INSIGHTS

Stop Asking When. Start Asking Why. Sarah K. Charles, CSRIC™, AIF® / Director of Business Strategy“Is now the right time to invest?”It is one of the most common questions that investors ask as they process the various threads of geopolitical events, macro-economic trends, natural disasters, cultural phenomena, and hair-raising headlines that are woven together into the tapestry of good news, bad news and uncertainty that is the backdrop for our lives. The first quarter of 2022 – which incidentally was the worst quarter for U.S. markets in 2 years and ended a 7-quarter streak of positive returns – was especially challenging for investors because instead of a single narrative to navigate e.g., Covid OR inflation OR supply chain OR war, we were bombarded with a multitude of storylines i.e., Covid AND inflation AND supply chain AND war.    On the first trading day of the year, the S&P 500 and the Dow both hit all-time highs. Is now ...

We’ve been taught that investing and personal finance are a math-based field; an arena ruled by logic. Where data, and tables, and formulas (oh my!) reign supreme. But in the real-world, decisions aren’t made by spreadsheets. They are made by people whose thoughts, feelings, and emotions blur the line between what’s right, and what’s right for us. And our success with money becomes less about what we know, and more about how we behave.

Attached is a summary of key tax and personal planning numbers for 2022 including: Income tax rates Standard deduction Education credits and deductions IRA contribution limits Health Savings Account contribution limitsPlease reach out with any questions you may have or if you’d like to discuss planning opportunities for the coming year. 

Did you know that you can predict the future by observing a rooster pecking at grain (alectryomancy)? Or by studying patterns in melting wax (ceromancy)? Watching what happens to molten metal after it’s dumped in cold water (molybdomancy) is another method for fortune telling. So is watching parakeets pick up fortune cards (the aptly named parrot astrology).  Divination has been practiced by many cultures for millennia, and the future can be foretold using everything from scattered salt (alomancy) to the sediment at the bottom of a wine glass (tasseography) to the movements of an ax placed on a post (axinomancy).

2021 Year-End Tax Planning

Medicare beneficiaries can make new choices and pick plans that work best for them during the annual Medicare Open Enrollment Period. Each year, Medicare plan costs and coverage typically change. In addition, your health-care needs may have changed over the past year. The Open Enrollment Period — which began on October 15 and runs through December 7 — is your opportunity to switch your current Medicare health and prescription drug plans to ones that better suit your needs.During this period, you can: Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage Plan Switch from a Medicare Advantage Plan to Original Medicare Change from one Medicare Advantage Plan to a different Medicare Advantage Plan Change from a Medicare Advantage Plan that offers prescription drug coverage to a Medicare Advantage Plan that doesn't offer prescription drug coverage Switch from a Medicare Advantage Plan that doesn't offer prescription drug coverage to a Medicare Advantage Plan that do...

By: Sarah K. Charles, CSRIC™, AIF® / Director of Business Strategy and Bill Laird, CFA®, CFP® / Chief Investment OfficerA Look Back (Because Hindsight is 20/20) Sarah K. Charles, CSRIC™, AIF®The new fall season of TV boasts 25 reboots. Imagine.  Twenty-five TV shows that have come and gone and are now back again – revived or reimagined; and while I love Frasier Crane as much as anyone, it seems as if we have run out of ideas for new content and find ourselves with no other option but to recycle the characters and storylines of the past.It’s not just the fall TV line-up where stories are being recycled.    Each quarter, when I sit down to write this newsletter, I have one primary objective: find the story that’s been garnering the most headlines in the financial media – and explain it by looking through the lens of financial science instead of what will sell the most advertising.  ...

This event has already occurred.While women are confident in many areas of their financial lives, they have historically felt less confident or no confidence when it comes to investing. Why? Sarah Charles begins with the question “What is confidence?,” a question that Kitty Kay and Claire Shipman set out to answer in their New York Times bestselling book The Confidence Code. She then takes the lessons learned from The Confidence Code and applies them to the basic principles of investing on the hopes that more women will answer “Yes” when asked: are you confident when it comes to investing?VIEW WEBINAR RECORDING HERESpeaker:Sarah Charles, CSRIC™, AIF® / Director of Business Strategy, Sr. Financial Advisor, DHG Wealth AdvisorsDate: November 1, 2021Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM ESTCPE: 1 hour CPE, pending approvalCPE Information: CPE Credit: One hour of CPE (pending approval) Delivery Format: Group Internet Based Prerequisites / Advanced Preparat...

October is the kickoff season for financial aid. That's when incoming and returning college students can start filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA, for the next academic year. The FAFSA is a prerequisite for federal student loans, grants, and work-study, and may be required by colleges before they distribute their own institutional aid to students.How do I submit the FAFSA?The FAFSA for the 2022-2023 school year opens on October 1, 2021. Here are some tips for filing it. The fastest and easiest way to submit the FAFSA is online at studentaid.gov. The site contains resources and tools to help you complete the form, including a list of the documents and information you'll need to file it. The online FAFSA allows your tax data to be directly imported from the IRS, which speeds up the overall process and reduces errors. Before you file the FAFSA online, you and your child will each need to obtain an FSA ID (federal student aid ID), which you can also do onl...

Retirement is changing, and chances are, your golden years are going to be very different than your parents’ or grandparents’. Prepare yourself for the challenges and opportunities of the new retirement landscape with this interactive workshop. DHG Wealth Advisors will show you how to get the best retirement possible with the money you have.