Category: Financial Planning
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ACA – The law that really wasn’t
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 really hasn’t had any significant impact on individuals and small businesses despite the volumes of information, rhetoric and threats of penalties for non-compliance. Today the Obama administration extended the individual health insurance enrollment deadline (again) regarding the individual mandate. Last week they postponed the effective deadline for small business…
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New York Life continues its growth trek
New York Life Insurance Company continues to grow in the middle-income financial services market by focusing on serving women and culturally diverse communities. The company reports that the number of active sales agents has grown by 24 percent since 2007. New York Life hired 3,680 agents last year and intends to hire an additional 3,600…
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The full burden of college debt is still unrecognized
While only 17% of the U.S. population has earned an undergraduate college degree, education debt is a major economic drag on the country. Over our lifetime college tuition costs have risen much faster than the rate of a typical salary earner’s income. Government and news media now describe the current cost of college as “out of…
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When QuickBooks is a no-brainer
I ran into an old friend by chance on a Philadelphia sidewalk today. We used to see each other often but now he lives more than an hour away with his three dogs at a rural country place in beautiful upper Bucks Country. He knows that I am an accountant but we’ve never “talked business”…
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My three simple goals for 2015
There seems to be a lot of negative stuff written lately about the process of goal setting and I think that I understand the arguments against this old-fashioned way of thinking. But I’m not buying into it. Goal setting, for me, sets the necessary internal pressure needed to make things happen. My three goals for 2015:…
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CPA Tax Rates for 2015
Until now, I have used negotiated flat fees for all accounting services – including tax services – under an approach commonly called “value pricing”. These fees should have some reasonable basis and market rate or competitive pricing may be one input into this basis of pricing. We presume that there is social value in having consumers…
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estimating defined benefit contributions
I was impressed by onepersonplus-for-db.com estimator for maximum defined benefit contribution. The proposal it generates is simple. The discussion that must accompany the planning for this type of strategy is not simple. I know most people who consider a new pension plan are largely unaware of the risks, cost and potential downsides. So A tool…
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How to choose a financial adviser
This blog post is revised from an article that I originally published in 2006 and is reproduced at www.tonynovak.com. At that time I operated as an independent Registered Investment Adviser. Since then, I’ve simplified and automated investment client advisory functions to the point where I presume that separate RIA registration is not required. Now, as…
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Tax planning engagement letter for individual clients (revised)
Update in September 2015: I am no longer using this letter. The new version is shorter, more segmented, and is in a format intended to be delivered by email and not on paper or PDF. The collaboration section is now simplified and changed. I am working on updating and expanding my tax planning engagement letter for…
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What I’m learning about lender-placed flood insurance
My mortgage bank requires flood insurance for our home on the NJ shoreline. I hate paying the premium lately after I learned that I can’t collect on a claim because it is highly unlikely that flood waters would ever rise high enough to a level that would to reach my house that is elevated on pilings. It…