Taking advantage of tax planning opportunities before year-end may benefit you this year while also lowering your lifetime tax rate.
Paying more taxes now to lower your lifetime tax rate may seem unconventional, but if you are serious about building wealth, this episode may include a strategy for you.
Listen in to hear ten tax strategies you could use on the path to your ideal retirement.
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On the journey to reach your ideal retirement, stock options can be a valuable tool to have in your arsenal.
However, it’s easy to make mistakes given most people don’t have a class in high school that provides pointers on how to handle when they vest.
There are many things to consider with stock options: the different types, timing deadlines, tax consequences, and the leverage involved.
Since it is such a complex topic, they’re often put on the back burner and can easily be forgotten about causing you to miss out on a valuable opportunity to increase your wealth.
If you have been offered stock options with your company, you’ll want to hear these 8 common mistakes to avoid when managing your stock options.
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There’s so much we can overlook with retirement plans. Here at Financial Symmetry, we are constantly finding ways to help you be aware of retirement opportunities and rules and improve your wealth.
On this special Halloween-themed episode of Financial Symmetry, Allison has come up with some retirement plan horror stories to spook you. Listen in to ensure that these horrors don’t ruin your retirement plans.
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If you are a long-time listener you know that we like to go through the nuances of financial planning that may be valuable to you.
In this episode, Allison and I take a look at net unrealized appreciation (NUA). Listen in to learn what it is, who could benefit from it, and the benefits and pitfalls of using NUA. You won’t want to miss out on hearing one of our classic fictional case studies involving Freddie Krueger. Press play to hear if you could benefit from using NUA.
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When it comes to the question of rolling over a 401K or 403B to an IRA, many people fear making mistakes. It’s true, that retirement account mistakes can be costly. On this episode, we’ll explore the options you have, the factors to consider, and the reasons you should and the reasons you shouldn’t roll over your employer-sponsored retirement account.
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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today
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Investing is simple but not easy. To that end, what are the impacts if you do a poor job managing your investments?
Several studies from Vanguard and Morningstar have attempted to quantify how behavioral coaching can impact your savings. The numbers settle around 1.5-2%/yr. That may not sound like much, but could equate to millions of difference over 30+ years of savings.
On this episode, we continue to explore the benefits of the wealth management relationship. If you haven’t listened to the first part you can find it here.
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Many people who reach out to a financial advisor simply seek help creating a financial plan. A financial plan can get you on the right path to financial freedom. However, there are limitations to creating a one-time financial plan.
In this episode, a few of our wealth advisors discuss how wealth management works from the tax planning, retirement planning and risk planning perspectives.
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So, you inherited an IRA–now what?
The rules surrounding inherited IRAs are more complicated than you think, so if you have already inherited an IRA or expect to in the near future, we are breaking down how you should think about making withdrawals.
In this episode, you’ll learn the three types of beneficiaries and the six questions you need to ask yourself when you inherit an IRA.
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If you're a Modern Family fan, you should enjoy today's episode.
Today, we're diving in the mistakes made when we make assumptions about our IRA beneficiary forms.
Many people don’t realize this but their IRA has the opportunity to be the star player of their estate plan. In this episode, we walk through real world examples, to help you take steps now to avoid similar pitfalls in your own lives.
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The behavioral and emotional side of financial planning takes precedence when planning for our future.
I see this play out frequently in the form of anchoring to a perceived value we’ve grown accustomed to, based on prior experience.
This “value”; however, can unfortunately lead to decisions that damage the success of our financial plan.
Today estate law attorney, Adam Tarsitano, joins us to discuss how you should think through some commonly misunderstood areas of your estate plan.
Listen in to learn why you may not look forward to the sunset in 2026, the difference in various trusts, and whether you should open a trust to avoid probate.
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Summer is here! That means it’s time to brush off the bookshelf and get reading. We have a few book ideas to enhance your reading list. If you are looking to improve your financial life or even just enjoy a light beach-read you won’t want to miss this list.
Most of us feel like we have a sound process for investing, that is until curveballs are thrown our way. Then, emotions like envy, greed, and fear take over, making us feel like we need to abandon our long-term investing process for the short term. We do this by taking impulsive actions like:
However, the investors who do well, in the long run, are the ones who stay the course, focusing less on reactionary changes and more on well-defined targets that you can plan for.
In this week’s episode, we talk about the importance of planning for cash flow needs over the next five years and how to reframe your thinking about making short-term changes to your investment strategy.
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What can hockey teach us about pursuing your ideal retirement?
As we watched our Carolina Hurricanes progress in the Stanley Cup playoffs, we were reminded of three hockey strategies that are also vital in fulfilling financial planning outcomes.
And despite the early exit of the Canes in the Eastern Conference Finals, this hockey-themed episode can still assist you in the pursuit of your ideal retirement.
As Wayne Gretzky reminded us, don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck is going. Too many investors skate where the puck is currently. This Blackrock graph, mentioned in the show, is a good demonstration of results from people that tend to follow the herd to the hot trends now vs. investing where others are selling.
Now on with this week’s episode.
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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today
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Are you the type of person who loves surprises? One surprise you probably don’t enjoy is having to pay more taxes than you anticipated.
Unfortunately, taxes are a necessary part of life. The best thing you can do to ensure that you aren’t caught off guard at the end of the tax year is to prepare throughout the year.
On this episode of Financial Symmetry, Allison Berger and I review 9 ways to prevent taxes from catching you off guard. Don’t let the next tax season take you by surprise. Listen in to hear how you can improve your tax situation so that you can rest easy come tax time.
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📬 Tips each month to help you Enhance Your Today and Enrich Your Tomorrow. Download our Pre-Retirement Checklist Ebook today
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Many of our clients ask for financial books and other resources they can share with their loved ones to improve their financial literacy. When young people are armed with financial knowledge they make smarter financial decisions that will ultimately pay off in the long run.
When young adults are just getting started, financial information is best shared in bite-sized pieces which makes a 30-minute podcast the ideal medium for potentially life-changing financial tips.
If you know of someone who is about to graduate from college and embark on their journey into the adult world, this is the episode for them. They’ll learn how to make the best financial decisions they can with their new paychecks. Please make sure to share this episode with the young people in your life.
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Other Resources Mentioned:
As you plan to live your ideal retirement, you may want to share your good fortune with others who are less fortunate.
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Giving is incentivized through the tax code, so being charitably inclined can also help to reduce your tax liability.
In retirement, there are many ways to map out your charitable giving to take full advantage of the tax benefits. This is why, we discuss ways to capitalize on those opportunities while meeting your charitable goals.
Listen in to learn how to enhance your today and enrich your tomorrow while giving intentionally.
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Have you ever spent hours trying to fix something that, with the right tools, a professional could fix in five minutes?
We’ve all been there. But it's often difficult to fully appreciate the time, effort, and in some circumstances the cost it could save you to enlist help earlier in the process.
In today’s episode, we’ll explore six steps that are available to augment your lifetime savings. Press play to discover if you are missing out on critical savings tools.
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If you have been watching the news lately you may be wondering if your cash is safe. Watching the country’s 16th largest bank collapse causes people to question whether the banking system is set up to ensure that funds are accessible.
On this episode of Financial Symmetry, we’ll discuss what happened to Silicon Valley Bank, examine how much cash you really need, and explore options for managing your emergency fund. Listen in to learn how to safely manage your emergency fund.
As International Women’s Day approaches, we wanted to get together to explore ways to improve the financial outcome for women across the globe.
In this episode, Allison Berger, Grace Kvantas, Haley Modlin and Darian Billingsley, break down the four Cs of women’s personal finance.
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DOWNLOAD the Sudden Money Financial Transition Journal here
Retirement is one of the most significant changes that you will manage in your life. It takes not just careful financial planning, but also careful life planning as well.
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Our guest today, Susan Bradley, is the author of Sudden Money and the founder of the Sudden Money Institute. She is also a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and a Certified Financial Transitionist (CFT). We discuss how best to prepare for the retirement transition
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📬 Tips each month to help you reach your Ideal Retirement. Subscribe to the Financial Symmetry newsletter and receive a free Market Volatility Playbook.
📰 See the full show notes here
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DOWNLOAD the Sudden Money Financial Transition Journal here
In today’s video, we discuss several questions of what we can learn from last year’s investing experience and what we could expect for 2023.
Listen in to see how lessons from last year can help you move forward with confidence.
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📬 Tips each month to help you reach your Ideal Retirement. Subscribe to the Financial Symmetry newsletter and receive a free Market Volatility Playbook.
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The Secure Act 2.0 was recently passed bringing in hundreds of new retirement and investment account changes.
In this episode, we detail some of the most impactful changes for you. We’ll break down these changes to explore planning opportunities for your retirement planning strategies.
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📬 Tips each month to help you reach your Ideal Retirement. Subscribe to the Financial Symmetry newsletter and receive a free Mega-backdoor Roth guide.
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The beginning of a new year motivates many of us to make lists of things in our lives we may want to change. At the top of those lists typically are financially related items.
🎥 Watch a video of podcast recap here
So today, we’re going to share our list of items we’ve seen that can have lasting impact on your financial journey. We're going to share an actionable plan with 12 tips to double-check your financial vitals that could make a major difference for you and your family in the years to come.
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📬 Tips each month to help you reach your Ideal Retirement. Subscribe to the Financial Symmetry newsletter and receive a free Mega-backdoor Roth guide.
📰 See the full show notes here