It is still close enough to the start of the year to step back and be intentional about how to approach:
It starts with slowing down. There are a handful of truly wise books written on the topic. Two come to mind: Continue reading “Speeding Up & Slowing Down in Financial Decision Making”
Taxes matter, sadly, all year long. With this said, there are a handful of tax related items that matter more heavily at the very beginning of the year (read: important to “action” as early as possible in the new year).
In the world of IRA and 401(k) savings, maximum contributions have increased!
Here are the “data points” to get 2026 started on a positive note:
Very short note to ring in 2026! On the topic of last year’s stock (& bond) market returns, which were surprisingly impressive, who would have thought?!
Happy New Year’s Eve,
In order to keep the last TGIF 2 Minutes of 2025 as efficient as possible, here are a few year-end notes based on most frequently asked questions in December. Continue reading “Special Year-End Edition: Taxes & Trump Accounts”
Brewing a cup of coffee using Siri and Grok was one of my biggest “AI & tech victories” of the year. (Please read below for a handful of more sophisticated versions of AI use.) Dedicated TGIF 2 Minutes readers may recall back in July the story that could happen to anyone — of being a guest at someone’s home and encountering Continue reading “AI & Tech (I Tried) Using in 2025”
With the caveat that there are still 13 trading days remaining in the year, 2025 has been surprisingly — if not shockingly — a decent year for US and global equities. Especially in years with investment gains it can make sense to search for investment losses in taxable investment accounts. Taxable accounts are non-IRA and non-retirement accounts where realizing a capital loss can offset realized capital gains in the current year, OR– capital losses can be carried forward indefinitely to offset future capital gains. A small amount, or a maximum of $3,000, of realized capital losses can be used in a tax year to offset ordinary income. Continue reading “Tax Strategy & a Silver Lining to Losses”
Everyone experiences times when there are more decisions to be made and times when matters coast along with relatively less decision-making required. There are various types of “big decisions”, some of which are financial and others that fall in the category of life decisions. Certain of the heaviest decisions combine financial and life aspects. This last type requires research, thought and patience.
“Heavyweight decisions” range from:
It is Halloween, so with an intended pun it must be said: spooktacular times in markets and the economy continue.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is simultaneously spooky and spectacular. Nvidia, this week, reached a new milestone surpassing all other US companies with a $5 trillion market valuation. Nvidia’s market cap is now larger than the largest semiconductor companies AMD, Arm Holdings, ASML, Broadcom, Intel, Lam Research, Micron Technology, Qualcomm and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing combined.*
With the Federal Reserve’s action this week in cutting interests rates by one quarter of one percent, the word “recession” is back in the news as a possibility. There must be literally nothing else financially speaking to talk about. In the meantime, check out two really good slides.
The first slide (above) outlines the vast difference of:
