How are you budgeting for vacation? It’s early summer in Michigan, and for a lot of families that means road trips to up north destinations, cottage rentals on lakes, and, sometimes, too much fudge and ice cream. Vacation season can also mean budget troubles: nobody likes to be cheap when on vacation, and these unknown, non-regular expenses can be difficult to plan around. Strategies for Budgeting for Vacation There are some strategies you can use to cope with non-recurring, one-time events to k...
Jun 28, 2021•17 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Stock market data is everywhere we turn these days. The evening news will tell us whether the market was up, or the market was down. Most major news websites portray the market with a series of numbers in green for good days and red for bad days. But what are these numbers really measure? And what does it all mean for the average investor? Common Measures of Stock Market Performance There are a few common measures of market performance, and each one is unique in what it measures and how to apply...
Jun 17, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Inflation has dominated the financial headlines over the last few weeks. We’ve seen some of the fastest price increases in decades for some everyday goods and services and commodities. Inflation can impact the financial markets, and we know it has been on the minds of many of our clients. CPI is a popular measure of inflation What is meaningful to a long-term investor? It’s important to think through the different aspects of inflation and sort out what is meaningful for a long–term investor. Bas...
Jun 03, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Investment Real Estate and Rental Properties – Is it a good idea or not? Join Dave and Nick as they talk about the pros and cons of real estate as an investment strategy. Hear Dave’s opinion on why he decided it wasn’t for him. There’s an adage when it comes to investing in real estate: they’re not making more of it, so the property should go up in value over time. And that’s true, to a certain extent. Although, as the last twenty years have shown, the ride can be bumpy along the way. We often h...
Jun 01, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Often in financial planning, we face questions where the right answer is based on weighing a choice’s pros and cons and understanding the tradeoffs. Pension choices are one of those questions. If you are covered by an employer pension, you will face choices at retirement that can have long-lasting financial impacts. However, because we don’t know how long you are going to live, or how long your spouse is going to live, the mathematical correct answer is unknowable. These choices are often very s...
May 20, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin, in particular, have been a hot topic of conversation in the world of finance. Since we get a lot of questions on the topic, we thought we should address them in this week’s podcast. It’s important to understand what a cryptocurrency is – and is not – before you consider buying one. As this handout from Vanguard explains , a cryptocurrency is a digital means to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions. They are based on blockchain technology, which is a complex, multi-com...
May 14, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Tune in to listen to Dave and Nick’s review of First Quarter 2021. If you have any questions or would like a review of your portfolio and financial plan, contact our advisors by calling or emailing us at 517-321-4832 or info@srbadvisors.com. 1Q 2021 Broad Markets The first quarter of 2021 was another strong quarter for stock markets around the globe. The broad measure of the US markets was up 6.35% and international stocks were up 4.04%. Emerging markets rose 2.29% and global real estate rose 6....
May 06, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Michigan State offers three retirement plans that work together based on how much the employee intends to save. Here are some tips on how to make the most of them. The first two plans work together: the MSU 403(b) Base Retirement Plan receives the employee’s first 5% of income contributions along with the University’s matching contributions. The MSU 403(b) Supplemental Retirement Plan can then be used for the additional employee contributions. The third plan is the Michigan State University 457(...
Apr 21, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Budgeting is hard enough for most people, but when you only get paid nine months out of the year, how do you manage your month-to-month expenses? The trick is to budget for the summer during the rest of the year. You do this by building up a balance that you can use to see you through three months without a paycheck. This sounds simple enough, but in practice, we have found it proves difficult for some educators to implement. Budgeting For the Entire Year with Seasonal Income Here’s an approach ...
Apr 21, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 32
My adult child needs financial help. Can I afford it? Should I help? We get questions about how to financially help adult children all the time from our clients. This is a true kitchen table conversation about real life and real decisions. Oftentimes parents feel they do not have a choice and should help their adult child financially. But it is important to understand how that will impact your own financial stability and retirement. Would You Do It? David and Nick tackle some common scenarios an...
Apr 12, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 30
On this week’s edition of the Kitchen Table Podcast, Nick and I interviewed Molly Petitjean, an estate planning attorney with the law office of Buhl, Little, Lynwood, and Harris, PLC in East Lansing, Michigan. On April 21, Molly will be presenting a webinar with us on estate planning basics. Today’s conversation is a preview of that presentation. Estate planning is a complex topic that is often fraught with emotion and topics we don’t like to think about. However, Molly puts these things in term...
Mar 31, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Dealing with volatile markets requires discipline, and we believe it is important to have a written philosophy. Our firm follows the following principles when we make portfolio choices and evaluate the asset managers and model builders with whom we work. #1. Short-term market returns cannot be known or predicted. The markets will fluctuate daily based on the news flow and many unpredictable events. The market’s movements in response to these changes cannot be predicted. In the long run, markets ...
Mar 24, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Last week, the government passed the American Rescue Plan , which provided the third round of stimulus payments. This also includes enhanced child tax credits and unemployment benefits. These potential payments and tax credits all have qualifications based on income levels and provide some planning opportunities. The bill provided stimulus payments, or “Recovery Rebates,” of $1400 per taxpayer and dependent based on certain levels of adjusted gross earnings. The benefit phases out between $75,00...
Mar 24, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 28
A Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) allows you to put money away long-term. If you follow the rules, your distributions during retirement are tax-free. If you are eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA, it can become a powerful retirement savings vehicle. How Does A Roth IRA Work? With a Roth IRA, you deposit funds that have already been taxed. You don’t get to deduct the contribution from your income as you do with a traditional IRA contribution. However, if you wait to take withdrawals un...
Mar 08, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 26
How has the economy been impacted by Covid in the last twelve months? It’s been 12 months since the markets first felt the impact of the global Coronavirus pandemic. It’s been a crazy year. The market, our lives, and our emotions have been on a rollercoaster. Nick and I put together a list of our favorite financial planning and investing lessons from the strangest year of our lives. #1. Predicting the markets is a fool’s errand . In the first few weeks of 2020, the stock market was pushing to ne...
Feb 26, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 25
How do you make educated guesses on investing in new industries and which ones are going to pay off? In the early fall of 2019, I got an email from a client asking whether Beyond Meat , a young company in the new “meat alternative industry,” was a good investment opportunity for her. The stock was all over the news. The company just inked a deal with McDonald’s’ to feature their product in some new menu items. Beyond Meat stock, at the time of the article she forwarded to me, was up 11% on the n...
Feb 23, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 24
For our book club, Amy, Jeff, Nick, and I have been reading Changing for Good by James Proshaska, John Norcross, and Carlo DiClemente . This book was first brought to my attention by one of my instructors at Kansas State, Dr. Megan Lurtz, who wrote an article about how to apply the book’s teachings to the financial planning process. Our team found the book extremely useful. Not just for financial planning but because it provides a great framework for how to change habits and make progress in lif...
Feb 23, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 23
For many of our clients, charitable giving is an important part of financial planning. Supporting causes in which you believe can be a very rewarding goal. Traditionally, the tax code has supported charitable giving and encouraged Americans to be generous with their support of non-profit organizations. The tax law changed in 2018, increasing the standard deduction. This has made it more difficult for many middle-class Americans to get a tax benefit for supporting charities. Itemized Tax Deductio...
Feb 12, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Join Dave Shotwell and Nick Nauta as they discuss the current financial climate and the 4th quarter of 2020. The main investment lesson for 2020 was to stay invested as much as possible. In January 2020, our main concerns were the impact of a trade war with China and the upcoming election. What if we had told you that there would soon be a global pandemic that would shake up the world’s economic system, and in the US we’d be dealing with wide-spread civil unrest and a toxic political atmosphere?...
Feb 01, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Lately, we’ve had a few discussions with clients centered around their stimulus money and what they should do with it. While most people expect a pretty cut and dry answer from financial planners, these conversations have led to some interesting philosophical discussions around why the stimulus checks were necessary, whether they were deserved or needed, and different ways the funds can be used for their intended purpose. Why do we get stimulus money? The government had two main goals in issuing...
Feb 01, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 19
