Category: Financial Planning
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The benefits of increasing estimated tax payments
The traditional financial planning and tax management strategy is to minimize tax withholding and estimated tax payments throughout the year. Now with interest rates so low and the economy generally on the rise – meaning that actual taxes are more likely to be higher than estimated – it may make more sense to over withhold…
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Step by step guide to a great personal financial plan
step by step actions needed to create a personal financial plan
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Bearish on McMansions
The U.S. homeownership rate fell to the lowest level in more than 50 years in the second quarter of 2016 according to the latest census data. The last time the portions of households that owned their own home was this low was in the early 1960s when my father bought his first home as a…
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Forecasting the presidential election
Accurate forecasting of the outcome of the upcoming presidential election is important for a number of business reasons. Forecasting is an important part of financial planning and tax planning, for example. Forecasting the outcome of the presidential race does not seem to be a difficult task at this point: “Most nonpartisan political analysts currently see the…
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Is this the time to buy at the Jersey shore?
The national housing market is healthy. Median sale price for a previously owned home reported by the Realtors Association in June 2016 was $239,700, up 4.7% from a year earlier. Overall, it seems like real estate has returned as a healthy asset class to consider for investment. But it is not clear that home prices…
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New study give insights to ‘Upper Middle Class’
A new study released last month by Urban Institute titled “The Growing Size and Incomes of the Upper Middle Class” by Stephen J. Rose investigates shifts in household income in the United States. The most obvious conclusion is that the portion of Rich and Middle Upper class households have grown sharply over the past 25 years while…
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Merck lays off peers in Montco
One of the most respected employers in my community announced that it is closing its research facility and laying off 360 workers. Merck was a highly favorite employer among my Delaware Valley University undergraduate classmates and Temple University grad school peers. At one time I knew many who worked at Merck’s North Wales plant.…
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Bala Cynwyd investment scam hits close to home
Hardly a week goes by that I don’t read about some homeowner being defrauded by an unscrupulous building contractor or an elderly person being lured into an investment scam. I’ve written and talked about dozens of such schemes over the past three decades. Yet year after year the stories keep coming. The latest incident occurs…
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Testing a new social media marketing message
I plan to test a new social media marketing message in this last week of June. The volume of incoming phone calls to my office that I rely upon to keep my practice in operation has dropped off since the end of tax season. This is partly due to seasonal variation but I also sense that…