At 65, Does the 5-Year Roth Rule Matter?
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For those over age 59 1/2, you would need to withdraw all funds attributable to basis before your withdrawal would be sourced from Roth IRA earnings and the age of your Roth IRA would matter for taxation.

#BestOf2022 How to Change a 529 Plan Account Owner
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While you may think that the account owner needs to stay the same, you can easily change the account owner.

Q&A: What is Your Strategy’s Expense Ratio? (2022 Analysis)
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You can tell a lot from the expense ratio of an advisor’s preferred funds.

Q&A: Are IRMAAs for Life?
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A reader asks: When you are issued an IRMAA, does the IRMAA stay for one year only or does it stay that way for life?

#BestOf2022 An Updated RMD Calculator
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There are different tables and formulas used to calculate your RMD divisor based on your particular circumstances. This is a calculator for the three most common.

Account Funding Priorities for 2023
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A savings waterfall is a tool to help investors prioritize savings goals and allocate funds appropriately.

Q&A: Can You Do a One-Time Review of My Plan?
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We do our best work when we are a lifelong financial advisor to the client.

Steps to Reduce IRMAA Medicare Premiums
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Sophisticated tax planning can be effective at any age. However, with great complexity comes great opportunity.

Nontaxable Social Security Thresholds Are Not Inflation-Adjusted
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Social Security has a number of flaws, to which these static tax brackets can be added.

Q&A: Recurring Charitable Grant from an Insufficient Donor Advised Fund?
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What does Schwab do when your Donor Advised Fund has insufficient funds for a recurring grant?

How to Avoid an IRMAA Medicare Premium Surcharge 2023
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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.

The Haunting of Bob Cratchit: A Book from David Marotta
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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.

Easily Calculate the Fair Market Value (FMV) of a Security in Excel
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With the help of Yahoo Finance and a one-cell formula, you barely need to do any work.

Q&A: Wash Sale: VFIAX and VOO?
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The IRS has very limited case law on what constitutes a substantially different fund. However, here is what we do in our own trading.

#TBT How Not to Go Broke at Thanksgiving
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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.”

How the Wealthy Can Take Advantage of Health Insurance Subsidies for 2023 Onward
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You may be surprised by the amount of subsidies you can receive.

2023 Contribution Limits
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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.

The IRS Waives 2021 & 2022 Penalties Because Its Unclear How the New Inherited IRA 10-Year Rule Works
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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.

Bear Market Continues Through Third Quarter 2022
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While it is counterintuitive, the lower the market falls, the safer it is to be invested.

Stocks are On Sale (October 2022 Dynamic Tilt)
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The lower the market falls, the safer it is to be invested.

Freedom Investing in Review (September 2022)
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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.

U.S. Investing in Review (Sept 2022)
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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.

The Art and Science of a Bond Allocation (529 Plan Example)
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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. 

Q&A: Do I Need a Contract to Employ My Child?
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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.

Founder’s Day: Celebrating George Marotta (Part 2)
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My grandfather served in Japan during World War 2. He turns 96 this year.

Our Answers to 8 Common Prospective Client Questions
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We recently received the following questions from a prospective client. Here are our answers.

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

Q&A: Can I Hire My Child If I Have a Solo-401(k)?
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You can find out if your child or other employee qualifies by reviewing your 401(k) plan document.

#TBT Five Reasons to Have Some Cash Equivalents
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Staying fully invested is an important part of your financial plan. Yet still, there are at least five reasons to hold cash.

The Pitfall of ‘Buy Term and Invest the Difference’?
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With life insurance salesmen, life insurance often becomes the hammer and any client concern a nail.

What To Do With Missing Cost Basis
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If you have cost basis information missing in a taxable account, it is important to work with your custodian on correcting the missing information.

How to Spend: Buy More (Podcast)
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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.

Q&A: Roth Conversion When Traditional IRA is 90% of Net Worth?
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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.

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

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

How to Spend: Spend Less (Podcast)
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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.

I Bonds vs. TIPS: What is the Difference?
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Both are U.S. debt obligations which are adjusted by the Consumer Price Index, but they do so very differently.

Home Bias or Foreign Bond Funds?
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Home bias is the tendency of investors to invest a majority of their assets in companies domiciled in their home country.

Q&A: Why Do You Have So Many Links In Your Articles?
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This is why we say: We have no secret ingredient at Marotta Wealth Management.

#TBT The Value of Systematic Roth Conversions
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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.

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

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

Freedom Investing in Review (June 2022)
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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.

A Closer Look at Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM)
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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.

No Way To Tell If This Bear Market Is A Bull Yet
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Rather than trying to time your investments based on one or the other, the advice is simple. Stay the course. Invest. Rebalance.

Life Lesson #7: Talk to the Duck
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This common gift to new computer programmers hides a life lesson for us all.

This Month, Here’s How We Tilted (June 2022)
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This month, the forward P/E ratios showed considerable variation with many sectors returning to a fairer valuation.

Current Inflation vs. Expected Inflation (June 2022)
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Currently, 12-month inflation is 8.58% and the crowdsourced expected inflation is 2.88%. Here’s what to do.

States with Tax-Exempt Interest from U.S. Debt Obligations
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As always, it is best to confer with a tax professional on matters such as these.

#TBT Q&A: Can a 529 Reimburse for Last Year’s Expenses?
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Unfortunately, neither “yes” nor “no” is a correct answer to this question.

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