Tax Savings on Series EE and I-Bonds for College Funding


In recent months there has been increased interest in US Treasury savings bonds, particularly I-Bonds, because of the higher interest rates resulting from the recent spike in inflation.  Investors who are pursuing these bond should ask the question, “what is the plan when they mature, or if you want to redeem them?”  If Inflation ends…

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Maximizing the Return on your Savings


After nearly a decade of near zero interest rates, 2022 was a year in which the Federal Reserve aggressively reversed course and increased interest rates multiple times.  The aggressive moves by the Fed had a major impact across the financial markets.  One of the few positives for 2022 was the increase in return that good…

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SECURE ACT 2.0


In this holiday season, the government has given savers in retirement plans a gift in the form of enhancements to the SECURE ACT of 2019.   The original SECURE ACT (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act) increased the Required Minimum Distribution age to 72 among other changes for retirement savers.  This time, they added…

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ESG Investing: Is it Impactful or Reliable?


ESG investing has been widely discussed in recent years, and many financial institutions have raced to roll out investment products that are designed to support the ESG agenda.    ESG stands for Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance.   While that is what the acronym stands for, what does it actually mean in reality?   In fact, there is…

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2023 Tax & Retirement Plans Update


Every year or two since 2001, there are annual increases to IRA contributions that are adjusted due to inflation.  However, IRA contributions are not the only thing that is adjusted for inflation.  Many components in the tax code are adjusted that can impact various aspects of retirement planning. Some of the important new limits and…

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What Does a Recession Mean for Investors?


In recent weeks we’ve heard more and more talk of the U.S. entering into a recession.  As expected, many investors are concerned about the implications of a recession on their investment portfolio.   In order to understand what might happen in the future, it’s helpful to look at what has happened in past recessions. Recessions happen…

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I-Bonds: What Are They, And Do They Make Sense?


Considering the recent high inflation environment where the March 2022 CPI figure was 8.5%, and in 2021 the average inflation was 4.7%, savers have rightfully so been looking for a safe place to put their money where its purchasing power doesn’t get eroded from the effects of inflation.   To make matters worse, savings rates on…

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Losing Money Safely: The Risks of Being Too Conservative


Market volatility is something that can cause investors a great deal of stress.  Losing money is something that nobody enjoys.  Yet we all enjoy making money when assets prices rise.   Paul Newman’s character “Fast Eddie Felson” in the 1961 film “The Hustler” reprised in the 1986 film “The Color of Money” once said that “Money…

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Value vs Growth Investing: Is the Trend Changing?


Reversion to the mean is a phrase often used in investing.  It is the statistical phenomenon stating that the greater the deviation of a random variant from its mean, the greater the probability that the next measured variate will deviate less far from its mean.   In other words, an extreme event is likely to be…

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Military Conflicts: What is the Impact on the Market?


We often say that financial markets are the equivalent to a massive financial ecosystem in which no one event or action tells the entire story.   However, there are often singular events that can have a more substantial impact on the behavior and price action across the markets.  Sometimes these are positive events, and sometimes negative.  …

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