PFA Ponderings

99 percent of the time, when clients sit with us and go over their finances, they are happy to see increases in their net worth, and disappointed to see decreases. Sometimes, however, folks come in with the complete opposite objective.  Every once in a while, someone seeks strategies for decreasing…

The importance of financial planning is especially significant for people living with a disability. Living with a disability can be expensive, whether as the result of the need for treatment, physical or occupational therapy or adaptive equipment. Unemployment is twice the level for people with disabilities as those without. When…

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) went into effect for the 2018 tax year. For most of us, that means we’ve just completed our first tax season under the new rules. At first blush, it appeared to me that the vast majority of our clients would see…

As I write this, I’m just one year away from retirement age.  Or, maybe 25 years. At the ripe old age of 53, I’m within a year of my father’s retirement age.  Retiring at 54 requires a special mix of a lot of factors, a number of which don’t necessarily…

The world of stocks and bonds has invaded the average household over the last 40 years, and the 401(k) is to blame.  Investing in the capital markets was long the territory of the Country Club set, but the shifting of investing responsibility onto the workers, largely in the form of…

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst” -William Penn Time is perhaps the most powerful force in money management. With enough of it, any of us can be the next Warren Buffett.  The “Oracle of Omaha” certainly has smarts to burn. But just as importantly, he’s…

Guest post written by Jeff Anttila. Original post HERE. There are two ways to own your home. Either you can pay cash upfront or you can pay little by little, year after year. For most us, monthly mortgage payments are the most feasible option. While we continue to chip away…

This one will leave the quant guys and gals scratching their heads: Jeff and Kathy are both in the same exact situation.  They both have two credit cards where they carry the exact same balances:   Jeff and Kathy have the same minimum required payment.  And, both of them have…

Never having had kids, I’ve sidestepped a pretty daunting financial obligation.  Obedience training for our one dog doesn’t come close, cost-wise, to raising and educating several children. I have a mild and manageable amount of guilt about this.  In the short term, my siblings have burdens I don’t.  But, in…

Going back a few decades, the idea that one could (or should) closely manage their credit report was not mainstream.  For the most part, the data in your file was accessible to companies who subscribed to reporting services.  People could, for a relatively robust outlay of money, purchase their report,…