Restarting Student Loan Payments

As of October 1, 2023, the “pause” on federal student loan payments has ended. The pause was enacted during COVID-19 in 2020 and has been in place for nearly 3 ½ years. During this time, federal student loans stopped any automatic payments and did not collect interest. Borrowers were permitted to continue paying down the…

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Sense and Cents: Money Matters for Kids

Parents want their children to grow up to be financially healthy. We all have a money script, or a default mode in the ways we interact with and use money. Often our money patterns are ignored, inherited, imbibed or intentional (or a combination of all these). When ignored, we live in a constant state of…

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When Is The Best Time To Collect Social Security Benefits?

Over 69 million people in the United States receive social security benefits — so needless to say, it’s a pretty important topic. Understand that the government is simply giving you back all the money they deducted from your paychecks (“FICA”) while you were working.  But with the many nuances and complexities of the social security…

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Is Cash King?

While the origin of “cash is king” is unclear, it is a phrase that became popularized following the global stock market crash of 1987 by Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, then CEO of Swedish car group Volvo. Cash is flexible and can be likened to short term personal insurance against negative life circumstances. That is one reason…

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Finding Peace In Times of Turmoil

We wanted to take a moment to address recent current events. By now, you’ve likely seen that Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine, and the world capital markets didn’t react kindly. And amid these unsettling geopolitical tensions, an important life lesson comes glaringly into focus: actions have consequences.   The weight and gravity of those consequences vary dramatically,…

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What You Need To Know About RMDs for 2021

After a brief hiatus in 2020, required minimum distributions (RMDs) made their re-appearance for 2021.  The Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act waived RMDs in 2020, meaning that seniors and retirees were not required to take money out of IRAs and workplace retirement plans.  However, what most impacted RMD rules was the establishment…

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