Financial Clarity for Doctors

Blog: What is the Purpose of Tax-Deferred Retirement Accounts

This week's blog post dives into the purpose and benefits of tax-deferred retirement accounts and how they can be utilized in your retirement savings strategy.  

Our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to have our weekly blog post delivered directly to your inbox.

Financial Prep When You Are Expecting

A few weeks ago Corey and Rachelle tackled teaching kids about money on Financial Clarity for Doctors.  This week they dive into a few financial preparations that you can take on as a household when you are expecting.  If this is you – get ready for some big changes!

A financial checklist for when you’re expecting:

• Review your insurances.
  • Do you have enough disability insurance to fully-protect your income?
  • Do you have enough life insurance? Protect earnings, but also economic value brought into the household by non-income-earning partners.
  • Review health insurance options to decide on the best option for prenatal and postpartum care, but also well child visits.
• Review any short-term expenses including time off work and getting baby all set up.
  • If possible, pencil in some extra for help when baby arrives. Cleaning, food, etc.
• Walk through a hypothetical budget for after baby has arrived. Pencil things in like diapers, but also childcare and college savings if that is a goal.
  • Look into childcare EARLY. Waitlists can be long, and you don’t want to deal with that added stress later on.
  • Discuss your goals for college savings, but don’t ignore your own goals. Your kids might be upset if you’re still working at Age 70, because you wanted to put them through school.
• Get a basic will and estate plan in place
  • Specify who you want to care for baby if you are not able to do so.
  • Make it official, preferably with an attorney.

When you bring a little one into the family, everything changes – both financially and in every other way you can think of.  Keep in mind that you cannot “save up” to support a child long-term.  It will be an ongoing expense, likely for decades.  We all want to do what’s best for our kids, but make sure to prioritize your well-being too (financial and otherwise).  Best of luck to you all!

For more financial planning tips from Corey and Rachelle, find them on social media!
LinkedIn: @CoreyJanoff and @RachelleVanderzanden; Instagram: @CoreyJanoff and @VanderzandenRachelle; and Twitter: @CoreyJanoffCFP and @RachelleFinance 

Blog: How Much Does Disability Insurance Cost

This week's blog post dives into the factors that impact the cost of disability insurance.  

Our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to have our weekly blog post delivered directly to your inbox.

Anatomy of This Bear Market

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle chat about the whirlwind year we have had in the stock market so far.  It’s easy to look back and explain stock market movement in hindsight, but much harder to predict in advance.  But sometimes understanding the “why”, can help you avoid making poor choices – like selling when your portfolio is down 25%.  Listen for a little bit of context.

Why is the stock market down?

• Why is the stock market down?
  • The dynamic duo – inflation and interest rates
    • To try to bring inflation down, the Federal Reserve raises the federal funds rate, which leads to higher interest rates across the board
    • Stock prices go down, because the market thinks it will be harder for companies to make a profit with rates higher, but also because higher rates can lead to a decrease in jobs and/or wages
  • Geopolitical risk
    • International conflict increases energy prices, and creates some fear in the stock market, which can lead to some indexes declining
    • Affects international and emerging markets stock pricing more than domestic stock
  • Bottom line, part of this is the stock market trying to predict things that have not happened yet
• What is down? – Everything, but in different ways
  • Bonds are down, but not as much as stocks
  • Domestic stocks are down, with growth companies and small companies being hit harder than the tried-and-true big companies
  • Developed international and emerging markets are down more than the aggregate domestic stock index
  • This is why you want to be diversified. A well-diversified portfolio is still down, but less than if you were to double down on some of the higher risk/potentially higher return indexes

Keep in mind that nobody knows what will happen next in the stock market.  Just because someone has been correct in the past, does not mean they will be in the future.  If you are a long-term investor, it is important to stay focused on your long-term goals.  Generally, that means being consistent, and not reacting too much to short-term performance.

For more financial planning tips from Corey and Rachelle, find them on social media!
LinkedIn: @CoreyJanoff and @RachelleVanderzanden; Instagram: @CoreyJanoff and @VanderzandenRachelle; and Twitter: @CoreyJanoffCFP and @RachelleFinance 

Blog: Should I Do PSLF?

This week's blog post is about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF) and whether or not you should pursue it.  

Our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to have our weekly blog post delivered directly to your inbox.

Teaching Kids About Money

In this episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle jump into a topic that is near and dear to their hearts.  Teaching the little ones about money!  Money has been a taboo subject for too long.  When we don’t talk about it, we fail to set our kids up for success.  It’s important for them to understand, even at an early age, that every piece of clothing, every toy, even the roof of their head requires resources of time and money.  There are many age-appropriate ways to teach kids about money.

Some teaching examples by age include:

• At any age
  • Point out the cost of individual items.
  • Talk about wants vs needs.
  • Talk with them about the tradeoffs of time and money. If we work more, we have more money, but less time to spend with you.  What do you think about that?
• Ages 5 and under:
  • Sticker or token system for chores or good behavior. Can be exchanged for a reward of your choice.
• Ages 5 and up:
  • Consider a small allowance.
  • Discuss saving for something larger vs making smaller purchases.
  • Open a savings account for them and give them interest credits.
  • Play games that use money.
  • If you have any accounts set up for them (like a 529) explain it to them and look at it with them periodically.
• Ages 12 and up:
  • Consider a larger allowance and more responsibility for their own expenses. Give them a chance to manage their own budget with low stakes.
  • Enter a stock market simulation contest.

Money is not everything, but it is a very important part of how the world works.  Talking with kids about it on a regular basis will help them make better decisions when they are older, and you can’t look over their shoulder any more.

For more financial planning tips from Corey and Rachelle, find them on social media!
LinkedIn: @CoreyJanoff and @RachelleVanderzanden; Instagram: @CoreyJanoff and @VanderzandenRachelle; and Twitter: @CoreyJanoffCFP and @RachelleFinance 

Blog: How Does Tax Loss Harvesting Work?

This week's blog post walks through how to tax-loss harvest your taxable investment accounts to help reduce your overall tax liability.

Our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to have our weekly blog post delivered directly to your inbox.

Blog: *URGENT* Student Loan “Limited Waiver” Program

This week's blog post, written by Braden Balocan, is about the temporary limited waiver student loan forgiveness program.  Deadline is October 2022.  Act now to take advantage of it!

Our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog, where you can also sign up for our newsletter to have our weekly blog post delivered directly to your inbox.

Financial Feedback Loop

In today’s episode of Financial Clarity for Doctors, Corey and Rachelle talk about one of the main reasons financial planning can be so challenging.  Unfortunately, you have to wait a LONG time to find out if you made the best choices.  When we are talking about long-term planning, the short-term success or failure of specific choices doesn’t matter quite as much.  So how can you tell if you’re on the right track?

Examples of this challenge include:

• Short-term performance of investments. Doesn’t really matter if it’s retirement money!  Only long-term performance matters.
• Consistent income from a rental property over time.
• College savings. How do you know you’re saving enough when you have no idea how much college will cost?

The bottom line is that we cannot always know that we are making the best or optimal choice for our financial plan.  You CAN know that you are making GOOD choices.  Good financial choices include things like saving more for retirement or putting extra toward debt.  We can only know which one was the optimal choice with hindsight, but we can know that both are a good choice now.

For more financial planning tips from Corey and Rachelle, find them on social media!
LinkedIn: @CoreyJanoff and @RachelleVanderzanden; Instagram: @CoreyJanoff and @VanderzandenRachelle; and Twitter: @CoreyJanoffCFP and @RachelleFinance 

Blog: Term vs. Whole Life Insurance

We're starting to record an audio version of our weekly blog posts that can be found at www.theFinityGroup.com/blog.  Be on the lookout for these to arrive in your feed each week.  

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, so this week's blog is titled, Term vs. Whole Life Insurance, written by Corey Janoff.