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Slick TV ads often make financial planning and wealth management sound simple, but it’s usually not. Managing wealth requires knowing a lot about highly technical topics, like taxes, government regulations, and finance as well as history, psychology and how to communicate with loved ones about sensitive issues. This article highlights some of the knowledge needed to manage wealth and why it’s often so daunting without the help of an independent personal financial advisor who is familiar with your situation.
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Understanding The Federal Reserve Mandate To End Inflation
The Federal Reserve System, the nation’s central bank, has a dual mandate to pursue maximum employment and maintain price stability. These two priorities are currently treated equally, but that was not always the case. In fact, the Fed’s bias toward maximizing employment was a critical driver of the stagflation that plagued the U.S. in the late 1960s and 1970s. Recognizing the need to balance price stability and maximum employment, in 1977, Congress revised the Federal Reserve Act.
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Fed Governor Kugler Details Inflation And Economic Outlook
The 12-month inflation rate, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, was 2.6% in December, down from its peak of 7.1% in June 2022, and the six-month rate for PCE inflation was even lower, at 2%, which is the target rate set by the Federal Reserve.
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Why Rates May Not Be Cut Until June
The cost of a loan to buy a home, car, college education, and achieve the American Dream is staying the same for now. As expected, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank did not lower loan rates following the Fed’s Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, policy meeting.
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Practical Suggestions For Achieving Your 2024 Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions usually fail because they‘re often too hard to achieve. After six months, only 10% of people who make resolutions achieve them or remain committed to them, , according to a study by Dr. Mark Griffiths, a Chartered Psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Addiction at the Nottingham Trent University. What can you do to make financial, medical, or other personal resolutions more likely to be achieved?
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A Sign Of Progress In Solving U.S. Economic Problems
The Federal Reserve appears to be pulling off a feat most experts did not believe it could: ending its aggressive inflation-fighting campaign of 11 interest rate hikes without tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.
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Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged; Expects Easing In 2024
To promote transparency and free markets, the Federal Reserve System began publishing the opinions of the 19 U.S. central bankers that decide interest rate policy.
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Have You Logged Into Your Social Security Account?
Have you logged in to your Social Security account? Creating an online account at SSA.gov is an important first step in understanding your retirement income situation. However, only about 60 million of the 160 million individuals in the U.S. labor force who have Social Security accounts have created a way to access the Social Security Administration’s website.
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The Great Fake Out Of 2023 Is Poised To Extend Into 2024
All year long, the economy and stock prices have fooled experts and consumers, outperforming expectations month after month.
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Test Your Financial Planning IQ
The five questions below are a challenge meant to allow you to assess your knowledge of investing, tax and financial planning. If you have been following our news stream, this quiz draws on familiar ground. The answers are below.
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Planning Briefs
Neither Red Nor Blue, Tax Planning Is All About The Green
Published Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at: 10:04 PM EST
Here's a chance for us all to come together. No matter whether you voted Red or Blue, tax planning is about green!
Whether you like Biden or Trump, you probably want to pay as little tax as possible. Assuming that's true, this is an urgent and important tax alert, and a call to act before the end of 2020.
A majority of financial professionals expect estate taxes will be hiked in 2021. This could be a really big deal to your family. Specially, more than half of advisors surveyed at a continuing education class for tax and financial planning professionals expect the estate tax exemption will be slashed from $11.5 million to $3.5 million.
To be clear, failing to plan for what's expected to happen by a majority of tax and financial planners could mean paying tens of thousands of dollars or more in estate taxes. But it requires acting by the end of 2020, which is closing in fast.
In addition to the expansion of the estate tax, the payroll tax is widely expected to be expanded to millions of high-income earners. According to Advisors4Advisors, a popular news and education service for tax and financial planning professionals, 75% of practitioners believe the payroll tax will also be hiked on high-income earners in 2021.
Doctors, dentists, audiologists, and other professionals as well as business owners who earn more than $400,000 are targeted for a 12.4% payroll tax increase in 2021 under President-elect Biden's tax plan, according to the Biden campaign website.
No matter your political leanings, the need for action by the end of the year by high-net worth and high-income individuals is urgent.
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