Tag: Goal Setting

Critical Mid-Year Tax-Related Ideas

Mid-Year is an important time to review several significant saving and spending decisions, possibly affecting taxes too. With just under 6 months remaining in the tax year – there’s still time to make a meaningful difference. Consider:

  • Confirming amounts being deferred pre- or post-tax into 401k and other retirement accounts (and whether to max out?)
  • Evaluating savings goals versus reality
  • If not begun yet, giving savings goals a jump start
  • Quantifying college savings account contributions
  • Creating and funding Trusts

These and other important decisions can be evaluated or adjusted – think of the process as forming goals or “mini-goals”.

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Checking in on New Year’s Resolutions

It may be a key time – before mid-year – to check in on goals made back in January. These goals could have focused on saving more or differently, spending reduction or realignment and areas of investment focus and diversification.

How is your progress on certain goals? Can tweaks be made? Can specific ones be scrapped and new goals or ideas formed?

One particular goal from January was something I nicknamed FSP:

“Focus on Saving in order to maintain Patience” – in the event of the inevitable market decline, or volatility similar to that of 2025.

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One New Year’s Resolution

It is that time of year when goals of every sort are made – for work, family, health and, yes, personal finances. Thinking about and writing down goals for each of these areas can be productive in itself. But then getting practical and boiling down a list of goals into a handful of things – or even JUST ONE THING – that a person resolves to make happen is critical.

Of course, this task is not easy, but hey, it is January 10th. Let’s give it a go.

Here is a goal that could be either a lifetime goal, or a one- or two-year goal that could make a lifetime of difference:

Focus on Saving in order to maintain Patience – in the event of the inevitable market decline. My nickname for this goal is FSP.

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Mid-Year & Critical Decisions

Mid-Year is an important time to review several significant saving and spending decisions, possibly affecting taxes too. There are slightly over 6 months remaining in the tax year – enough time to make a meaningful difference. Consider:

  • Amounts being deferred from compensation pre- or post-tax into 401k and other retirement accounts (and whether to max out?)
  • Savings goals versus reality
  • Savings goals in need of formation from scratch
  • College savings account contributions
  • Creating and funding Trusts

These and other important decisions can be evaluated and adjusted with just over half a year remaining to accomplish goals or mini-goals.

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The Power of Human Capital

Continuing with the theme of “tax season time crunch” comes another 1-minute read. The in-depth 2-minute version of TGIF 2 Minutes will return soon.

Amidst tax season, questions can come to mind:

  • WHY do we work so hard to pay so much in taxes?
  • Why am I not on a beach somewhere getting “more” out of life?
  • What is the “right” balance or timing around working now/spending later or spending now/working later, especially in light of all the taxes we pay?

There are too many answers to these simple yet complex questions. Given the 1-minute time frame of this Friday morning read, simplicity rules. Please consider the concept of human capital in order to apply a common aspect to all three questions above.

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Greatest Chart Ever… Even Better

Long-time TGIF 2 Minutes readers know that “The Greatest Chart Ever” truly is a great chart* with data illustrating reasons to invest – and stay invested – in stocks for the short-, intermediate- and especially the long-term. The chart focuses on US stocks, namely the S&P 500, and lends to globally diversified stock investing as well.

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A Little Paranoia Can Be OK

From the 2022 Archives of TGIF 2 Minutes with a few updates…

Record-breaking, big outlier events tend to move the needle to extremes in the economy and stock market. Note the word, “outlier”. Outlier events typically are surprises and are often unlikely. In his beyond excellent book The Psychology of Money* author Morgan Housel lists five events that were outliers over history in the US with world-changing consequences:

  • The Great Depression
  • World War II
  • The dot-com bubble
  • September 11th**
  • The housing crash of the mid-2000’s.

A conclusion could be drawn from the book’s chapter titled, “Surprise!” that surprises are perhaps the most reliable thing going. But the irony of the reliability of surprises is we do not know what the surprise is until after it has unfolded.

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Why Save & Invest?

 

The question, “Why save and invest?” is one not emphasized nearly enough. Often, savers and investors – whether having accumulated millions of dollars or those just getting started – focus almost exclusively on the various investments themselves, without first and often taking a step back to establish the “WHY” of investing.

The WHY can vary greatly, which is the reason the question is so meaningful.

Just this week I heard about the show currently on Netflix called “How to Get Rich” (haha, I may have just lost a few readers who will jump to find out more about the show). But it is not the show that is the focus of this week’s edition of TGIF 2 Minutes but rather one of the ideas behind the show. The idea comes from the author and successful entrepreneur, Ramit Sethi. One of the key ideas Sethi emphasizes is the “rich life” we all may wish to attain.

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What Could Happen in 2023

What is in store for 2023? Is the stock market overvalued? In answer to the second question: perhaps yes, perhaps no. When most people ask, “Is the market overvalued or undervalued?” what they really are asking is, “Where is the market going next?”

Of course, no one knows for sure. But a bit of historical data can offer information for comparison. Below (top) is a chart showing how over-priced US growth stocks (yellow-ish line) have been over 100 years and how over-priced US value stocks (greenish-blue line) have been over the same period. It would seem that growth stocks are still over-valued. But look at the period for growth stocks between 1974 (the last time inflation was as high as it is today) and 1998. Can you say that it was obvious in 1992 that growth stocks were overvalued? Probably not.

Fast forward to 2023. What could happen next? See the bottom chart for more data.

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Answers to Year-End 2022 Questions

Year-End 2022 may be leaving us with more questions than answers. In addition to a prior posted list of questions, here are more:

  • Will interest rates continue to increase?
  • Will the US officially enter a recession? If so, how bad, and how long will it be?
  • Will there be more bankruptcies related to cryptocurrencies and trading?
  • What will become of the unbalanced employment situation?

The list can go on and on. For as long as most experienced investors reading this post can recall, there have always been questions that economists (similar to the weatherman/woman) attempt to answer. Readers and investors who are newer or younger can learn over time that questions regarding the economy and government/fiscal policy are what make markets operate. Everyone is entitled to her or his opinion, especially in investing:

silhouette of trees under fireworks
Photo by Zeepictures on Pexels.com

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