Blog Investment & Financial News
Consolidated Appropriations Act Provides Relief to Individuals and Businesses
On Sunday, December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA 2021) was signed into law. A $900 billion emergency relief package is included as part of this omnibus spending bill. It is intended to assist individuals and businesses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and accompanying economic crisis. Major relief provisions are summarized here, as well…
2020 Year-End Tax Planning
The window for many tax-saving opportunities closes on December 31. It’s important to evaluate your tax situation, while there’s still time to affect your bottom line for the 2020 tax year. Your specific circumstances should be considered, so please reach out if you have any questions. Timing is Everything Consider any opportunities you have to…
Investment Question of the Month: IPO’s
INVESTMENT QUESTION OF THE MONTH: Should I invest in an Initial Public Offering (IPO)? Through November 16th of this year, we saw 223 companies[1] make the transition from private to public through way of IPOs, the most since 2014. And we could potentially see over $100 billion raised in IPOs by the end of 2020.…
Health Insurance Marketplace
November 1 Begins Open Enrollment for Health Insurance Marketplaces Beginning on November 1, 2020, individuals (including families) may apply for new health insurance, switch to a different health-care plan, or re-enroll in their current plan through a Health Insurance Marketplace under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The open enrollment period for 2021 health coverage ends…
Planning for Incapacity
What would happen if you were mentally or physically unable to take care of yourself or your day-to-day affairs? You might not be able to make sound decisions about your health or finances. You could lose the ability to pay bills, write checks, make deposits, sell assets, or otherwise conduct your affairs. Unless you’re prepared,…
Investment Question of the Month: Large Cap Tech Stock Dominance
Large technology stocks continue to dominate the market. Is this a new normal? The top 5 stocks in the S&P 500 – Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Facebook – have had an extraordinary run of returns. Year-to-date through August, the S&P 500 index returned 10% – with those five stocks returning 49% while the remaining…
Thanksgiving 2020’s Charts We Are Thankful For
We posted three scary charts on Halloween (See here) and wanted to post three charts we are thankful for on Thanksgiving. 1) Household Debt Service Ratio The household debt service ratio is the ratio of total required debt payments to total disposable income. Thanks to historically low interest rates, the ratio finished last quarter at…
Happy Halloween: 2020’s Scary Charts
The financial world can be a scary place. It seems like there is always something to fear in the market. This is especially true in 2020 when investors have endured COVID-19, extreme stock market volatility, massive economic uncertainty and now a Presidential election. Fortunately, our worst fears usually don’t come to fruition. To get in…
Celebrating Independence—Both National and Financial