Key Questions To Ask Your Financial Advisor About Your Portfolio
Does your portfolio truly line up with your life objectives? You can see how your strategy aligns with your needs, timelines, and risk tolerance by asking a few key questions. If your financial goals—like buying […]
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Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisor During a Review
Meeting with your financial advisor can sometimes feel like a formality. You might even wonder if it’s worth your time. But having reviews can be a key checkup for your monetary health, ensuring you’re still […]
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RMDs For A Special Needs Beneficiary 2024
When it comes to planning for a loved one who is disabled or chronically ill, understanding how required minimum distributions (RMDs) work is very important. After all, RMDs can impact one’s eligibility for benefits like […]
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2024 Inherited IRA RMD Rules
Losing a loved one is never easy, and sorting through a financial mess afterward only makes things harder. Thankfully, if you’re inheriting an IRA, things can be made a lot simpler by clearly understanding the […]
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How To Tell If Your Financial Advisor Is A Fiduciary
Trust plays a significant role in the management of your financial life. For this reason, it’s important to find out if your financial advisor is also a fiduciary. In this post, we’ll break down what […]
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Capital Gains Tax in Wisconsin: Everything You Need to Know
Grasping the concept of capital gains tax is important for residents of Wisconsin, especially those who invest or run businesses. Knowing how these taxes work can significantly affect your financial outlook, helping you take measures […]
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Wisconsin Pass-Through Entity Tax: Everything You Need To Know
Taxes for business owners can be overwhelming, and understanding the Wisconsin Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) only adds to the challenge. In this guide, we’ll walk you through every aspect of PTET, from what it is […]
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Inheritance Tax in Wisconsin: Here’s What You Need To Know
Understanding inheritance and estate taxes can be challenging due to the different rules at the federal and state levels. Whether you’re planning your estate or managing an inheritance, knowing these laws is vital for minimizing […]
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Your Final Gift: A Checklist for End-of-Life Planning
Peace of mind is a final gift you can give your loved ones—affording them the knowledge of your end-of-life wishes. Creating a plan for your loved ones when you die is an essential part of […]
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Loss of Spouse Checklist: 10 Things to Do After Your Spouse Dies
Losing a spouse may be one of life’s most difficult and painful events. As many widows will tell you, there is no way to be truly prepared for it. The decisions you have to make […]
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A Financial Wellness Check: Preparing for a Prosperous New Year
As we approach the end of the year, there is no more critical time for planning your finances. It’s your last opportunity to review where you are with your 2023 goals and your best opportunity […]
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Credit Freeze: What is it and When Does it Makes Sense?
If you’ve applied for credit or a job, you know how essential your credit report is. Lenders rely heavily on them for evaluating your financial history to determine if you qualify for a loan or […]
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Using Tax-Loss Harvesting to Minimize Capital Gains Taxes
So far, in 2023, investors are enduring a bit of a roller coaster ride, with stocks producing gains through mid-year and sliding into losses toward year-end. While stock market downturns are inevitable, there’s no way […]
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10 Benefits of Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) as an Investment Strategy
Concerns about volatility and competing demands for your money can make investing challenging. Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is an investment strategy where you invest a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, regardless of the […]
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Medicare Enrollment: 5 Tips for Choosing the Best Plan
The complex Medicare landscape makes enrollment a daunting process. There are so many options to consider, each with its own medical and financial implications. Whether you’re new, or reassessing a current plan, the Open Enrollment […]
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Tax Strategies for Retirees: How To Take the Right Decisions
As we approach the latter part of the year, it’s essential to focus on the coming tax season and how the changing tax landscape might affect our financial decisions, particularly for retirees. This year, President […]
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Tax-Smart Investing: 5 Ways to Reduce Taxes on Investments
For high-income earners, investment taxes can seem like a constant drain on their hard-earned returns. However, with the right strategies, you can minimize your tax burden and keep more of your money working for you. […]
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Spring Cleaning Your Finances
Did you know that according to the Cleveland Clinic, the mental health benefits of “Spring Cleaning”—the annual practice that prioritizes decluttering and organizing one’s living space—can have positive psychological effects? It appears that the process […]
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The Best Financial Plan is the One You Can Follow: A Study on Risk Tolerance
Let’s talk about something that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves—risk tolerance. This is a crucial part of developing a financial plan that works for you and helps you achieve your longer term goals. The […]
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Step-Up in Basis Explained: What You Need To Know
Estate planning looks different for every client. For those with young children, it might mean designating a guardian and preparing for their financial future. For others, it will mean choosing someone to handle the administration […]
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The 6 Most Common Myths of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer myriad benefits, from their triple-tax advantage to assisting those with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to cover out-of-pocket expenses. But the thing that may surprise you most is that an HSA […]
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6 Tips to Stay Calm During a Market Downturn
Scroll through any newsfeed, and you’ll encounter attention-grabbing headlines about a sluggish economy, rising interest rates, and threats of an impending recession. And while this news is unsettling, it’s essential to remain calm, cool, and […]
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How Rising Interest Rates Could Affect Your Finances
Raising interest rates as a measure to combat inflation has been a hot topic lately. Not only did the Fed increase rates by 0.5% at its May FOMC meeting, but increased them again by a […]
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Tax Loss Harvesting: Is Peak Inflation Behind Us?
The highest inflation in 40 years has rattled consumers, most of whom have never experienced runaway high prices. Unless you’re well into your 60s, this type of environment is new. However, there is hope that […]
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Time Value and Potential Income: Understanding Opportunity Cost
With all the recent coverage and attention inflation has been getting lately, it’s no secret inflation is a growing concern for many. The cost of everything is up, and the supply chain is still facing […]
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Graduation Season is Upon Us
It’s graduation season. What an exciting time for high school and college students to be moving onto the next big phase! Exciting, but nerve wracking too. This is a time of incredible growth, development, gaining […]
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Investing in a Down Market: 5 Strategies
Stock market downturns are never welcomed, but they are inevitable, which is why you should know how to invest in a down market. Even the most sophisticated investors can’t predict when they will occur or […]
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What Is a Living Trust and Does It Make Sense for You?
Regardless of its size, the goal of an estate plan is to facilitate the transfer of property and assets to your family with the least amount of cost and friction. As you work through the […]
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Understanding Market Volatility & Why It Isn’t Always Bad
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the stock market sure has given investors some reasons to feel concerned. It’s been a rollercoaster of ups and downs from the crash in March 2020 to the huge […]
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5 Ways You Can Get Ahead of Inflation
Inflation. It’s a word that triggers either confused wrinkles on faces or deep financial concern depending on who you are. But it’s a very real thing happening right now. Just look at the huge markup […]
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3 Reasons Why Now is a Dangerous Time to Invest On Your Own
There’s a lot going on right now in the stock market, and a lot in the country and the world that influences it. From federal government policy and the pandemic to crypto currency and supply […]
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Market Cycles: Understanding The Bull and the Bear
What is the first image that comes to your mind when someone mentions the stock market? Is it the frenzied trading floor on Wall Street? Is it the scrolling of green and red numbers on […]
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How Does Social Security Fit into Your Retirement Plan?
Throughout your working years and with just about every paycheck, you have paid taxes into Social Security, which go towards helping support other Americans who are eligible to receive Social Security benefits. When you retire […]
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Uncommon Cents Launches New Website
Uncommon Cents is pleased to announce the launch of our new and improved website! The new site went live on June 17th. In a world where financial advisory firms are not created equal, our goal […]
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Windfall Taxes: 6 Ways to Limit Them
Windfalls are curious events. By definition, windfalls are large, oftentimes unexpected financial gains that most commonly result from an inheritance, a lawsuit, a property sale, lottery winnings, monetary gifts from family, or even a significant […]
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COVID-19 is Affecting Social Security Benefits: Here’s What You Can Do About It
The light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel may be drawing nearer and getting brighter as the CDC lifts restrictions and life resumes some semblance of normalcy; but, the long effects of this virus […]
Read More What Investors Need to Know About the Threat of Inflation in 2021
Everyone seems to have an opinion about where inflation is headed this year, especially in the wake of President Biden’s third dose of COVID-19 economic relief. The latest $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan brings the […]
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REST. REFLECT. REGROUP. MOVE FORWARD.
We are officially past spring-break season and moving into summertime at sprinter speed! Sure, we toot the horn of saving and investing for the future, but what about enjoying the now a little bit too? I was […]
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What’s Your Retirement Number? Estimating Retirement Expenses
Planning for retirement can sometimes feel like taking a shot in the dark. How do you know if you’re saving enough? Will the market, inflation, or tax law changes derail my plans? How can I […]
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How Online Trading is Threatening Young Adults Right Now
What do Reddit, TikTok, and Robinhood have in common? They are all contributing to a huge problem plaguing young, vulnerable, and inexperienced investors. These all too easily accessible platforms are being used to glamorize (1) […]
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Preparing for the Personal Side of Retirement
Retirement isn’t what it used to be—and that could be great news! Thanks to advances in health and technology, individuals are living longer lives and, therefore, enjoying longer retirement periods. Sounds great, right? Who is […]
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Not Your Grandfather’s Retirement Plan: How Retirement Planning is Changing
At first glance, it may seem that retirement planning hasn’t changed much over the years. While you work, you accumulate resources to fund your non-working future, and then retire. However, today’s savers face different challenges […]
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Max Out 401k: What To Do After That
While this may sound counterintuitive, saving and investing for high-income earners is no easy task. Sure, you might earn a hefty income, but what is the best way to invest it to prepare for a […]
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Kiss Procrastination Goodbye in 2021
Waiting for a sign to get your financial house in order? Well, consider this it. Procrastination is an unfriendly foe that can make saving and investing much more difficult than they have to be. You […]
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Building Your Retirement Paycheck
One of the most unnerving parts of retirement planning is deciding how you will generate a steady income stream from your accumulated resources. Many of you have likely spent decades receiving a steady paycheck from […]
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When to Claim Social Security: How To Choose the Best Time
Fitting the Social Security piece into your retirement puzzle can be a little tricky as there are a number of factors that can influence the amount of benefit you receive. These include whose earnings record […]
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