Keeping Safe in an Unsafe World

You should assume that criminals have your private information – credit card numbers, date of birth, Social Security number, etc.  If they did not already have this data from hacks at Target, Home Depot, Yahoo, and other institutions, they almost assuredly have some of your private information following the Equifax breach.  “But wait,” you say, [...]

What to Do With Your Emergency Reserve?

The Astute Angle tackles a question that we commonly receive in conversations with clients.  The question comes in many forms but often resembles the following:  I have an emergency reserve (or cash stored up for a future home/car/asset purchase) that I want to keep safe but I also want to make a little return on [...]

The Qualified Charitable Distribution Explained

The history of the qualified charitable distribution (QCD) feels a lot like the 'Friends' relationship of Rachel and Ross.  Off.  On.  Off.  On.  Off.  On.  There has been enough disruption in the availability of this tax-saving opportunity that it has been hard to remember if it is on or off.  Good news...it's on.  The brief history goes [...]

The Harsh Realities of Individual Bond Investing

Spend any time working in the kitchen of a restaurant and you will think of restaurants very differently going forward.  Following a short experience in a restaurant kitchen during college, I’ve never once sent a meal back for being undercooked, overcooked, or even the entirely wrong order.  Use your imagination and we can just leave [...]

The Benefits of Leasing a Vehicle…Debunked

There are some can't miss ways to start an argument.  Talk politics in a diverse room.  Attend a Michigan home football game wearing an Ohio State jersey.  Suggest that The Rolling Stones were better than the Doors and that Highlander was the best movie ever made.  Or just decidedly state that buying a vehicle is better than leasing. The [...]

Pregnancy and Voluntary Short-Term Disability Insurance

Everyday investors tend to speculate on stocks based on the often ill-conceived notion that they have unique information or better information than the rest of the investment world.  This perception of ‘asymmetric information’ is often the polar opposite of reality.  In fact, institutional investors have an enormous information advantage over retail investors – one that [...]

Dismissing High Deductible HSA Plans Is a Costly Mistake

This time of year means open enrollment season and that means battling a consistent bevy of confusing acronyms: FSA, HSA, HRA, PPO, HMO, POS, and on.  Reorienting every year to the different meanings, rules, and benefits of these acronyms is akin to relearning the scoring rules of curling every four years.  Most Americans are interested [...]

Cybersecurity: Resources and Advice to Stay Secure Online

Cybercrime will cost approximately $500 billion to the global economy this year and that number is expected to grow to $2 trillion by 2019.  For criminals, the reward is great, the future is bright, and the risks are low.  For consumers, the risks are high and the potential costs of time and dollars are real. As [...]

More Smart Tax Planning with 529 College Savings Plans

In a prior article about saving for college, we outlined some of the many ways to handle overfunded 529 college savings plans and why these underpublicized options justify aggressive funding of 529 plans.  In the opening paragraphs of that article, we explained how the rules treat 529 account funds used for non-qualified expenses: The first [...]

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