In a further attempt to expand and promote retirement savings, Congress passed SECURE Act 2.0 as part of an overall spending bill, the 2023 Consolidations and Appropriations Act. President Biden signed the bill into law on December 29, 2022. OVERVIEW The SECURE Act 2.0 is a follow-up bill to the original SECURE Act passed in …
Tax Planning
Tax Loss Harvesting
Want to impress your friends with knowledge of reducing your taxes using investment sales? I’m going to teach you. We all know the adage, “buy low, sell high.” Well, sometimes your investments don’t turn out the way you want them to, and you may want to consider selling low. Tax loss harvesting is when you …
Employee Stock Options, Part 2 of 2
Last week, I discussed what a stock option was and how there are two different kinds. When an employer gives you/grants you options, it is not considered a taxable event. It’s only when you DO something with the options that you have to pay attention and figure out if it is taxable or not. There …
Employee Stock Options, Part 1 of 2
What the heck is an employee stock option? Publicly traded companies may offer employees stock options as a form of incentive compensation. These options give you the right to purchase company stock at a specific price. There’s a lot of jargon to share when it comes to employee stock options. The initial price, when you …
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 …
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 …
Should I take the standard deduction or itemize my deductions this tax season?
It is tax time. Normally, we would have our taxes filed by now, but this year we have an extension. But I am not thinking about taxes, I am thinking about summer, which I am going to tie into taxes on today’s blog. We typically rent a place up north each summer for anywhere from …
Should I take the standard deduction or itemize my deductions this tax season?Read More
8 Smart, Adulty things you can do with your Tax Refund/Stimulus check
So, you are getting a tax refund. What do you do with it? It’s still COVID times, so many people don’t want to eat out or travel, and you probably shouldn’t just blow it, so here are some things to consider doing with your tax refund/stimulus check/child tax credit expansion. 1. Emergency Savings Start your …
8 Smart, Adulty things you can do with your Tax Refund/Stimulus checkRead More