Merino Mindset
Practical Views on Money and Life
The end of the year is the perfect time to take a look at your tax plan and consider if there are any opportunities to decrease what you will owe. Contributing to a Health Savings Account (HSA) is one step that can help you save money and minimize your taxes. The funds roll over year to year, so don’t be afraid to set one up now! Here are some details on HSAs and who qualifies to contribute to one.
Three Advantages of HSAs:
Believe it or not, 2021 is almost over. 2022 is less than 12 weeks away. Time is running out, but luckily there’s still enough to get your financial house in order. One of the main ways you can do this is through proper year-end tax planning. Here are two simple steps that will help you uncover opportunities to minimize your taxes.
America’s getting back to work after the disruption of the pandemic and today’s job market is HOT! Around our office we have lots of clients changing jobs, so we’re spending our days helping them decide what to do with their retirement savings.
Have you accepted a new job and are wondering what to do with your 401(k)? Maybe you’ve worked at the same company for a long time and have built up the bulk of your retirement savings into this plan. No idea what to do? Whether it’s your first time or fifth time deciding what to do with your 401(k), it can feel overwhelming. But don’t worry--I’m here to help!
When you leave an employer you typically have a short list of options, including the following.
As a new parent, I want to give my son the world. Just the other day, my husband and I had a passing conversation about potentially saving to help Jax buy his first home. He's 3 months old, so the math is simple. If we save a few hundred dollars a month for the next 30 years, he will have a pretty nice nest egg before we know it. In working to support your own child’s future, keep non-traditional savings options in mind to go beyond college funding and other basics.
As a financial planner, I know that most parents jump to college funding when they think of saving for their children. That's wonderful, but what if college isn't the path for your child?
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”
– Fred Rogers
Undoubtedly, retirement is a major life event! But now, some people have more than one ‘retirement’, effectively taking a break from work, then feeling their way into a new career. And many of our clients are taking sabbaticals, designated time off work. All of these take planning and a considerable financial cushion. A healthy dose of over planning will help you breathe easy when you are starting a new chapter of your life.
“The only thing certain in life is uncertainty” -Derek Hough
With all the uncertainty in life, it can sometimes feel as though you can’t always plan ahead, but that’s rarely the case. In fact, with your finances you can actually plan ahead in a manner that will allow you to move forward with a goal should you want to in the future. We do this all the time with our clients and find that no one’s ever upset if they’re over prepared financially. It’s definitely better than the alternative.
This post is the first in a series about preparing financially for five BIG life events.
"I made two good decisions. The first was to start working with you in the first place. The second was following you to your new firm." This huge compliment came from one of my favorite clients during a recent client meeting.
When she first signed up, she was to the point where retirement planning was literally keeping her up at night. It was at the top of her middle of the night worries. She felt that she started late not because she didn’t want to prioritize her finances, but because she didn’t know what to do. She was also a bit skeptical and even admitted "I’m not sure why I stayed on the phone with you. I usually hang up when Advisors call me." Years later we’re both glad that she didn’t!
Back to school season looks a little different this year!
Teachers are teaching virtually; kids' classes range from 100% in person to 100% virtual and everything in between. Plus, universities are opening and closing campuses, and we're encountering the nation's first female recession, aka shecession.
I’ll admit that I’ve learned a lot this year. And I’ve only scratched the surface of what I don’t know. I’ve spent a quarter of my life formally studying finance, which says a lot considering that most people receive no formal education in this area. Through college, where I majored in Finance at UW Madison, the years spent taking personal finance classes to earn my CFP®, and most recently my CIMA® certification coursework at The University of Chicago Booth, one topic was never addressed: wealth gaps.
Where were you 10 years ago? I was in my 20s, living on the North Side of Chicago renting an apartment with a roommate, and newly dating my now-husband. I loved my job as a Financial Advisor, but I wouldn’t say things were really clicking and I definitely wasn’t making what I’m worth. My finances weren’t terrible, but they weren’t the best. Despite these setbacks, I was loving life. Being a 20-something in a city like Chicago can be pretty great.
"You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday too, yeah. They say it's your birthday. We're gonna have a good time!" — The Beatles
It’s that time of year again. My Birthday/Merino Wealth’s Second Annual Referral Month. All month long we’ll be celebrating the good work we do, the trust that our clients put in us, and the fact that I’m another year older and wiser.
Just like a lot of you my birthday can lead me to think about the past. I’ve been an advisor for 15 years (crazy, right!?) and I’ve learned a lot of lessons.
Please join the Merino Wealth Team (Jessica Merino, Addie Pesche and Michael Prieve), along with our moderators, Susie Chau and Nicolette de Guia, in watching our What Is Financial Planning Virtual Panel.
Gain clarity about what financial planning is and entails, learn how Merino Wealth can help clients reach their financial goals, as well as how we may be able to help you.
Click the video below to begin watching!
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Last month I presented at Pinterest’s Annual Women Inspire conference in Chicago. I’m excited to say I’ll be paying a visit to their headquarters in San Francisco this month to share even more financial education with the women on the West Coast. One cool thing about Pinterest is that they went public earlier this year. As I thought about what to say in my presentation, I realized that we’d encountered a lot of recent IPO activity.
As of September 27th, 2019, 114 companies have gone public, including Uber, Beyond Meat, Peleton, and Slack, to name a few. This is nearly double the number of companies that went public in 2009.
I started investing in 1994 after my grandparents bought me a share of stock for my 14th birthday. At that time the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was valued at 3,829.73. By the lowest point of the dot.com bubble burst on October 7th, 2002 it was valued at 7,422.84. We lost companies like Pets.com and eToys.com, but by January 1st, 2004 the value was back up to 10,453.92.
My husband and I were married on April 16, 2014, in Los Angeles, California, where same-sex marriage was legal. A little over one year later, on June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to honor out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses.
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