Two Major Retirement Income Traps to Avoid
The switch from wealth building in your working years to wealth income in retirement years seems simple. Common advice is to simply shift investments from growth stocks to dividend-paying stocks and buy more bonds. At first glance, this seems simple, but many retirees are discovering hidden …
Everyone Offers Retirement Planning These Days. What’s so Special About Applied Financial Planning’s Approach?
We often compare retirement planning to trying to hit a moving target in the wind. The target is your retirement goals – essentially what you want to spend and accomplish with your finances. The target is moving because you don’t know how long you will live – your retirement could last 5 ye …
How Do I Know Which Investment Strategy Makes the Most Sense for Me?
Our disciplined discovery process is key to understanding the right investment strategy for your specific situation. Once we have the answers from our clients, we begin to think about the second category of factors which involve the overall health of the economy.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Changed Things More Than You Realize
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made a lot of changes. It was the single largest tax reform bill in nearly 30 years. However, the impact of the TCJA might be a lot broader than most realize. Almost every small business owner in the country is impacted by a new tax deduction called 199A.
4 Steps to a Retirement Savings Plan that Goes Beyond your 401(k)
I had first met him and his family a few months back. He’s in his late 60s, but you would never have guessed it – there’s an abundant energy and youth about him. In that initial meeting, he stated that he would never retire.
I Finally Found the ‘Why’ in My Career. You Can, Too.
Published by Grant Nieland, CFPⓇ At some point in all of our working lives, we ask ourselves “Why am I doing this job?” or “Why did I choose this career?” I have asked myself that question at every position I’ve held over the past 10 years and it was hard to find answers. That is, …
3 Steps to Financial Independence: Ready Yourself for Retirement
The most basic goal should be to arrive at “your figure” for financial independence – or as I like to say, that time when I can work because I feel like it and not because I must. The problem is, many people aren’t hitting that goal – or even know how to set that goal.
If It Doesn’t Challenge You, It Won’t Change You . . .
Published by Teresa Milner Have you ever participated in a fitness challenge? The purpose of the challenge is to help you accomplish your fitness goals; i.e., losing weight, increasing muscle mass, etc. The same concept can be applied to money challenges. Money challenges can be used to acc …
Football and Finance: The Secret Sauce to Success
Welcome to fall, almost everyone’s favorite time of the year. School starts up, the colors change, and football at all levels kicks into high gear. Growing up in the Midwest, and having been both a high school and college football coach in the past, I see a very distinct similarity between …
5 Things to Consider When Facing a Life Defining Moment: Unexpected Job Transition
Published by Paul West Life Defining Moments happen to all of us. Sometimes they are positive, joyous things that you want to happen: engagement; marriage; the birth of a child; buying your dream home. Other times, they are things that feel less positive and you wonder why they have to happ …
Spending Habits of Thirty-Somethings: How Do You Measure Up?
No matter how delayed your maturity was or if you were one of the few responsible twenty-year-olds, you can’t deny it; you are now an adult. Measuring up used to be called “Keeping up with the Joneses” and now it is called “social media scrolling.”