Most young professionals wonder if they need estate documents that deal with their health or belongings when they are unable to do so. In many cases these documents are important because they enable you to decide now how you want your estate to be settled in the case of death or how your health care […]
Here are four tips you can use to determine whether you have sufficient auto insurance coverage. In the grand scheme of things, you want your auto insurance policy to protect your assets in the event you are in an accident with serious bodily injury. This protection, however, should be at the lowest cost possible. The […]
Many young families need term life insurance protection because they now have mortgages to repay, children to support, and college educations to fund. So how do you decide how much coverage you need? This question can be vexing because as you grow older, you are saving more money, paying down your mortgage, and setting aside […]
One of the dreaded costs in buying a new home is the prospect of paying private mortgage insurance. Generally if your down payment is less than 20 percent of the sale price, your lender will require you to get mortgage insurance. A mortgage insurance policy protects the lender in case you default on the payments. […]
I’ve had several clients want to put more money away for retirement but have been discouraged that they can’t buy a Roth IRA because their income exceeds the IRS limits. These are high salary folks who are interested in the benefits of a Roth IRA. As you know, Roth IRA contributions are not tax deductible, […]
Several clients have asked me to help them identify social responsible investing alternatives. They wanted to live their beliefs. I thought there had to be publicly available resources to help screen mutual funds focused on socially responsible investing. I also wanted to make sure that under the guise of social responsibility, my clients didn’t choose […]
It is time to construct a diversified portfolio once you have decided the percentage of your portfolio that will be invested in stocks. But what is the best way to decide which funds to choose among the myriad of stock mutual funds and exchange traded funds available? The approach I outline below can be used […]
On February 24, 2015, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could alter the selection of mutual funds in your employer’s 401k plan for the better. At issue is whether a claim is barred by ERISA’s statute of limitations against an employer plan sponsor that allegedly breached its fiduciary duty of prudence […]
A young couple came to me recently because they received a parental gift of $40,000 and wanted to know how to maximize their college savings. They are DC residents so they were naturally curious about the DC 529 College Savings Plan. If you don’t know already, 529 plans are a great way to save for […]
You may be asking yourself whether there a good way to save for graduate school? You just moved to the Washington DC area and you have a good job that pays pretty well. But you are thinking of going back to school for a graduate degree (or another grad degree – this is DC of […]
