Have you spent any time envisioning what your retirement will look like? I have. Here’s our ideal plan. My husband retires from his company when our youngest heads off to college. Then we sell our home and move to the mountains. “The mountain home I don’t have,” as I call it, will be smaller than our current home, very energy … Read More
Total Compensation: Understanding Benefits Packages in Your Job
At this time of year, you probably receive your benefits package from your employer. As you evaluate them, don’t overlook their value as you consider your overall compensation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, benefits accounted for around 32% of employer costs of compensation in 2019, with salary making up the other 68%. Put another way, the total compensation … Read More
Should You Pay Down Debt or Save for Retirement
Pay down debt or save for retirement? Many of my clients have a lot of competing priorities, and the most common one is whether to pay down debt, or save for retirement. It’s probably a question we have all asked ourselves at one time or another. While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, there are certainly some pros and cons to both … Read More
Making Sense of Annuities…and Beer
Just I If you have been outside any this summer, you know that the weather is oppressive. It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. That was the thing we forgot about on our last camping trip. Instead of heading to the mountains where it’s always cooler, we headed to the piedmont on the hottest, most humid weekend of the summer … Read More
Investing 101: 5 Things You Should Know to Understand Your Investments
Whether you are investing for the very first time or you want to analyze the vitality of an existing portfolio, you will need to understand a few basic principles. After all, investing can be scary, and going into it blind or making your decisions based off of a hunch could lead to disaster. So, what should every investor know before … Read More
The Secrets to Saving for College
Whether you’re raising one, two, or more kids, having children adds another layer to your financial plan. You need to account for another mouth to house and feed, but on top of that, you need to plan ahead for their education. Unfortunately, today’s college funding landscape is far from inviting. For the class of 2018, nearly 70% of college graduates … Read More
4 Signs You Shouldn’t Do Your Own Tax Return
Few people enjoy doing paperwork, least of all their taxes. And yet doing your taxes is a must every year. If only they got easier with time! But since our income, filing status, and life circumstances are all apt to change, our tax filings rarely remain the same. That’s not even taking the tax code into account. Lawmakers are constantly … Read More
How to Navigate Your Financial Journey
One of my most memorable family vacations to date is a 17-day road trip winding through the northeast states in 2018. We hauled our trailer from South Carolina, through West Virginia to New York, across to Vermont and over to Maine, then through Pennsylvania and back home again. We made plenty of stops along the way—sometimes planned, sometimes spontaneous. But … Read More
How to Manage if Your Finances Are More Trick than Treat
As a child, I always loved Halloween. The idea of getting dressed up and trick or treating for candy at the local recreation center was something I looked forward to every year. Even now, I still get excited about the thrill of a good mystery or scary story during a windy fall evening that captures the spookiness of the season. … Read More
The Tools in Your Swiss Army Knife Retirement Plan
As Boy Scouts, my kids love their Swiss Army knives. They use them for everything and always take them camping. These all-purpose tools have a knife, file, screwdriver, scissors, tweezers, bottle opener, and more. As you are planning for retirement, you may find you have a Swiss Army knife full of accounts, each with different functions. They all hold a … Read More