Market volatility is never comfortable, but with the right mindset and a thoughtful plan, you can face downturns not as a victim, but as an opportunist. On this episode of the Financial Symmetry Show, we’re sharing our advice on managing your finances amid turbulent markets and giving you a helpful checklist to guide your decision-making when headlines make your stomach flip.
[0:00] We discuss the importance of planning, reviewing its steps, and controlling expectations during unforeseen events.
[4:29] Evaluate income, expenses, job security, income sources, and potential risks in financial planning.
[7:14] Consider delaying major purchases or expenses if income is uncertain. Assess whether postponing could increase costs or cause issues.
[12:53] Prepare for significant financial events that may impact your portfolio, like downsizing a home or receiving a large sum.
[14:17] Evaluate your portfolio by considering your stock choices.
[17:32] Avoid panic selling stocks, which often leads to long-term financial regret.
[22:50] Take informed action for peace of mind; mindset and planning are key.
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Tax planning might not top everyone's list of leisure activities, but in the middle of tax season there’s a hidden opportunity. What if, instead of seeing it as a mere logistic hurdle, we embraced it as a moment to refine our financial strategy?
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We're spotlighting women's wealth in honor of International Women's Day and Women's History Month. Join us as we dig into some of the stats surrounding women's financial empowerment. From the rising number of women controlling wealth as they outlive their spouses to tackling stereotypes that hinder women's earning potential, this episode addresses the systemic barriers that impact women's financial journeys.
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Four categories are recognized under current regulations to qualify as an Eligible Designated Beneficiary (EDB). These include the surviving spouse, minor children of the decedent, a disabled or chronically ill individual as assessed at the time of the decedent's passing, and other individuals who are no more than ten years younger than the deceased account owner. If you fall into one of these categories, you'll be afforded more time and flexibility than Non-Eligible Designated Beneficiaries. This is due to recent regulatory changes, underscored by The Secure Act, altering the landscape of inherited IRAs.
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Investing can often feel like riding a rollercoaster of exciting highs and daunting lows. This week, we’re digging into the intricacies of the financial planning process, focusing particularly on the importance of understanding market trends and the role diversification plays in safeguarding your wealth.
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Retirement, often portrayed as a glorious era of freedom and relaxation, has its own set of challenges beyond the financial arena. This week, we’re exploring the psychology behind retirement and discussing the four phases retirees go through.
The excitement of retirement can last about a year. The dreamy honeymoon phase is great, but when reality sets in, it can be tough. The transition takes time and usually involves emotional highs and lows as retirees grapple with their newfound freedom while trying to preserve their sense of identity, purpose, and routine.
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As the holiday season approaches, many of us find ourselves thinking about gifts. While gifts can come in many forms, monetary gifts often cause the most confusion. In this episode of Financial Symmetry, hosts Chad Smith and Grayson Blaszak discuss the intricacies of financial gifting.
Financial gifting generally involves transferring assets, such as cash or securities, from one individual to another without expecting anything in return. This process can have several benefits, including seeing your loved ones enjoy the fruits of your generosity during your lifetime.
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Early retirement has unique financial planning challenges, particularly regarding health insurance and tax strategies. For people who retire before age 65, the challenge of finding affordable and adequate health insurance adds another layer of complexity to their financial plans.
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An inherited IRA is essentially an IRA received by a beneficiary after the original owner passes away. Whether it's a spouse, child, or another loved one, the key characteristic of an inherited IRA is that it transitions ownership upon death.
As Grayson Blaszek explains, the funds are transferred intact, but the way you handle and withdraw these funds comes with specific rules and timelines. Grayson and Matthew dig into the new rules in this episode.
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Reaching your financial goals builds confidence and peace of mind, which are essential for making informed decisions that benefit your entire family.
In this episode, we’re following a fictional pop culture couple from newlywed to pre-retirement, to demonstrate how their thought process around an emergency fund could evolve with their changing circumstances.
Join us as we lay out a case study of planning that helps them balance their accessible wealth with a healthy emergency fund.
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Retirement, a phase many of us anticipate for a long time, comes with its own set of financial intricacies. Specifically, how do you effectively withdraw funds from your savings to ensure a comfortable, sustainable, and tax-efficient lifestyle?
A well-crafted retirement blueprint is essential. This plan should outline your long-term goals and the steps needed to achieve them. More importantly, your financial plan should be flexible enough to accommodate life's unexpected expenses, such as healthcare costs or home repairs. Revisiting and updating your blueprint annually—or when significant life changes occur—can help ensure you stay on track.
In this episode, we’re sharing the essential steps to develop a retirement withdrawal plan that caters to your needs. We dig into which accounts to draw from, how to minimize taxes, and how to manage unexpected expenses. You'll also learn about advanced strategies like Roth conversions, tax-loss harvesting, and the benefits of Qualified Charitable Distributions and Donor-Advised Funds.
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Retirement planning is a delicate process, and you need to carefully consider your various income streams, including Social Security benefits. For those of us who plan to continue working while claiming Social Security, it’s important to understand how this decision can impact the monthly benefits you receive.
In this episode, we’re sharing how to avoid financial shocks in retirement. We discuss the essentials of earned income, the reduction in benefits due to excess earnings, and specific scenarios such as spousal and ex-spouse benefits.
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We all have visions of our ideal retirement. However, our financial plans can quickly veer off course if we haven't appropriately managed our risks.
On this episode of Financial Symmetry, Greg Suggs from Greg Suggs Insurance joins me to discuss how to manage common risks that could negatively affect your wealth. You won’t want to miss out on these easy-to-implement pieces to your insurance puzzle that could save your assets.
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How do you begin to save for your children to go to college? With the rising costs of college education, is it worth the monetary commitment?
Including tuition & fees, room & board, books & supplies, etc. the average cost of college is anywhere from $27,000 for an in-state public school up to $80,000–$90,000 a year for an Ivy League School.
How you pay for your student’s college is one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make. In this episode, we cover the three phases of saving for college and what you need to pay attention to in each phase.
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Some problems are easily solved with a bit of reasoning, logic, or by using a bit of math. Other problems go beyond quantitative thinking.
The most thought-provoking issues aren’t numbers-based. Many decisions surrounding retirement require much deeper consideration and often cause you to reevaluate your thinking of what you had originally imagined retirement to be.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to identify “wild problems” people face when retiring and develop a framework for working through them.
What if you had a magic app that told you how much of your net worth you never got to spend at the end of your retirement?
The trouble with planning for retirement is all the uncertainty, however, proper planning can help. In this episode, Cameron Hendricks joins me to discuss how you can learn to spend more in retirement.
Have you considered how your instincts influence your decision-making around retirement planning?
Our natural instincts and biases create frameworks that lead our perspectives on how we think the world works.
These frameworks influence our decisions surrounding our financial decisions.
On this episode of Financial Symmetry, we discuss how to build prosperity by analyzinging and identifying your perspective. Listen in to learn 10 instincts identified by the book Factfulness and what you can do to combat the biases they lead to.
Today we’re diving in to a specific path that many retirees consider as they move away from the “corporate” world and enter their second act – which is starting a business.
With increased life expectancy, cost of living increases and a desire for continued fulfillment, many retirees are excited to begin a new experiment in an area they are passionate about.
Some surveys show the proportion of people starting businesses at ages 55 to 65 has increased in recent years and, at one point, even surpassed the typical entrepreneur age group of 25- to 35-year-olds.
So today we’re speaking to those currently operating sole proprietorships and single-member LLCs OR those considering starting their own business. We’re going to shine the light on the S Corp business type and provide some details on why this could be an opportunity to explore.
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Now that you have made it through the retirement danger zone, you have made it to the Arrivement phase of retirement. You may be wondering, what are my next steps?
This season can be full of opportunities and connection with those you care about. At this point in your life journey, you may face some difficult decisions around relocating or how best to spend or give the wealth you've worked hard to accumulate.
Listen in to hear about the financial and tax moves that we see most commonly used during the middle years of your retirement.
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Have you thought about retiring abroad?
Oftentimes when we think of retirement, we think about sunny beaches with crystalline water shimmering in the sunshine. Could this or some other idyllic vision be your future?
The realities of retiring abroad can be exciting, but at the same time overwhelming. Complex financial strategies need to be considered before grabbing your passport and setting off for the unknown.
In this episode, we discuss seven crucial financial considerations that you’ll need to keep in mind if you are interested in retiring abroad.
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If you are retiring soon, you've most likely wondered if your asset allocation is too risky.
Some have called the period just before and after retirement the Retirement danger zone as it's a time where understanding how you should be invested matters for your long-term financial success.
After years of great returns in tech and large cap US stocks, many retirees could have bigger risks present in their allocations than they realize.
In today's episode, you'll learn why sequence of return risk has been called the retirement danger zone and how to prepare for it within the context of your retirement plan rather than by planning by generalized rules of thumb.
Retirement can hit us with numerous curveballs. One of those could happen right out of the gate–being forced with an early retirement.
We all know that layoffs are part of the corporate landscape. While they are commonplace, when you are faced with one later in your career it can cause you to reevaluate your financial situation.
In this episode, we discuss your options if you are laid off and how they fit in with your financial plan, your tax plan, and your 401K.
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While most of our listeners are in or on the cusp of retirement, many have loved ones who are earlier in their careers. Often we get questions on how our listeners and clients can help their younger family members make better financial decisions.
As we celebrate International Women's Day with this episode, you’ll meet our newest CFP, Niamh Douglas. Niamh and Allison discuss some tools and strategies to help young people who are just starting out get off on the right financial foot.
Many investors have been tempted to invest more, if not all, of their portfolios in the S&P 500 given the incredible run it’s had over the last decade.
But today we are talking through five reasons why you should consider not making a concentrated investment only in the S&P 500.
Don't let recency bias rule your decision-making on the road to your ideal retirement.
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🎯 Article - A Few Thoughts on Spending Money
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One of the biggest financial disasters that people can experience in retirement is divorce. On this episode of Financial Symmetry, Grace Kvantas chats with licensed marriage and family therapist, Lesli Doares.
Lesli shares warning signs to look out for, misconceptions about keeping finances separate, and why couples should seek marriage counseling in retirement. Your marriage affects every aspect of your life. Listen in to learn how you can improve it.
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🎯 Article - Many Happy Returns by David Booth
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