The recent meteoric rise in medical insurance premiums has encouraged us to look for ways to reduce the cost of medical care for our clients and small businesses that we counsel. Insurance companies can now use age as one of the factors to set...
On the most basic level an annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company. You pay the insurance company a lump sum or arrange for a set of payments over time; in return, the insurance company has to make payments to you either...
Clients often ask us if they should pay off their mortgage, home equity, or car loans early. There is certainly no one size fits all answer, but here are some things to consider:...
Severe market moves tend to leave an imprint on our minds. The two most recent examples are the great recession and the 2020 bear market resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These two events are similar in that they featured very steep sell-offs, but they differ...
At long last the IRS has ended the debate over the legality of the “backdoor” Roth IRA. This subject has been widely debated in financial and legal circles for years. The subject was brought up again in December 2017 during the passage of the Tax...
We have certainly seen our share of severe weather here in the lowcountry over the past two years. Adequate insurance and emergency funds are great first lines of defense when the unexpected happens but taking a more comprehensive look at your insurance and savings strategies...
The market tends to maintain a balance between budget deficits and trade deficits. Increasing the budget deficit while reducing the trade deficit disturbs that balance. Rest assured, the market will ultimately trend towards balance once more, but we may not like the results....
The one-year anniversary of the historic 2017 Women’s March made me stop and think about what gender inequalities still exist in America today. One of the most talked about gaps is the gender pay-gap. 83% of women agree that the pay-gap exists, but only 55%...
College costs are out of control. 71% of all college graduates matriculate with student loan debt that averages about $37,000 and easily can be in excess of $100,000 or more. And yet, this doesn’t have to be the case....
The past few weeks have been a wild ride in the stock market. Between 1/26 and 2/8, the S&P 500 fell a little over 10%. In many ways a correction of this size is very normal. What isn’t normal, is the level of calmness in...