Tag: Financial Advice
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Bonds Are Back
Bonds have not been a thing for a minute now. They have been boring for my entire financial career, offering negligible returns. A quick Google search for “bonds” will bring results for James and Barry, not the $46 trillion fixed-income market. When bringing up bonds in meetings with clients and prospects the past few months…
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Best Short-Term Investments Right Now
It’s no secret that the Federal Reserve has rapidly increased interest rates in 2022. While those rapid increases have killed investor sentiment in the stock market, they have made short-term investments appealing again. Short-term investments can vary significantly in length, quality, and restrictions, and this guide will help you sort through them. What are short-term…
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26 Ways to Use Your FSA
What is a flexible spending account, or FSA? As the year winds down and open enrollment begins, it’s a great time to look at your flexible spending account. FSA stands for flexible spending account. It allows you to use pre-tax money (saving you on taxable income) for healthcare. You choose the amount you wish to…
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Financial Planning and Advice for Millennials
Building wealth in your 20s and 30s looks different. The traditional financial service industry targets the retirement market, as that is typically the height of wealth for most families. Financial advisors usually attempt to get their investments and charge a percentage or sell annuities that generate commission-based and ongoing fees. Either way, financial services focus…
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Emergency Fun(d)
What is an emergency fund? An emergency fund is a reserve of savings used expressly for unplanned expenses or financial distress. Whether medical bills or a car repair, an emergency fund is a cushion that absorbs those unexpected expenses. Ideally, an emergency fund will keep you from raiding your retirement savings or, worse, taking on…
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Why You Should Use an Independent Financial Advisor
There are a lot of financial advisors out there. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the United States has approximately 263,000 personal financial advisors. There are 3,330 St. Louis financial advisors, according to U.S. News. St. Louis has a lot of financial advisors and financial planners for a city of its size. For a St.…
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How Much To Save for College
It’s no secret that college is expensive, and college education costs have only accelerated over the past decade. The staggering cost of college and its acceleration will be a significant challenge for millennial parents to meet. Parents want to know first: “How much do I need to save for college?” How Much Should I Be…
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Beginners Guide to 529 College Savings Plans
A 529 plan is a savings plan is one of the best ways to save for tuition or college expenses. A 529 offers many tax benefits and designates an individual’s tuition and related education expenses. The two main 529 plans are prepaid tuition and more typical college savings plans. Prepaid tuition plans allow the account…
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Technology Sector Continues Selloff as Stock Market Falls
Markets are down significantly to start the year. The most reliable producers of earnings growth have begun to falter. Indexes are experiencing a broad-based sell-off led by big tech companies. Amazon, one of the largest companies in the S&P 500, dropped 14% on Friday to the lowest level since June 2020. Amazon lost $206.2 billion…
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Is It Better to Pay Down Debt or Invest?
One of the most common questions a financial advisor gets is paying off debt vs. investing. More specifically, is it better to pay down debt or invest? Should you delay retirement savings to pay down a mortgage or student loans? Should you pay off debt before starting an emergency fund? The simple answer is that…
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What’s Going on in the Markets?
Markets are off to a pretty rough start this year. The slide started around the end of November. Markets began to run out of steam with the Federal Reserve’s looming policy shift. The S&P 500 is down over 6% from the beginning of November, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq is down over 12%. Some of the…
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A Financial Wellness Guide for Millennials
We often think of wellness in terms of physical or mental health. Paying lots of attention to them, we often spend a lot of time, effort, and money trying to focus on them. To achieve a better quality of life, we focus on our mental and physical health. We rarely talk about money. It’s so…