How a Stability Allocation Helps During a Bear Market (and What To Do If You Forgot One)
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While the appreciation allocation helps you achieve your financial goals, introducing a stability allocation into your portfolio can prevent your portfolio from running out of money.

Q&A: Do I Need to File Schedule H for My Child’s Wages?
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I do not need to file Schedule H and imagine that most parent household employers also do not need to file this schedule.

CARES Act Creates a $300 Charitable Contribution Deduction for the Standard Deduction
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Congress enabled those who are taking the standard deduction to deduct $300 of charitable giving if they do not itemize.

If You Act Fast, You Can Undo Your 2020 RMD Thanks to the CARES Act
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Among the temporary measures, Congress waived required minimum distribution (RMD) requirements for only tax year 2020.

Funding a 3-Year-Old’s Roth IRA
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My daughter was employed at her first job, earned her first income, and was able to fund her Roth IRA for the first time.

Roth Conversions are More Valuable During Bear Markets
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Convert something today. Convert because the markets are down, or maybe convert just because you likely won’t regret it in 30 years when the markets will likely be up a lot more than they are now.

Bear Markets Look Worse on Schwab.com
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Now that we are in the midst of a bear market, investment returns are down 20% or more and Schwab’s personal value chart makes it look even worse.

Markets are Down? Time to Rebalance!
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During a down market like this one, now is your chance both to harvest capital losses as they occur and rebalance your portfolio.

Radio: Financial Peace in Days of Volatility
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As the stock market trends upward, this dip in market prices can be perceived as stocks being discounted and is likely a great time to buy low.

Five Beneficiary Ideas Other Than Family
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When family inheriting is not an option or you are not all that close with your relatives, sometimes it can be trickier to decide where to leave your estate.

Q&A: Do I Need to Pay Tax on This 1099-R?
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The given numbers on a 1099-R are insufficient to be able to fill out your tax return correctly. Knowledge of what was actually done is required in order to file your taxes accurately.

Q&A: Should I Pull Out of the Stock Market Now?
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The fact that you are worried enough to ask might mean that now is a good chance to take stock in your investment strategy.

Q&A: Who Pays Taxes and Penalties on 529 Distributions and How?
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Who will be responsible to pay for the taxes related to the distribution? Where do you report the taxable portion on your tax return?

Q&A: What is a Diversified Alternative to an Individual Bond Ladder?
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A stability allocation has two purposes: to meet withdrawal needs and to move the portfolio more conservative (less risky) by dampening the volatility of stock returns.

Financial Planning for Success and Significance in Retirement (LIFE007)
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The class will be held March 19 through April 2, 2020 each Thursday from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM at Homewood Suites in the Albemarle Room.

How to Acquire Prepaid Schwab Cashiering Envelopes
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Unfortunately, you must order cashiering envelopes directly from a Schwab agent. Here’s how you do it.

Marotta’s 2020 Gone-Fishing Portfolio Calculators for Schwab, Fidelity, eTrade, and TD Ameritrade
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In 2019, several custodians switched to have no transaction fees for exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

How to Fund Your Roth with Babysitting Money
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For domestic tasks like babysitting there are often two options: independent contractor or household employee. Taking the time to educate yourself on the difference may be worth your while.

Q&A: How Often Do You Communicate with Clients?
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We adapt to the needs of our clients. However, absent other instruction, we do have a few intentions.

Q&A: Can I Do a Backdoor Roth and a Reverse Rollover to a 401(k) In the Same Year?
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This person has an IRA balance, but is about to empty it with a reverse Rollover. So the question is one of timing: can they do the IRA Rollover before the nondeductible contribution so that their cream and coffee never mix?

Radio: Celebrating The 50th Anniversary Of Financial Planning As A Profession
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To celebrate, David John Marotta and Courtney Fraser made guest appearances on a three different radio stations.

Lessons from Medicine: Expense is Harm
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If you weren’t spending your money on useless treatment, you could enrich your life in other ways, retire earlier, or be richer.

#BestOf2019 – Fund Your Child’s Roth with Chore Income
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One of the only articles on the Internet that clearly answers the question Can you fund your Roth with chore income? It’s just an added bonus for its readers that the answer is Yes.

Q&A: How Do You Address Issues Outside Your Area of Expertise?
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We see ourselves as your primary care provider for finances and strive to become experts in every specialty that you need while accompanying you on any referral to another firm we need to make.

Help! I Inherited a Nondeductible Basis!
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If you inherit a traditional IRA from a person who had a basis in the IRA because of nondeductible contributions, that basis remains with the IRA assets as they come into your ownership.

Lessons from Medicine: Reporting Can Lie
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There is an incentive to lie when your methodology is bad.

Q&A: What is Your Client’s Average Portfolio Size and Life Stage?
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We have a large distribution of clients at all portfolio sizes and, surprisingly, have all life stages near equally represented.

#BestOf2019 – How to Do Everything at Schwab
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Four separate Schwab Tutorials made the top ten articles of 2019 with nearly 12K views each. Perhaps one day Schwab will write their own tutorials, but until then, I’m glad we can help so many people.

Q&A: Which Products Do You Buy and Which Do You Avoid?
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The selection of what products we purchase or avoid for clients is based solely on what we believe gives our clients the best chance to meet their goals.

Lessons from Medicine: “Doing Something” Is Often Worse
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Even if all four of these sentimental or pragmatic justifications are true, doing the wrong thing is still worse than doing nothing.

Q&A: Should I Donate QCDs When I Have a Nondeductible Basis?
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Luckily for the charitably-inclined individuals with nondeductible balances, QCDs are excluded from your Form 8606 taxable and nontaxable calculations.

The SECURE Act of 2019 Becomes Law
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The SECURE Act was merged into the 2020 budget bill which is now law.

Q&A: How Does Your Faith Affect Your Investment Philosophy?
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There are several ways that I see my faith influence my work.

How To Spend: Take Care Of Your Things
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The thrift of taking care of your things is a wealthy mindset that pays off every year you don’t need to buy a replacement.

Lessons from Medicine: Compensation Matters
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“It is, of course, hard to get people in any profession to do the right thing when they’re paid to do the wrong thing.”

How To Spend: Learn To Do Without
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The first lesson in learning how to spend is learning how to not.

Financial Planning as a Profession Turns 50 Years Old Today
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Most professions do not know the exact day they were conceived. However, on December 12, 1969, financial planning was created and today in 2019, the profession turns 50 years old.

#TBT Gift Ideas for Minimalists
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This 2018 article details some of our best gift ideas for some of the hardest people to shop for.

How to Spend: Add It To Your Wishlist
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A wishlist is a force of thrift both for you to defer your consumption and for your family and friends to ensure that all the value of their gift makes it to your heart.

Q&A: Can Single Filers Benefit From Roth Conversions?
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There are several ways that a Roth conversion benefits people regardless of their filing or marriage status.

How to Spend: Wait a Week
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When my desires can endure the distance of a week, I buy it.

Save More Even If It Is Less Than You Should
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No matter how small your savings, those small changes have large effects over time.

How To Spend: Take A Photo Instead
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It is easy to find yourself browsing the store when you spot a t-shirt with a phrase that you can hear your friend saying. Avoid making a purchase by taking a picture.

2020 Contribution Limits
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This year was a good year for Roth loving folks like us.

How To Spend: Use Only Just Enough
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Most of our regular use of items is habitual. Developing a mindset that uses less requires changing our habits.

Gift Ideas for Your Grandchildren: 2-Year-Olds
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As the proud mother of a now three-year-old daughter, I thought I’d record some of my and my firstborn’s favorite things from this past year as helpful ideas for gifts from grandparents.

Keeping Your Roth 401(k) Balance Separate During an IRA Rollover
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Having a 401(k) plan with both pre- and post-tax balances is quite common, but mistakes are common as well.

Q&A: Why Not Invest Only in the U.S?
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Diversification among many different countries provides a more consistent return than investing entirely in the United States.

Q&A: Where to Stash Extra Savings?
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“After all this savings, I have about $3,000 per month left to save somewhere. Where should I save it?”

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