Retirement Planning – IRA and Roth IRA

You probably have some money stashed away in a traditional IRA account. It is easily the most popular form of retirement savings around. But many people don’t understand the ins and outs of the IRA as a retirement savings instrument. While we like to help our clients leverage their “now” money to build on their…

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Retirement Planning – 403B/457 Plan

There are so many ways to plan for time freedom. If you are an educator or involved in non-profit work or local and state government work, there are a few attractive options beyond putting money in a standard IRA. A 403(b) plan is similar to a 401(k) but accessible especially to educators and workers in…

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Retirement Planning – SOLO 401K

In our wealth management practice, we emphasize using your “now” money to make smart financial decisions for today and for well into the future. We have even been known to make negative comments about financial instruments that make it hard to access your money before, say, age 59.5. It’s not that these instruments are bad…

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Retirement Planning –  SEP IRA

Our Uncommon approach to personal finance does not mean you should ignore the more traditional methods of saving for retirement. There is a place for that in your portfolio. One of the most common places to invest retirement dollars is the Individual Retirement Account – the IRA. The thing to know is that IRAs are…

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Retirement Planning – SIMPLE IRA 

Our Uncommon approach to personal finance does not mean you should ignore the more traditional methods of saving for retirement. There is a place for that in your portfolio. And if you are a business owner, you’ll want to provide your employees with incentives like retirement savings as part of the standard compensation package. One…

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Retirement Planning – Safe Harbor 401K 

Among the many plans, we help clients with, the safe harbor 401(k) is the most popular plan for small businesses. There are several reasons for this, including generous contribution limits and profit-sharing options. Let’s take a closer look at how the safe harbor 401(k) works. To achieve safe harbor status, a 401(k) plan needs to…

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What is a Retirement Plan?

For most of history, retirement was not really a thing. Life expectancy was shorter, and family units were living together, so elders were cared for as just part of what was done in a hunter/gatherer and then agrarian economy. But over the past 100-plus years, the economy and life expectancy have changed dramatically. The desire…

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Business Acquisition

Maybe you are a business owner already. That’s awesome. Owning a business is a source of so many avenues for building wealth. But have you ever thought about buying other businesses? If so, what kinds of businesses would you consider? When a company has excess cash reserves on hand, it is a great problem to…

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College and Adulthood Planning – Real Estate with Your Kids

The goal of parenting is, of course, raising solid, self-sufficient kids into adulthood. We’ve been exploring a bunch of different ways to do that, from money set aside in Roth or Traditional IRAs, to helping kids understand what it takes to run a business. With this article, we are going to focus on a variation…

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College and Adulthood Planning – Business

Ok, it’s soapbox time. We’re going to get into yet another area where our Uncommon approach varies from the conventional wisdom out there. You are probably familiar with the line of thinking that you should take more risks when you are younger because you can afford to lose money and rebuild. You have time. But…

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College and Adulthood Planning – Scholarships & Grants

In our previous post, we talked about the value of work. We stand by that, but, of course, we also have an uncommon twist to this idea – what if your college-bound child treated applying for scholarships and grants like a job? It may sound a little bit far-fetched, but it’s not. If a high…

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College and Adulthood Planning – Work

You have started saving—or maybe you haven’t—for your kid’s future. The idea of saving enough for education or whatever next step your children choose beyond high school is a big source of anxiety for many people. The good news is that your kids can definitely help with this financial equation. One way they can help…

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