduced as one crosses the finish line and enters retirement. These […]
Background In March of 2020, COVID-19 became a wide-spread news story that sent the stock market down by more than 30% in what most investors thought was the beginning of a disastrous year. But it managed not only to rebound but set new highs. As we begin 2021, the stock market continues to set new […]