Personal Finance

Advanced Mortgage Tricks

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advanced mortgage tricks

Advanced Refinance Tricks For the Financially Well Off Got plenty of money socked away for the kids’ college? Already have a retirement plan and funding it well? When someone asks about an emergency fund do you think, sure, which account would I use? Then, here is a trick for you. Mortgage interest rates are at historic lows. As I write this, it wouldn’t be hard at all to get a 3% mortgage if you have good credit and put 20%+ down. What if, you took $100,000 out of your mortgage with a refinance that lowered your interest rate enough to cover all closing costs, and then, put that $100,000 into a solid dividend paying stock? Just for example, right now, Verizon pays something like 4.85% per year at its current $52.50 stock price. If you took the $100,000 you got from your cash out refi, and invested in in Verizon stock as a long-term investment, Verzion would spend the next 10 or 20 years paying you the equivalent of 4.85% on your $100,000 stock investment. Which means you are earning more on your investment than you are paying on the extra mortgage principal. Now, you do have to pay 15% …

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Best Way To Take Equity Out of Your House

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home equity refinance

One of the most frustrating things during my years as a financial planner was the number of people who insisted on paying their mortgage off early or adding extra principal to their mortgage payments and then, years later (or not) wanting to know the best way to take equity out of your house. Grrrr!!! If you’re not going to listen to me about the best place to invest extra money, or if you ended up with a ton of equity in your home thanks to rising home prices, or just living there for a decade or more, then listen to me now about the best way to take money out of your home equity. Take Money Out of Your Home’s Equity by Refinancing Usually, taking money out of your home equity by refinancing is dumb. However, with interest rates at historical lows, and lenders competing with each other, it is possible to take equity out of your home, lower your interest rate, and pay lower expenses, all without sticking you with a big loan that you have to pay back. Here is how it works. Let’s say you owe $300,000 on a house worth $500,000. You have $200,000 in equity. …

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Retirement Tax Triangle for Better Retirement Planning

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tax triangle save money in retirement

Financial advisors make their bread and butter from retirement planning. Unless you’re wealthy (or young), chances are that most of your money is in your retirement savings and home equity. That makes your retirement accounts the main interest of most financial advisors, so it’s in their best interest to make it sound complicated. Unfortunately, they are right. There are a bunch of little tricks to good retirement planning. Fortunately, most of them are easy to straighten out, like the tax triangle. Retirement Taxes Welcome to Retirement. Oh, while you’re here, we need to tax those 401(k) withdrawals. All too many new retirees find themselves surprised that withdrawals from their 401k accounts are fully taxable. It’s an easy mistake to make. After all, when you contributed money to your 401k it was tax-free (technically, pre-tax, but same difference). And, while all of that money sat in your 401k earning interest and dividends, it was tax-free. So, why wouldn’t it keep being tax-free? Unfortunately, that’s the deal you make with the IRS. A 401k plan is actually a tax-deferred account. As the name implies, the IRS allows you to defer, or wait, to pay the taxes. It is a huge advantage and …

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Medical Expenses Deduction 2021

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medical-taxes

Can you deduct medical expenses in 2021? Are your medical expenses tax deductible? Yes… but… Medical Expenses Tax Deduction Limit Medical expenses are tax deductible for 2021, but only after they exceed 7.5% of your income. You also must itemize your deductions to claim the medical expenses tax deduction. Finally, medical expenses are deductible in the year you PAY them, not when they happen. If you’re going to hit the medical threshold in 2021, then pay as many as you can by December 31. If you are not going to hit the threshold, push as many medical expenses as you can into 2022. What does this all mean exactly? Let’s dig in. Check out my Grifin review The tax deduction for medical expenses has a floor of 7.5% of income. By income, the IRS means your adjusted gross income (AGI). Usually, when the IRS has rules or regulations that refer to income, they mean your AGI. Your AGI is calculated on your Form 1040. Your adjusted gross income shows up on Line 11. Your total income is basically all of your income from wages, capital gains, interest, dividends, Social Security, business income (if any) and pensions added together. Your adjusted …

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CollegeInvest 529 Plan Fees Reduced

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college invest university

It’s always nice to get good news. CollegeInvest 529 Reduces Feeds for Direct Portfolio According to a recent release from CollegeInvest CEO Angela Baier, the administrative fee for the CollegeInvest Direct Portfolio was reduced from 0.32% to 0.31% on August 1, 2021. That means more of those college savings dollars stay in your 529 account, and less go to expenses. Remember, this only applies to the Direct Portfolio at CollegeInvest and not the CollegeInvest Scholars Choice, Smart Choice, or Stable Value Plus plans. A word about the Direct Portfolio at CollegeInvest Either the folks who started up CollegeInvest didn’t consult anyone with any knowledge about investing and marketing, or they DID consult someone, and that someone was working for the investment industry more than they were for the people of Colorado. Either way, the resulting Colorado 529 plan system ended up being a bit of a confusing mess for Coloradoans looking to invest money for college. So, CollegeInvest is the overall umbrella for all Colorado 529 plans. Colorado has four 529 plans. So, to access your 529 account online you go through a CollegeInvest login at collegeinveset.com. Once you get to CollegeInvest online there are FOUR different Colorado 529 plan …

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Is Capital One Quicksilver Card Worth It?

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capital one quicksilver card offer

Capital One sent me a marketing mailer for the Capital One Quicksilver Card. Lately, I’m about racking up points or miles in order to travel first class for free, but a good cash back card is useful for many people. So if Capital One is going to send me credit card offers in the mail, I’ll write up a personal finance article about it. Win-Win! Capital One Quicksilver Cash Back Card So, unlike the Capital One Venture Card, or the Capital One VentureOne Rewards card, which are travel rewards cards where you earn Capital One rewards points and redeem them for items on the Capital One rewards chart, the Capital One Quicksilver card is a cash back card. Current Capital One Quicksilver Offer Different people get different offers from credit card companies based largely on their credit report and credit score. That’s why it is important to get a look a your free credit score and keep an eye on how your credit is doing. The offer that came in the mail is a $200 one-time cash bonus and 0% interest rate until December 2022. It would also offer unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, along with no annual …

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You Can Do It Personal Finance

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mom and dad finance

Can you really do it? Sure, but probably not the way you’re reading about in that personal finance tips article. Real Do It Yourself Personal Finance I’m going to be honest. As a professional financial advisor and Certified Financial Planner for several years, I never helped anyone quit their job to pursue their passion, or side business. I helped plenty of people retire, but who kept working at something smaller, easier, or better liked. I could have helped someone do that, but that isn’t actually why people come to financial planners, or at least that’s not why people who are willing to pay for professional advice come to financial planners. The trick to financial planning is that it is all about achieving long-term financial goals. Long-term. That’s the catch. A lot of people are not interested in long-term. They want to get rich quick, but there is a problem. After a few decades of various get rich quick schemes being pedaled around, most people in their prime working years no longer believe in get rich quick. For them, it’s about get successful quick by retiring early, or passive income, or quitting to start their own business. The thing is though, …

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Most Americans Pay No Taxes

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tax free

Estimates by The Tax Policy Center show that 61% of U.S. households pay no federal incomes taxes. Before you go off on a rant about the rich not paying their fair share of taxes by using tricky tax-dodging tactics, the reality is that many people are too poor to pay taxes. Why the Majority of Americans Pay No Taxes Ask around America and you’ll find an impression of taxes and the IRS as heartless thugs that squeeze the poor to get money for the “king” back in Washington D.C. This impression is carefully cultivated by politicians as a way to garner votes by saying that you pay too much in taxes and get too little in return. The truth is that there is a lot of compassion built into the tax system. Poor People Don’t Pay Taxes What most people don’t realize while they scream at the rich for not paying their taxes and lamenting how much the poor have to pay, is that poor people don’t pay taxes. If you look at the tax brackets, it certainly seems poorer Americans pay taxes. The lowest tax bracket starts takes 10% and that is only up to $9,950 for those filing …

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Dividend Stocks Coca Cola

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coca-cola dividend

Dividend stocks are often an overlooked investment by many Main Street Americans. It isn’t hard to see why. A 3 percent yield on a $5,000 investment isn’t all that impressive, a mere $150 per year, or so. When you are thinking about turning a lifetime of 401k contributions into a retirement plan, that isn’t really the kind of number that gets your mind racing about possibilities. However, the more investable assets you actually have, the more dividend stocks start to look interesting. Consider that many dividend stocks are fairly safe from anything but the most catastrophic downturns. Stocks like McDonalds, and Coca Cola, for example. Those stocks can, and will, trade up and down, but if you don’t really plan on selling them anytime soon, they are sort of like corporate bonds where if you hold them until retirement (or just several years) chances are you will at least get all of your original investment back. What makes dividend stocks like Coca Cola so interesting in a growing portfolio is that they offer potential growth, plus the ability to outpace inflation, all while kicking off real income. Asset Allocation and Dividend Stocks As always, you shouldn’t be thinking about investing …

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529 Contribution Limits 2021

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The 529 plan is a tax-advantaged college savings plan. Of course, like all plans that offer IRS sanctioned tax savings, there are rules and regulations regarding just how and when a 529 plan may be used. One of these limitations involves how much money you can contribute to a 529 plan in 2021. 529 contribution limits tend to be pretty stable, based mostly on the federal gift tax exclusion amount. Head over here if you are looking for how a 529 plan works. If you want to know how to open a 529 plan account then head here. 2021 529 Contribution Limits Unlike IRA plans, where there are new IRA contribution limits, or other child tax credits, there are no income limits for 529 plans. That means that you can contribute to a 529 plan regardless of whether you are a high-income taxpayer or not. There are, however, still a few kinds of contribution limitations for 529 savings accounts that you want to be aware of. The first 529 plan contribution limit comes from the 529 plan rules established by each individual plan. Since 529 plans are administered by each of the 50 states, there can be 50 different plan rules. For …

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