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Let’s Manage Your Tax Bill

July 9, 2020

Here’s something you never hear:  “I love paying taxes!”  They’re an awful chore to do every year, and if you pay a professional to get the dome, that simply adds to the costs.  Very few people even like to think about them.  Still, income taxes are a necessary evil, and we’re stuck with them. That’s why it’s extremely important to give your tax situation some thought during the actual tax year, rather than waiting until the year is over.  That way, you may be able to manage your tax bill so that it’s either lower right now, or potentially over your entire life — or both. The middle of the year may be the perfect time to evaluate where your tax situation stands, because doing so could potentially save you a lot of money at filing time next year.

Managing Your Financial Future

A College Tuition Tax Credit You Probably Didn’t Know About- Season 3: Episode 2

July 7, 2020

If you’ve ever looked at how much it costs to attend college, you’re likely aware that it doesn’t come cheap.  The costs are high, and they seem to go a lot higher every year.  When you add up the tuition, fees, housing, along with other miscellaneous costs, even a “low-cost” local university can send you into years… View Article

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A Long-Term Care Insurance Plan That We Really Like

July 2, 2020

As you may have heard, the costs of long-term care (LTC) keep going up, with no end currently in sight.  And along with those costs of care, the premiums for LTC insurance have also risen tremendously over the past 15 years, just to keep up. Did you know that your long-term care insurance premiums can rise even when you’ve already got a policy in force?  And what if you never even need to use that policy?  In the minds of many, long-term care insurance seems like a potential waste of money. With the uncertainties of costs, and not knowing if you’ll ever need the policy in the first place, planning for what could be a huge expense out of your nest egg is difficult at best.  Nobody wants to have their retirement savings decimated by the cost of long-term care. Yet this is exactly what often happens to people who don’t prepare for those expenses.  Since planning is ultimately about finding potential solutions to problems down the road, we have what we believe may be just the right answer to these LTC issues.

Managing Your Financial Future

Let’s Manage Your Taxes — While There’s Time- Season 3: Episode 1

June 30, 2020

We’ll say it right up front: taxes are NOT fun.  Nobody likes to think about them, much less actually do them every year.  For most, it’s a matter of either turning them over to a professional and letting them deal with it, or trudging through it alone and hope you don’t miss anything important. But while they’re not fun to think about, they’re also a necessary evil. This is why it’s really important to give your tax situation some thought during the actual tax year, when you may be able to do something about them, rather than waiting until it’s too late. The middle of the year may be the perfect time to do some tax evaluation, because doing so could potentially save you some real money when it comes time to file next year. 

Articles

A College Education Credit You May Have Missed

June 25, 2020

ou probably don’t need us (or anyone) telling you that college costs are high, and going higher each year.  When you consider tuition, fees and housing, and add in various supplies and more, even the cheapest local university can cost more each year than a new car.  So what can you do? To be frank, there’s not much anyone can do about these expenses by themselves, so if your child or you have decided to go the college route, you’ll either have to pay them in full, or hope the school administrators give you a break.  But there’s a little-known way that you may be able to recoup some of those costs, thanks to the federal government’s American Opportunity Tax Credit.  

Articles

Keeping Calm During Turbulent Markets

June 19, 2020

Is this a time of crisis?  Many would probably say that it is, especially in terms of public health and the economy.  These days it may seem as if things will never get back to “normal,” whatever normal might be, and that any improvement in our situation is happening much too slowly. Time, of course, has historically been the great healer.  This has been true of just about everything, including the stock market.  We’ve been through times of crisis so often in the past that it’s easy to forget exactly how often we’ve had to overcome difficulty.  With each event in history, though, the markets have reacted with volatility; and so far, they’ve always come back. In this week’s edition of Lucia Capital Group Weekly, “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP discusses these game-changing events in history, and how the markets reacted both during and afterward.  How do you keep calm when everything around you is chaos? 

Articles

5 Key Factors to Consider Before Investing

June 11, 2020

nvesting in the markets is tricky, and often comes with a great deal of risk, especially over the short term. Even when stocks on a solid upswing, as they were for most of the time period between 2009 and 2020, the wrong investment strategy can cause serious damage to your portfolio. But investing is not only about asset allocation, asset location, and P/E ratios: it’s also about you as an individual. Are you prepared to take a loss if you need to sell some assets? Do you have a suitable time frame for investing in order to potentially lessen that risk of loss? What are your goals for the money you want to invest? These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you commit any amount of money to the stock market.  Whether times are good or times are volatile, those issue are important.

Articles

An Up Market in a Down Economy?

June 4, 2020

Just a month or so ago, oil was trading around zero, the quarantine orders were in full effect, and since that time we’ve seen more bankruptcies and stress in the economy — especially with small businesses. Fast forward to today and the market is close to where it all started. Why is that? In this week’s edition of Lucia Capital Group Weekly, Ray Lucia Jr. speaks with Lance Helfert, portfolio manager and Senior Vice President of Lucia Wealth Services, about what’s going on with stocks and the market in general. They also discuss interest rates, and why ignoring the noise and simply focusing on what is actually observable may be one of the biggest keys to successful investing.

Managing Your Financial Future

New (Temporary) RMD Rules Offer Potential Planning Opportunities – Season 2: Episode 12

June 2, 2020

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought with it several changes for people who are facing deadlines, including filing federal and state income taxes. Another big one has to do with Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) for 2020 – and maybe for 2019 as well. When the SECURE Act passed at the end of 2019, it changed the age at which IRA owners must begin taking RMDs, from 70 ½ to age 72. Several weeks later, in response to the pandemic, Congress made changes again to the RMD rules through the CARES Act, allowing for more flexibility and the potential to skip the distribution for 2020.

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Risk Management During Volatile Times

May 29, 2020

One of the most important jobs a money manager has is in the area of risk management.  When markets are going nowhere but up, it would appear to some that it’s okay to make risk management less of a priority and try to shoot for bigger gains.  But this philosophy is flawed on many levels…. View Article

Managing Your Financial Future

A Mortgage Payment Strategy You’ve Never Heard Before- Season 2: Episode 11

May 26, 2020

When taking out a mortgage, people often wonder if it’s better to have a 15-year loan instead of a 30-year loan.  They think of all the interest payments they’ll save by shortening the loan period, and the fact that the home would be owned free and clear in half the time. Of course, they have to be able to afford the higher payments of a 15-year loan, which for some people is a deal-breaker.  But there may be a way for you to take the 30-year loan option and still be free of mortgage payments in 15 years.  On today’s podcast, we talk about a strategy to do exactly that.

Articles

New Rules for Hardship Retirement Plan Distributions

May 21, 2020

The recently-enacted CARES Act introduced us to some new rules regarding qualified retirement plans (like a 401-k) and IRAs. These new rules are actually more like temporary “allowances,” as they provide a window of opportunity that may allow you to take advantage of some penalty-free distributions during the pandemic. What’s new is something called a CRD — COVID-Related Distribution — and it’s important that people who need to access their savings during this time of crisis know how they work. If done properly, they may provide some much-needed relief. And while we don’t always recommend that someone take loans or premature distributions from their retirement plans as their first option, this may be the right thing for certain people to consider.