Author Archives: Megan Russell

A savings waterfall is a tool to help investors prioritize savings goals and allocate funds appropriately.

We do our best work when we are a lifelong financial advisor to the client.

Sophisticated tax planning can be effective at any age. However, with great complexity comes great opportunity.

Social Security has a number of flaws, to which these static tax brackets can be added.

What does Schwab do when your Donor Advised Fund has insufficient funds for a recurring grant?

To avoid getting issued an IRMAA, you can proactively tell the SSA of any changes your income has seen in the past two years using a “Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount – Life-Changing Event” form.

Did you know David wrote a Christmas novel? This 2020 book by David John Marotta and Brendon Marotta makes you rethink what is happening in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

With the help of Yahoo Finance and a one-cell formula, you barely need to do any work.

The IRS has very limited case law on what constitutes a substantially different fund. However, here is what we do in our own trading.

As the season of holiday shopping approaches, this 2018 article reminds us, “Before you throw your money at various companies, squirrel some savings away for your future self.”

You may be surprised by the amount of subsidies you can receive.

Twelve-month inflation for all items ending in September 2022 has been 8.2%, so it is not surprising that the 2022 contribution limits have seen more increases than normal.

In 2019, the SECURE Act changed how inherited RMD rules work. After many IRS notices, we now aren’t sure how the new rules work.

While it is counterintuitive, the lower the market falls, the safer it is to be invested.

The lower the market falls, the safer it is to be invested.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending September 30, 2022, Developed Freedom Investing had a -0.44% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a -0.34% disadvantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a +0.14% advantage.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending September 30, 2022 our U.S. Stock Strategy had a +4.11% advantage over VTI.

Adding more Stability to an asset allocation isn’t an easy issue. It takes science to know how much bonds you need. It takes artistry to gradually adjust your asset allocation over time. 

Employment contracts have their origins in very old master-servant laws. With no employment contract, you can better protect your child’s freedom and childhood.

My grandfather served in Japan during World War 2. He turns 96 this year.

We recently received the following questions from a prospective client. Here are our answers.

Inflation has at least four grievous effects on our economy. This 2014 article explains them.

You can find out if your child or other employee qualifies by reviewing your 401(k) plan document.

Staying fully invested is an important part of your financial plan. Yet still, there are at least five reasons to hold cash.

With life insurance salesmen, life insurance often becomes the hammer and any client concern a nail.

If you have cost basis information missing in a taxable account, it is important to work with your custodian on correcting the missing information.

In this two-part mini-series, we discuss the two sides of learning how to shop more effectively. This time, we discussed how to buy more value by being aware of where you are spending money.

Because so much of your net worth is in traditional IRA, how quickly you expect to withdraw from your retirement account assets will heavily influence how quickly or slowly the math would advise that you convert.

There are several reasons why you either might not be allowed to contribute the full amount or may accidentally over-contribute to an HSA.

Some investable assets in the name of the child can currently keep $2,300 of unearned income from the tax rate of the parents.

In this two-part mini-series, we discuss the two sides of learning how to shop more effectively. This week, we talk about how to spend less money.

Both are U.S. debt obligations which are adjusted by the Consumer Price Index, but they do so very differently.

Home bias is the tendency of investors to invest a majority of their assets in companies domiciled in their home country.

This is why we say: We have no secret ingredient at Marotta Wealth Management.

In this video, David used examples from our tax planning service to demonstrate what a Roth conversion plan might look like and how systematic Roth conversions can create a higher after-tax net worth in the future.

We advocate for billing traditional IRAs to themselves but billing Roth IRAs to a taxable brokerage account. Here is the math of why.

This post reminds us that there are at least four reasons to rebalance where the benefit can be demonstrated or measured.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending June 30, 2022, Developed Freedom Investing had a -1.19% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +0.46% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a -0.12% disadvantage.

FRDM is interesting, but using our country specific funds plus a low cost Vanguard Emerging Market fund allows us to emphasize freedom for as low a cost as possible.

Rather than trying to time your investments based on one or the other, the advice is simple. Stay the course. Invest. Rebalance.

This common gift to new computer programmers hides a life lesson for us all.

This month, the forward P/E ratios showed considerable variation with many sectors returning to a fairer valuation.

Currently, 12-month inflation is 8.58% and the crowdsourced expected inflation is 2.88%. Here’s what to do.

As always, it is best to confer with a tax professional on matters such as these.

Unfortunately, neither “yes” nor “no” is a correct answer to this question.

Stay the course. Rebalance. Don’t peek.

Juggling domestic responsibilities is a second shift adults are burdened with. I find this analogy helps me to set my expectations and focus more properly.

Walking away from tempting purchases is particularly difficult, especially for those who regularly shop, but by training yourself to slow down in your spending, you can concentrate your dollars towards the purchases that create the most joy.

Inflation is like the rain. You must prepare in advance in order to stay dry.

In this podcast, we discuss the hazard of advertising for your budget and how to not fall prey to marketing tactics.