Breaking up is hard to do. The unfortunate truth is sometimes relationships just don’t work. This applies to spouses, friends, business associates – and financial advisors. You likely entered the relationship with your financial advisor with high hopes of increasing wealth and creating financial stability. However, clients often begin to realize their own expectations and…
Beyond Your Finances, Education Planning, Estate & Legacy, Market Commentary, Retirement, Taxes
Year-End Financial Checklist Looking at your year-end financial checklist now allows you and your financial advisor time to review and assess the progress made on goals set at the start of the year, while still having time before the end of the year to make adjustments if needed. With this timeline in mind, here are…
Why You REALLY Need a Financial Advisor A financial advisor’s mission is to close the gap between where you are financially and where you’d like to be. Whether you need an advisor or to what extent depends on a variety of factors, including the complexity of your finances, how comfortable you are managing your own…
Fiduciary – it’s a term everyone is using these days. But what is it? What does it mean? Prospective clients say they want a fiduciary advisor, but oftentimes do not fully understand what it means. And about the word “advisors”, we’re throwing the term around every chance we get, almost as frequently as we talk…
Investment Planning, Retirement, Risk Management
Open Enrollment is Here! Is an HSA Right for You? Choosing a health plan to ensure adequate health coverage can be one of the most important decisions made all year. One option becoming more popular is the Health Savings Accounts. A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a tax advantaged account available to any persons with…
Estate & Legacy, Retirement, Taxes
Inherited IRAs – Your Must-Know Basics You’ve inherited an IRA. What happens now? Are you the son, daughter, brother, sister, niece, nephew, friend, that has inherited an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) from someone (basically, anyone but your spouse)? If you answered yes to this question, then you are subject to Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) rules…
As I get used to the new (temporary) normal, working from home each day, I’ve had the morning news shows running in the background and find myself each day stopping my work during the segment where they have a doctor on who is answering write-in questions from viewers. I’m paying attention because in many…
I’ve been officially retired for more than two years. During that time, I have been asked numerous times about when to take Social Security retirement benefits. My general response is that it pays to delay receipt of benefits to age 70. After that, there is no incentive to delay other than potential income taxes.…
Estate & Legacy, Retirement, Taxes
A recent post from Jamie on his WealthAdviceMadeSimple blog regarding the SECURE Act. Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was recently signed into law by President Trump in December and offers a meaningful impact for retirement legislation. A more extensive overview of the law’s provisions can be found here, but for purposes…
Beyond Your Finances, Investment Planning, Retirement
Readers of my previous blog posts know that since I retired more than 18 months ago, I don’t spend much time looking at the values of my investments. There are four main reasons for this. First, I spent more than 30 years watching the markets and client portfolio values on a daily basis. I…
Living a Rewarding Retirement: The Importance of Time It’s minus 3 degrees this morning, with a thick blanket of snow on the ground, and winds are making it feel like 20 below. There is little compelling reason for this retired guy to hustle around and get outdoors, so it’s as good a time as any…
Beyond Your Finances, Retirement
“Some people make more than a career out of their work. They make a difference.” It’s been more than a year since I retired from my position as Portfolio Manager and Chief Compliance Officer with PDS Planning in Columbus, Ohio. One of the many retirement cards I received from clients and colleagues contained…
Beyond Your Finances, Market Commentary, Retirement
I have always had a great respect for educators and how they impact our society. Both my mother and aunt were teachers. I recall as a child how my mother spent countless hours working to get her Masters degree to stay certified while raising three kids. And now, my wife, Abbey, is a teacher. I…
Beyond Your Finances, Retirement
I gained my label as a distance runner in high school running track and cross country. However, I didn’t really get back into running until about six years ago when I ran my first half marathon. Since then, I’ve run two full marathons, eight half marathons, and enough events in the range of 5K-15K…
Beyond Your Finances, Retirement
There have been many changes for me since August 31, 2017. On that day, I officially retired as partner and Chief Compliance Officer of PDS Planning, Inc. in Columbus. Having worked for a total of almost 50 years (five of those while I was in college), there was more than a bit of trepidation as…
