This is a blog about money and therefore all of the gifts that I’m suggesting are money-related as well. Ok, Jill’s Journal readers, I have scoured the Internet for gift suggestions that have to deal with our favorite topic, money. These are for people who want to learn about money, like money, or want a …
Investing
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 …
“Too Conservative” in Your Investing?
The market has been somewhat volatile this year and some of my clients have expressed fear that the markets are “too high” and they should get out until this is over. My question to them is—how do you know when it’s over? It’s very tempting to want to play around with our investments. We are …
Cash vs. Money Market
Chasing interest on your cash is a tough thing to do, especially right now with interest rates being so low. Several years ago, before the financial crisis of 2008-2009, I held funds in what were called “demand notes.” Demand notes, a type of money market fund, paid a higher interest rate than a typical savings …
Preparing for Your Financial Review Meeting
Today’s post is a guest blog post from Kim Waldman, who is our Chief Operating Officer at Stephens Wealth Management Group. So, you want to make the most of your financial review meeting, but you aren’t sure how? I totally understand and was in that place myself just a few years back. Following are a …
DIY Investing
I heard a great analogy the other day. It has to do with oil changes in your car. If you wanted to, you could figure out how to do an oil change and save yourself some money. However, you might get oil dripped on your face, like what happened to my husband the first time …
The F Words of Finance
There are a lot of F words, especially in the world of finance. Fiduciary, Finance, Financial Advisor, etc. But none of those are my favorite F word. My favorite is “Female Financial Planner”. Ha, you thought I was going to pick a different F word, didn’t you? I also like “french fries.” It can be …
ESG OR SRI INVESTING?
Sometimes you hear the phrase, “put your money where your mouth is,” meaning, use your dollars towards things you really are passionate about. If this matters to you, then you might be interested in ESG or SRI investing. ESG stands for Environment, Social, and Governance. SRI stands for Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact. These terms usually …