The Donor Advised Fund (DAF) has increased charitable giving over recent years. DAFs are not new; apparently, they have been around since the 1930s, and grew more popular in the 1990s. DAFs allow you to make charitable contributions to a fund you set-up with a public charity, then recommend grants from that fund over time. …
Life Changes
What is Disability Insurance and Why Should You Have It?
Continuing with open enrollment month for your workplace benefits, let’s talk about disability insurance. Many people think about life insurance, especially if they have kids, but not everyone thinks about disability insurance, even though your chances of becoming disabled are greater than dying. According to a report published by the Social Security Administration in August …
What is Disability Insurance and Why Should You Have It?Read More
What Exactly is Open Enrollment?
If you work for someone else, there’s a good chance that you are, or soon will be, in the midst of Open Enrollment season for your benefit choices. This is the period when your employer allows you to adjust or newly enroll in your employee benefits, like health insurance. It’s important to pay attention during …
Gifting Limits
All this month, I’ve been talking about debt. So why is this blog talking about gifting? Well, here’s my thought train: let’s say you have some debt and your parents or your grandma or your favorite aunt gives you some money to pay it off. Just, out of the goodness of their heart and because …
Student Loans
Forbes published an article about the student loan debt crisis a couple of years ago. Among the concerning statistics shared in the article, there was this little tidbit….student loan debt has now surpassed credit card and auto loan debt, making it the second highest consumer debt category, totaling more than $1.5 trillion. Unfortunately, dealing with …
IRA Vs. 401(k) Vs. ROTH – Part 2
Last week, we talked about the differences between an IRA and a 401(k). Both are types of retirement accounts, and the 401(k) is typically administered through an employer, whereas almost anyone can open an IRA. Now, we are going to talk about the Roth versions of these same investment vehicles. I described them as different …
IRA Vs. 401(k) Vs. Roth – Part 1
I have found that professional, super-smart people, that I personally know, do not know the difference between an IRA, a Roth IRA, and a 401(k). That will simply not do. You need to know this stuff. We’re going to fix that right now. The challenge will be keeping it short and sweet because there are …
The Ins and Outs of Long-Term Care Insurance
Some people think that when they get older and they have to go into an assisted living or nursing home facility, they will just be covered by Medicare or their regular health insurance. Wrong. Medicare doesn’t cover much of assisted living or nursing home stays. Your stay could be covered by Medicaid, which is for …
Winning the Lottery!
July 17th was National Lottery Day. So, did you play? Let’s imagine that you did, and you won. Congratulations! What’s the first thing you should do? If your answer was, post it on Facebook, you would be wrong. The best thing to do is to remain anonymous, if possible. Currently only five states allow winners …
Credit Card Travel Hacking
Gen Y & Z are seemingly obsessed with “hacks”. I know my 12-year-old son is always talking to me about various “life hacks” that he sees on TikTok. But one of the original life hacks is using credit cards for travel hacking—basically, using credit cards to the fullest to try to get things like free …