Investing in our friends, family, and community is a natural behavior. Sacrificing our time, money and effort to benefit others is altruistic, helping us feel that we provide real value in the world. But for all that you spend to help others, how much do you spend on investing in yourself? 

Investing in yourself is more than setting up a retirement account or buying a home. Rather than planning for the future, self-investment is most often directed toward the present. It manifests in several ways, such as:

The world of family trusts is not just for the fabulously wealthy, the aristocrats, or the savviest of investors. Most do not know what a family trust is, and fewer still ask whether they need one. 

We will cover some of the basics of trusts to help shed some light on a topic that so many people could benefit from.

As you begin estate planning, you will face difficult choices, further complicated by the current pandemic. However, it’s essential that you have a plan in place to protect your loved ones financially. There are many different ways you can do so. 

Today, we’re going to discuss two of them. Wills and trusts are both estate planning tools, meaning they help you control who inherits your assets after you pass away. The similarities between the two end there, though.

When it comes to estate planning, having a comprehensive and well-planned will is essential. Without this crucial document, your loved ones could face various legal and financial challenges once you’re gone. 

However, while a will is vital, not everyone knows what to include. Fortunately, we’re here to help. Here are the top four things you should have in your will. 

For many workers, the benefits package a company offers is almost as important as the salary that goes along with it. One of the benefits that workers are most interested in is the retirement plan. People want to know that they are going to be okay after they stop working, and in most cases, they are relying on their employer to help make that a reality when it comes to saving. 

Many companies offer retirement plans such as a 401(k). However, these plans can come with bureaucratic red tape and regulatory loopholes to jump through – which can make them more difficult to implement. Because of these difficulties, some companies choose to opt out of plans like 401(k)s altogether.

Planning for retirement brings forth many questions. Which type of account is best? How much should I be saving? 

Everyone’s unique situation brings a different answer. However, the more you know about planning for retirement, the better off you will be in the future. 

Most Americans are familiar with health insurance. We pay a premium to receive access to a health network. While some receive health insurance as a benefit from their employers, others must seek coverage on their own. 

The quality and type of health insurance often correlates with monthly premium. Higher quality insurance costs more than basic programs. However, other factors such as the policyholder’s individual health status affects the price of health insurance as well.

The idea of using life insurance as a retirement plan may seem, at best, counterintuitive. At worst, it sounds vaguely fraudulent if you’re not familiar with the intricacies of the life insurance industry. As far as most people are concerned, life insurance is there to support your family after you pass away, not to help you after you retire.  

What if you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s policy? Could you use the death benefit you receive for retirement then? Hypothetically, yes.

We all love our retirement accounts. Saving for the future gives us something to look forward to and reminds us how our hard work will pay off down the road. 

A 401(k) is one of the most popular and common types of retirement plans we have access to today.. By diverting money from our paycheck into our 401(k), the goal is to save enough so that by the time we retire, we can live comfortably without a change in lifestyle.

If you are considering starting or investing in a new business, you may have seen some information on a limited liability company (LLC) and a limited liability partnership (LLP). When you first look at the two business structures, they look very similar, but there are some key differences between an LLC and an LLP. 

To hopefully decrease confusion, we’ll start with defining what they are and then dive into what makes them different.

You Need a Budget, sometimes also called YNAB (pronounced why-nab), is a budgeting software. While it has been around since 2004, it first began receiving significant media exposure when it was voted the top personal finance application by Lifehacker in 2011. 

Over the past 16 years, You Need a Budget has become more than a budgeting program—for many of its hundreds of thousands of users, it has turned into a lifestyle. 

Whenever tax season comes along, it seems like everyone’s finances get a little hectic. Many of the employed expect some sort of tax rebate due to write offs and other credits. On the flip side, a lot of self employed workers have to pay their taxes in full at this time if they haven’t been paying quarterly (which I’d recommend). 

Handling your taxes can be tricky, and more so for the self employed and contract workers. Since employees who are taxed regularly from their payroll checks handle their taxes differently than those who do not see regular deductions from their paychecks, each group has a different tax form: The 1099 and the W-2.

Saving for your retirement is one of the most important financial hurdles you will be faced with. While there are a number of options including IRAs, chances are you’re most familiar with the 401(k). 

401(k) accounts are one of the most popular retirement plans offered by employers for their employees. Made up of a variety of investments, 401(k)s allow for increasing one’s savings and making your money work for you. 

As you transition into retirement, one of the most pressing issues to consider is applying for Social Security. Although these monthly payments probably aren’t your entire income source, they can be a vital part of your retirement budget. 

If you’re married when applying for Social Security, your spouse may also be entitled to benefits, even if he or she is not at retirement age. However, while this process is relatively straightforward for current married couples, what if you’re on a second marriage? 

No matter who you are, investing is always a smart move. Whether you’re saving for retirement or trying to grow your personal wealth, you need to take advantage of investment opportunities. However, while your money can grow tax-deferred, what happens when you withdraw it? 

In most cases, you will have to pay taxes on capital gains in your taxable (non-retirement) accounts. Fortunately, if you wait until the right moment, you can reduce your tax burden. In some cases, you might be able to save thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. 

This post was last updated on 31 December, 2024, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

Planning for your retirement is the key to fully enjoying the fruits of your labor. Whether you have an IRA (individual retirement account), a 401(k) or other retirement account, you'll want to get the most out of it by maximizing your contributions. Understanding the contribution limits put in place by the IRS will help you maximize your savings.

This post was last updated on December 31, 2024, to reflect all updated information and best serve your needs.

Make the most of your retirement planning in 2025! No matter how much time between now and these deadlines, mark your calendar so you don't miss anything. Now is the time to prepare for retirement account contributions (or withdrawals). 

There’s no easy way to say it: getting a divorce is terrible. Not only is there the emotional toll that you have to deal with; a divorce also brings with it a measure of financial stress as well. Instead of living on multiple incomes and sharing expenses, you are now forced to make – and pay for – everything on your own, making all financial decisions along the way. 

This burden doesn’t get any easier as you approach your retirement years either. A reduced income can make it harder for a single individual to live and thrive during what are supposed to be the golden years of life. Thankfully, there are programs out there that can provide some measure of help, and Social Security is one of them. 

For the recently widowed, there are many painful questions that have to be answered. Unfortunately, many of those questions are about money. When you should be focusing on family and saying goodbye, you instead have to deal with questions about loss of income and the decisions that need to be made. 

For widows and widowers approaching retirement, many of the money-related questions have to deal with Social Security. Because a spouse has spent his or her entire life working and paying into the system, it doesn’t seem right for it all to go to waste. Shouldn’t the widow be entitled to the Social Security benefits of the deceased?

For married couples, filing for Social Security comes with several options. Depending on the situation of the couple, there are different strategies that couples can employ to maximize their life-time benefits. We’ll cover each of these in more detail below but, for now, here is a brief overview to get you started. 

First, for couples that have a long life expectancy, the best strategy is to wait as long as possible before filing. Because waiting to file (up until age 70) increases the monthly size of your Social Security payments, a couple that expects to live a long time can earn more over the course of their retirement by waiting to file.