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One of the most costly living expenses for many Americans is health care. In some cases, your employer may pay for all or a portion of your insurance costs, but what if your circumstances are different?

If I could only contribute to one retirement account for the rest of my working career, it would be a Roth IRA or Roth 401k. Although there are many benefits to a Roth IRA, there are three benefits that I find to be most intriguing. On top of the benefits I lay out below, you will be pleased to hear that in recent years employers have made the Roth 401k more accessible and the contribution limit on Roth IRAs has increased!

Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) is an investment practice that filters out companies engaged in activities that conflict with biblical values. There are several different organizations that define various activities which do not represent Christian values.

The SECURE ACT was enacted on January 1, 2020. While it has been a few years since the act was passed, the effect of the largest retirement reform since 2006 is still being felt today. One of the major changes was the implementation of new required minimum distribution (commonly known as RMD) rules for Inherited IRAs. I like to call this the death of the Stretch IRA. First, let’s establish that an inherited IRA is when a loved one or family member dies with money left in their IRA, 401K, or even 403B, and you are named as a beneficiary. The funds are passed on to you through a vehicle called an Inherited IRA.

In 2019, I wrote the article you see below. At the time, I was extremely excited about the prospect of ETFs beginning to trade at zero cost, and frankly, I still am. Free trading of ETFs (and stocks in many cases) is a huge advancement for investors and gives us, as your financial advisor, additional tools to manage your portfolio. Below is a quick refresher on the history of ETFs, which explains what happened in 2019 and why I was excited about it. I have added additional commentary to the original article in italics.

You have probably witnessed a tweet or some financial ‘expert’ on TikTok pose the question, “Would you rather have a million dollars today or a penny doubled every day for 30 days?” The purpose of this question is that today many people are inclined towards instant gratification due to one-day amazon prime shipping, subscription services, and on-demand entertainment. Not only is the $1,000,000 gift today significant, but if I don’t have to wait 30 days, sign me up! Heck, maybe I’ll even invest it. Obviously, this hypothetical exercise is meant to make you think it through. Why bother asking the question if the answer is so obvious?

Cash is truly a horrible investment. I’m not talking about folding paper; I'm talking about savings accounts, money markets, and short-term CDs. In the same breath that I say cash is trash, I could also say cash is king. Cash is king as it is the single most important financial planning tool.

Anyone can seem like a good financial advisor when markets are doing well. The expectation investors have when investing in capital markets is to make money, so when expectations are easy to meet, the bar tends to be set pretty low. However, it’s downturns in the markets that separate great financial advisors from mediocre ones. It’s times like these when people may wonder what their financial advisor is doing during this bear market.