Our love of Health Savings Accounts continues! Check out our guest post at Good Financial Cents where we cover everything you'd ever want to know about Health Savings Accounts. It's a great piece and one I highly recommend. Check it out here! VIEW FULL ARTICLE
Are you familiar with a Health Savings Account (HSA)? If you’re like most people, you’ve heard the term but you’re probably not sure what it is or if it makes sense for you.
If that’s the case, then it’s your lucky day because we’re going to dig into exactly what a Health Savings Account is and, most importantly, why I absolutely love them. So with that, let’s check out a few statistics that just might surprise you.
When entering the job market out of college, the concept of retirement seems like a lifetime away. Most people can’t even fathom thinking about retirement let alone save for it. And others know the day is coming, but they are relaxed in the notion that it’s too early to even begin thinking about saving for retirement.
Such thinking is certainly misguided. Regardless of the confusing retirement savings types, retirement is a natural part of life. It can be a wonderful experience for many families, especially those who planned early. It’s a new chapter in life, where people get to enjoy the fruits of their labor for the next few decades.
Congratulations! You’ve worked for decades to prepare for retirement and now you’re there, or almost there, ready to start what can be the most enjoyable phase of your life. Very likely, you’ve got plans to travel, see family and friends and maybe even revisit hobbies you’ve neglected for decades.
However, as you are most likely aware, you must also make plans related to your money. Specifically, you want to be sure you have enough retirement income to last you for the rest of your life.
Do you have a 529 plan? Do you work with a financial advisor? Do you have a 529 plan that’s managed directly through your financial advisor?
If you answered yes to the first question, then that’s perfectly fine. If you answered yes to the second question, that’s great as well. However, if you answered yes to the third question, well, that’s where I tend to differ from a lot of financial advisors… and yes, that’s coming from a financial advisor.
Did you know that real estate has produced more wealth than any other industry in the history of time? Retail real estate alone has produced an average annual return of 10.8% over the past two decades, according to data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Index.
However, as with any other business, property investing isn’t without its pitfalls. If not wisely planned, the cost of the property investment can quickly override the profits.
In today’s day and age of the internet, you can find just about anything in no time. Looking for a restaurant nearby? Go to the internet. Need a place to get a haircut? Go to the internet. Looking for background information on a financial advisor? Yep, go to the internet.
It amazes me how we found things before we had the internet. I guess we just asked for referrals from our friends, looked things up in the phone book or drove around until we found out what we were looking for…the indignity.
Have you ever wanted to invest in real estate? Or, maybe you’ve already tried your hand at it once, and it didn’t exactly go the way you were expecting.
I’m not sure what the appeal is to investing in real estate – being a landlord is not for me – but I do get asked the question quite a bit.
As a pet parent, you know how important it is to plan for your four-legged family members in the event that you become incapacitated or pass away. Who will take care of them and where will they go?
Pet Orphans: What Will Happen to Your Pets When You Die?About 65 percent of American households include one or more pets, and if yours is one of them, you know that your pets are family. And like the rest of your family, they deserve for you to make them part of your estate plan.
So, how many different companies have been at in your working career? If you’re like most people today, you’ve probably switched jobs at least a couple times. It seems like some people can switch every six months while others can stay for years.
Regardless, it’s extremely rare to see someone who stays with the same employer for life. Things have certainly changed from the baby boomer generation.
Congratulations, you landed a new job! Hopefully, it’s the job of your dreams or at least a lot better than your previous one.
Now that you’ve said “I do” to your new employer, it’s now time to tackle the financial things to do when changing jobs. Don’t worry, the list isn’t overwhelming (although we certainly understand the stress of moving and changing jobs), but many of these items are time sensitive and could have a major impact if not handled correctly.
Oh the joys of having another birthday. It just means you got another year older… congratulations! You are probably wondering where in the world the last year of your life went if you’re anything like me - getting old can be rough.
I heard a great quote the other day that totally resonated – “The days get longer, but the years get shorter.” So true in my opinion. The older I get, the more time flies. I have no idea why, but that’s definitely how it feels.
Did you set a goal to try and save more money this year? If you’re like most people, this is a recurring goal that continues to rear its ugly head time and time again.
Let’s face it, saving money can be tough. Spending money is much easier and way more fun… hey, I’m a financial advisor, and I’m in total agreement. However, as much as we dread putting some money away for a rainy day – or for whatever reason, we need to do it. Some of us are good at, while others are not so good.
The 401k; our main bucket of retirement plan savings. Like it or not, that’s what we have, and it looks like that’s what we’re going to continue to have for the foreseeable future.
If you’re like most people, you eventually got around to putting money into it at some point – let’s just hope this epiphany of saving for your retirement hit you sooner than it did for a lot of people.
Now that the holidays are over, it’s back to reality. For many – hopefully, not you – it means paying off all the debts you racked up from your extremely generous giving. Let’s just hope you had already budgeted for it and you were merely using your credit card to get the free rewards.
Regardless of whether you have debt or not, sometimes, unknowns pop up in our lives where we need to get access to money. If you don’t have it sitting in a savings account – which I’m sure you do if you’re an avid reader of this blog – you have to find it somewhere.
We were named as one of the top financial advisors in Kansas City by Expertise.com! So cool that I just had to share. Check it out at the link below.
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The New Year is upon us, which means, once again, you get to read my rant on the disdain I have for New Year’s resolutions – sorry if you’re looking for financial planning advice today, as this is my one blog of the year where I veer a bit off topic. So with that glorious intro, ENJOY!
It amazes me that the classic con of joining a gym in January still works today. It’s so baffling. It seems like all I see this time of the year are gym membership commercials and billboards.
Don’t you remember Christmas as a kid? It was awesome! For me, it was like the best day of the year – hey, I was a kid, and I was a fan of getting cool stuff.
I remember barely being able to sleep. I’d always sneak out to see if Santa had come yet, but he never did until I fell asleep and then awoke in the morning – like really early morning. I was always so amazed I missed him. I wasn’t even asleep that long, but somehow he still came, delivered presents and didn’t make a peep – or at least wasn’t loud enough to wake me up.
Let’s be honest, most of us all want something we don’t have at the moment. It could be a new house, a new car, a new job, a vacation, etc. And, while it’s been proven that “experiences” bring more memories than actual physical items, it doesn’t mean we still don’t want them.
Whether it’s wanting a new house, a second house, or a dream vacation, it takes money and time to get there. That means savings on your part. And, let’s face it, we’re not that good at saving money. Most of us specialize in spending money – and we’re quite good at it.
With the record amount of debt in the U.S. today, you would think it’s a just part of being a citizen. As sad as that sounds, it’s true. And, it’s not like our government is setting a great example with the millions of dollars it adds to its books every single day.
But trust me when I say this; going into debt isn’t what the cool kids are doing. Debt sucks. It’s a burden and can do irrefutable damage to not only one’s credit but more importantly, to one’s overall lifestyle.
