When you think of a Roth IRA, you aren’t usually picturing a child as the owner. But, when you dig deeper, a Roth really is an ideal savings vehicle because they have more than a half-century to watch their contributions grow tax-free. Plus, there is a great deal of flexibility allowing you to withdraw your contributions at any time without tax or penalties (*subject to certain withdrawal guidelines noted below).
Whether you have heard the phrase lifestyle creep or not, the odds are good that you have experienced it either first-hand or indirectly. Another word for it is lifestyle inflation. As you make more money, your apartment or house gets a little bigger, your furniture gets nicer, and dining out becomes more frequent. Then you meet someone special and your family grows from one person to two and then comes baby and…another baby and so on and so forth. The house needs to accommodate more people, the cars need to be safer and nicer and larger.
Recently, as Impact Investing has gained more attention in the investment world, we have received a number of questions from clients and prospective clients about what it is, whether it is a viable strategy, how it can be implemented into an existing investment strategy and whether we currently offer impact investing strategies to our clients. Given the frequency of these questions, we wanted to share this article to shed some light on the subject.
It should be made clear that we do not currently have a specific strategy dedicated to impact investing and it is not commonly a mitigating factor in the manner in which we make our investment decisions as a fiduciary to our clients. If in the future, there comes a demand for such a strategy, then we will consider incorporating impact investing and the values behind it into our portfolios.
Like the horizon line, retirement was always in view but seemingly far away. Now, that endpoint may be looking a lot closer and more real. Retirement is moving from a someday category to an in less than a decade category and you may find yourself panicking. For years you dutifully looked over your employer match paperwork, checked your savings balances, and maybe even had a financial advisor to help you out. But now the finish line is in sight and you may worry that you are not where you need to be. In this article, we will go over some checklist items to look over to get you on track and restore that peace of mind.