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Financial Symmetry: Balancing Today with Retirement

When considering retirement, do you wonder what financial opportunities you may be missing? Busy lives take over and years pass without taking advantage. In this retirement podcast, the Financial Symmetry advisors unveil financial opportunities, to help you balance enjoying today so you are ready to retire later. By day, they are fiduciary fee-only financial advisors who answer questions about tax savings, investment decisions, and how to save more. If you’ve been putting off your financial to-do list or are just not sure what you’ve been missing, subscribe to the show and learn more at www.financialsymmetry.com. Financial Symmetry is a Raleigh Financial Advisor. Proudly serving clients in the Triangle of North Carolina for over 20 years.
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Now displaying: March, 2021
Mar 22, 2021

The American Rescue Plan was recently passed, but do you know all the changes it will bring? You probably already know about the stimulus checks, but you may not know how it could affect your taxes and healthcare. This latest economic stimulus package could mean big things for your tax planning. 

Video recap here: https://youtu.be/Vq8Y2CFYS6E

Since the American Rescue Plan has a heavy tax focus, I invited tax planning extraordinaire, Grayson Blazek, to brief us all on the risks and opportunities that we should be looking out for with the newest piece of legislation. He simplifies this complex topic down to 5 key areas. If you are looking for tax planning opportunities or want to know the risks to look out for, then make sure to tune into Grayson Blazek’s breakdown of the American Rescue Plan. 

Who qualifies for the third installment of stimulus checks?

The third round of stimulus checks may be the most widely known part of the American Rescue Plan. These checks are capped at $1400 per person. Although the income range of those who qualify has narrowed, many people who were not previously eligible for stimulus checks will be eligible for round 3. 

The age range for dependents has been expanded to those in college and older high school students, whereas with the previous rounds of stimulus, dependents were limited to ages 16 and under. Listen in to find out how the income bracket for stimulus checks has changed and learn how you could use this stimulus package as an opportunity for careful tax planning.

How has the ARP changed health insurance premiums?

If you were laid off or terminated like many others last year, your company must continue to offer health insurance through COBRA. The drawback with COBRA is that the full cost of the insurance premium was placed solely on the participant without the employer absorbing a share. The American Rescue Plan will now fully subsidize the premiums of COBRA until September of 2021. This means that if you are on COBRA your premiums will be zero.

That wasn’t the only change in health insurance premiums through the ARP. Find out how the thresholds of the Affordable Care Act have changed with the bill as well. Press play to hear how. 

Changes to the child tax credit and the dependent care tax credit may have you rethinking your tax planning strategy

Most people don’t pay attention to their taxes until the time comes for them to file. But maybe after listening to this episode you may want to start getting in front of your taxes and plan the year ahead rather than focus on the previous year. 

If you have children, then this year is an especially good time to consider tax planning. You’ll want to take advantage of the expanded tax credit that went from $2000 to $3000 and $3600 for children under 6 years old. In addition to the child tax credit, the child dependent care tax credit was expanded to max out at $8000 per child.

Changes to unemployment compensation

Lastly, the American Rescue Plan has extended state and federal benefits to unemployment compensation until September 6. Lawmakers also chose to make unemployment compensation tax-free for 2020. 

Listen in to hear all the details so that you can develop a plan to utilize these changes in your tax planning efforts. This may be a good year for you to consult a CPA to help you file your taxes.

Outline of This Episode

  • [1:20] Stimulus checks part 3
  • [9:10] Health insurance
  • [15:54] The new child tax credit
  • [23:54] The child dependent care tax credit
  • [27:20] Changes in unemployment compensation
  • [32:00] You may want to reach out to a CPA this year

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Mar 8, 2021

It’s always fun to peek behind the curtain and see the strategies and process people use for their decision making.

Video recap: https://youtu.be/DDp2dBUhrSg

During this conversation, we review some of my core beliefs around:

  • importance of tradeoffs - how every financial decision affects others
  • being intentional in being a good steward
  • Defining the balance between enjoying today while saving for tomorrow
  • Structuring your money management around the give, grow, owe and live philosophy

4 Primary Uses of Money

You can use it to live, give, owe or grow. For us, we rank these in the following order: give, grow, live, owe.

Giving is at the top of our budget. Giving first breaks the power of money and releases its hold over people. Therefore, tithing to our church has been at the top of our priority list.

We then focus on the growth aspect. This starts with automating our savings so that we can reach 15% of our income. As for how we invest we focus on various types of accounts from 401K to Roth IRAs to 529s for the kids. We explain in the episode how we've set up a system to where we don't lose sleep over our 90% stock allocation.

With 3 yr old twins, a large part of our spending goes to daycare costs. My spouse and I try to spend our money on the things that create joy, including going to NC State sporting events and going on camping trips.

I've always used debt as a tool for large, low-interest purchases such as his home and car. We only hold one credit card and doesn’t want to open any more accounts than are necessary.

Outline of This Episode

  • [4:25] What are Cameron’s money influences?
  • [9:07] How does Cameron divide up his resources?
  • [15:27] Does he worry about his 90% stock allocation?
  • [21:26] How does he see debt?
  • [26:30] What was the best money he spent in 2020?
  • [31:15] The power of small wins

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