How Much Cash Should I Hold?
Most people hold cash in some combination of checking and savings accounts at a bank. The cash in these accounts is used to pay for normal everyday expenses throughout a typical month. However, in addition to holding cash in a checking/savings account to pay for bills, you should also consider having a separate savings account designated as an emergency fund. This emergency fund won’t fluctuate monthly like your checking and savings accounts and the purpose of holding it is to be a buffer against an unforeseen event. Having an emergency […]
Password Management – Best Practices
It seems like everywhere you turn online these days, you are being asked to create an account and subsequent password. Want to buy textbooks for your college student or reference your doctor’s advice from your last visit? Well, set up an account and create a password! Passwords are now needed for everything from retail websites, social media, and e–mail accounts to medical providers and financial institutions. According to the latest research by NordPass, the average person has 100 passwords to remember! Obviously, some of these passwords […]
Dollar-Cost Averaging – What Is It?
Dollar cost averaging has many different names which include constant dollar plan, unit cost averaging, incremental trading, and cost average effect. But they all speak to the same strategy. Simply put, dollar-cost averaging is dividing up the total amount invested across periodic purchases. The act of dollar-cost averaging was first popularized by Benjamin Graham in his classic investing book, The […]
Charitable Giving Strategies To Consider
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 inspired many individuals to be more generous with their charitable giving. According to a recent Giving USA Report released in June, individuals gave an estimated $309.66 billion to charities in 2020. This was a 4.7% increase from 2019 and was the 2nd highest total dollar amount ever recorded. […]
How to Choose a Credit Card
In our last blog, we discussed the benefit of using your credit card vs your debit card. But what credit card should you choose? There are endless varieties of credit cards, and one card may benefit you more than another. If you feel overwhelmed when picking a credit card, you are not alone. What follows […]
Should I Use My Credit Card or Debit Card?
Most of us have our fair share of plastic in our wallets, purses or money clips. We have one or more credit cards issued by organizations such as American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa as well as a debit card, typically issued by your bank. When we go to pay for a purchase, we are […]
What Is The Best 529 Savings Plan For You?
When saving for educational expenses, one of the key decisions you must make is what savings and investment vehicle is best. We have previously written a blog “How Should I Save For College?,” which talks about which vehicle might be best for you. In many cases a 529 savings plan is the best option, but […]
President Biden’s Recent Tax Proposals
A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog discussing potential tax changes that might occur under our new President given his election and Democratic control of the Senate and House of Representatives for at least the next two years. That blog reviewed some of the changes President Biden proposed during his campaign. Since that […]
What Does It Mean To Have A Diversified Portfolio?
There are many misconceptions about diversification and what it means to have a diversified portfolio. One of the questions I get a lot is: “I own XYZ stock. Is it a good time to sell it?”. Usually, my immediate follow up, even before looking into the stock, is how big of a position is the stock in your portfolio […]
Disappearing Pensions Make Investing All The More Vital
It is somewhat hard to grasp today, but the concept of retirement has not been around for very long. Morgan Housel illustrates this well in his most recent book, The Psychology of Money: “The entire concept of being entitled to retirement is, at most, two generations old. Before WWII, most Americans worked until they died. […]