Author Archives: Megan Russell

We highly recommend a Donor Advised Fund for generous investors.

The shortest answer is yes, you can. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Here are the most common reasons that your plan might need to be updated or revised and what to do about them.

Regardless of the reason, if you have put too much money in your Roth IRA, the solution is the same.

Even over the income threshold, you may still be able to add funds to your Roth IRA with what is called a backdoor Roth.

You’ve opened your HSA and funded it for several years. When should you stop funding it?

If you prefer to keep your down payment money invested in the markets for longer, there are two alternatives.

Here are some rules for handling your digital security.

Which account you should fund depends on your circumstances, but here are some general guidelines you can follow to make your decision.

Umbrella insurance covers you for liability that goes above and beyond your auto and homeowners insurance.

Virginia taxpayers can give generously and offset the cost of those gifts through tax credits and the avoidance of capital gains taxes.

Most tax professionals don’t think of such tax planning opportunities, because they have to focus on complying with tax accounting regulations.

We have 1,292 posts on Marotta on Money, but here are the 10 most visited posts on our blog.

For those of us who don’t like playing the lottery, does the lottery have anything to offer us?

Sometimes, there isn’t enough to do it all. Even then, fund your Roth.

The average married couple has dreams of multiple children, annual vacations, and homeownership, but planning for these expenses can be challenging.

You might think that you can’t qualify, but many well-paid families are eligible.

For those who do not want to be investors, a fast-track repayment may be best. But for those willing to save and invest, there is a better option.

Careful tax planning can avoid much of the capital gains tax.

After automating your entire investment plan, you can save and invest without even having to watch.

Your investment strategy is critically important but the implementation requires wise fund selection.

As with many financial decisions, our gut feelings deceive us on this matter.

The process of defining your sectors is an attempt to identify the quintessential features of your strategy and formalize your selection criteria.

It is good to take the two categories which are most similar and use them as underlying sector divisions within the same larger asset class.

The value of not running out of money when making withdrawals cannot be measured.

David John Marotta and Megan Russell were interviewed on the radio discussing ways recent graduates can make themselves more attractive to employers in today’s tough job market.

Portfolio design and rebalancing is both a science and an art. Knowing that rebalancing boosts returns is useless unless you as the investor follow through.

The list of jobs for a History major seems quite short: Historian and Historic Preservation come quickly, then maybe Politics, if you think particularly hard about it.

Rebalancing can both boost returns and lower volatility, but most investors do not understanding how.

This is a complete list of the budgets and purposes of the federal agencies that begin with the letter A.

The cost of commission-based advisors are so hidden that you may be paying more than you realize.

A computer algorithm cannot help you with these things.

See our review of the two pros and nine cons of how Schwab monitors and rebalances portfolios.

It is a great marketing campaign, and the service is a wonderful idea, but the asset allocations of SIPs aren’t actually that intelligent.

You cannot help a company by buying its stock.

From the blind eye of the law, this seems like a violation of SEC regulation.

“They find whatever is different and peck it to death.”

The domestic spying of the executive branch deserves our outrage. Efforts like “Citizenfour” that keep the issue in the public eye deserve our support.

The new holiday cliché is to complain about hyper-materialism, but gifts and gift giving help shape our identities.

Obama evidently believes that politicians are elected to make a difference in the lives of Americans. The problem is that no one can opt out of a federal impact.

The loudest tend to drown out competitors regardless of whose reasoning is better.

It is often said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. The IRS takes that truism to heart.

It is a simple thought experiment. Would you rather invest in South Korea or in North Korea?

Regardless of income level, overspending causes poverty.

Here is one of the most brilliant breakthroughs in all of food science and how it relates to almost every aspect of life.

A mob boss exercises absolute control over his many followers and profits from the often criminal activities of his organization.

It is illegal to sell contacts in the United States without requiring a prescription. A Federal Trade Commission regulation provides penalties of up to $11,000 per violation.

These noble-sounding goals intuitively appear useful, but the federal government has only two ways to encourage change and neither of them helps in this case.

Stop borrowing from your future self. Each day you fail to save is another day where you tighten the ball and chain around your ankle. You deserve better than that.

Unfortunately, Obama’s good intentions are thwarted by the economic principle formulated by banker Charles Goodhart.