By Amanda L. Herrick Smith, CFP® Have the holidays ever snuck up on you and you realized your bank account just cannot sustain the impact of gift giving? Up goes the credit card balances and in comes the final squeeze of the cash flow! Year after year I continued to see this ongoing pattern [...]
Written by: Kelly M. Lewis, CFP®, JD, LLM Yes, I used the word “post-pandemic” even though the pandemic is not over yet. While about 30% of the United States population is fully vaccinated and mask mandates and social distancing seem to be disappearing, we are all still being cautious. What I wanted to talk about [...]
Written by: Amanda L. Herrick Smith, CFP® As we go into spring and the flowers begin to bloom and we have a bit more warmth and sunshine, the housing market begins to take hold in upstate New York. Being a homeowner was something that was very important to me at a young age. I grew [...]
Written by: Elizabeth K.B. DiPietrantonio, J.D. The pandemic has changed absolutely everything. Including the way we hold meetings, the way we work, live, communicate, travel, educate children and even for many the way we get married. A lot of people have cast aside the lavish celebrations for simple intimate gatherings, others wait -deposits on hold, [...]
Written by: Kelly M. Lewis, CFP®, JD, LLM Did you ever read that article about a couple who almost cancelled their wedding because the future husband secretly spent over $5,000 (from his own savings) on surgery for his dog, and the future bride was furious because that meant she was going to have to downsize [...]
By Jason D. Nickerson, CFP®, EA I don’t know about you, but with being “locked-in” during the pandemic, I had more time for things. What things? Well, I am not much of a TV watcher, mainly because I often regret the time I spent and start thinking of all the other things I could [...]
By Sarah E.J. Collier, JD Do you plan on owing Uncle Sam this 2020 tax year? How do you plan on paying? By check? If so, you may want to reconsider your options for this year. In past years it has been very typical for taxpayers to have their Federal (and State) refunds direct [...]
By Brandi B. Graham, CFP®, CTFA Fraudulent Unemployment Claims Criminals are taking advantage of the pandemic and have found new ways to steal from you. Beware of fraudulent unemployment claims. With the added incentive of $600 per week last summer and now $300 per week for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation assistance, fraudulent unemployment [...]
By: Sarah E. J. Collier, J.D. Due to the CARES Act, qualifying federal student loans are being placed in an administrative forbearance with a 0% interest rate. This was put into effect March 13, 2020, and has recently been extended through September 30, 2021. This means that during this time period, there are no [...]
By Todd Brost, CFP® History of the Roth IRA? It is named after the late U.S. Senator William V. Roth Jr., who was a WWII veteran, a lawyer, and the legislation’s sponsor. It was created by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Contributions to Roth IRAs grew from $8.6 billion in 1998, to $605 [...]
