A Special Edition from Dave’s son, Max and his friends:

Over the past year, we have started and developed a non-profit, Empowering Africa Inc.

Empowering Africa Inc. was started by 4 high school students with the purpose to provide STEM scholarships for underprivileged students in Ghana. In Ghana, the government subsidizes education heavily to make quality education available to all its citizens, but even with subsidies, many brilliant students are still unable to pay for their schooling.

Working alongside the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, we have confirmed our pledge to provide full-tuition scholarships for five students throughout the 2020-21 school year as we have already raised over $3,000!

Our application went live in January of 2020 and has already received hundreds of downloads. We believe that with the help of any donations, we can change the lives of many more students for years to come.

Go to  www.empoweringafricainc.org to donate or for more information!

We are OPEN and meeting with clients!

We are excited to have you in our office! A few things to know if you come to visit:

• To help with social distancing, we have created 2 waiting areas.

• Masks are not required, but if you are more comfortable wearing one, you are welcome to. If you would like us to wear one while you are with us, please just let us know and we are more than happy to put one on.

We're looking forward to seeing you! 

Just When We Thought We Had It Figured Out…

The government has once again gone and changed the rules regarding retirement plan Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), and right at the end of 2019 (by passing The SECURE Act)! So, we will be spending this year reviewing the new rules with those whom it impacts (which is a lot of people), namely:

• Those who turn 70 ½ after January 1, 2020. You now have the option of deferring your RMD until the year in which you turn Age 72.

• Those who plan to leave some of their retirement plan balances to their children or grandchildren. The new law has done away with the “Stretch IRA” provision and now requires that retirement plan balances be distributed within 10 years after the IRA owners date of death. (For years, we have preached the power of deferral related to stretching an IRA through the lives of beneficiaries. With this new adjustment, we now should check in to see if how we have things set up still make sense for the overall estate and tax plan.)

There are several other provisions in the law, including eliminating the restrictions on post-70 ½ contributions to IRAs by those still working. 

A link to a brief summary is below:https://www.marketwatch.com/story/with-president-trumps-signature-the-secure-act-is-passed-here-are-the-most-important-things-to-know-2019-12-21

A summary of our market outlook and current portfolio positioning. Please see the following PDFs:

• Litman Gregory
• Van Guard

The first step is to make sure you are on the same financial page and have a common vision.

Hopefully you have already had some fruitful discussions about mutual goals as well as expectations regarding spending/saving before walking down the aisle, but if not then I would encourage you to have these discussions as early in the marriage as possible. Check in with each other and see how you have individually progressed on your goals prior to marriage such as starting an emergency fund, budgeting process, identifying short term saving goals and contributing to a retirement plan.

I would suggest that you try to merge these individual goals and processes as much as possible so you can begin working as a team on your mutual financial goals.

Once you have had the common vision discussion, the next step in any newlyweds’ financial life should be to identify who is going to take ownership regarding the various aspects of your finances.

I think it is important to clearly establish who is going to oversee paying bills, maintaining the budget, and oversee investments and insurance. Be flexible though and willing to switch up roles as life dictates over the years.

The final step to strongly consider as newlyweds is the whole aspect of risk protection.

It is not too early to start thinking about the possibility of adding some additional life and/or disability insurance to protect either spouse in the event of untimely death. This should be especially considered as it seems like more and more young people are getting married later in life now and often already have significant debts from either owning a house or obtaining a college degree. You should also consider drafting a new will or updating one already created as well making sure your have updated beneficiary designations.

Money discussions aren’t always easy for newlyweds.

But, as with any marriage issue, it’s best to approach them with an open mind and as a team. The more thoughtfully you work together on money matters, the more financial harmony you’ll maintain in your life together.