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While the Biden Administration’s current focus is on economic stimulus plans, there is the prospect that tax legislation in the near future may increase taxes on many individuals’ income and estates. As such, one of the planning strategies to consider is to convert some or all traditional IRA assets to a Roth IRA. The important differences between a Roth IRA and a conventional IRA are in the timing of when the taxes are paid and in the requirement for a minimum distribution later in life. Most IRAs are funded with…

Investors who buy a stock are said to have “gone long” that stock. If I buy 100 shares of Apple, I’m “long” 100 Apple, expecting that the price will rise. There’s another way to try to make money called “being short” a stock. Here, I borrow 100 shares of Apple to sell, believing the price will fall, and I can pay back my borrowed stock at cheaper prices. I’m “short 100 Apple,” and have to “cover my short” at some point in the future, meaning I’ll need to buy 100…

The estimated loss of 140K jobs in December interrupted a streak of consecutive monthly gains that started back in May. The market had a muted response and finished the day (January 8th) up about 0.6%. At first, the reaction was a bit surprising, but it makes sense upon closer analysis. Almost all the loss was concentrated in one sub-sector- Leisure and Hospitality. As the accompanying chart shows, the employment report breaks the number of jobs gained or lost down by sector and sub-sector. The first breakout is Private vs. Government.…

Resilient Market, Tempering Future Expectations Resilient. That would be our response if asked to characterize 2020 U.S. equity market performance in a single word. The list of challenges markets overcame as prices moved to record levels is well known: the global pandemic, restrictive lockdowns, oil price wars, election uncertainty, etc. Investors experienced a full market cycle, which normally spans a 3 to 5-year period, in an incredibly short amount of time. The markets notched record highs in the start of the year before enduring a bear market decline over a…

Women tend to be more financially vulnerable in retirement than men. The combination of women earning less over their lifetimes, saving less for retirement, living longer than men, and having a higher probability of needing nursing home care leads to greater financial insecurity and poverty for women in their older years. Over the course of her work life, a woman with a college degree earns on average $1.32 Million, vs $2.19 Million for a college-educated man. Women cycle in and out of the workforce over their lifetimes as they respond…