Tea T.I.M.E.

Thanksgiving Family Money Letter 2017

 in Financial wellness / ProsperiTea Planning / Tax Updates / Tea T.I.M.E. / Thanksgiving Family Money Letter  tagged Thanksgiving Family Money Letter by (updated 806 days ago)

Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s my annual newsletter filled with tips to talk about with your family over the Thanksgiving table, because money is probably the least stressful topic, right? There are four sections to the newsletter – feel free to skip around between General updates, Tax Tips, Tea T.I.M.E. (Investing news), and Financial Planning Tips. #1: Updates!Tea & Taxes continues to wind down as I make room for more people and more services in ProsperiTea Planning. What […]

Socially Responsible Investing – as seen from a fiduciarily responsible investment advisor

 in Tea T.I.M.E. / Thanksgiving Family Money Letter  tagged investing / sustainability / Thanksgiving Family Money Letter by (updated 806 days ago)

I’ve been taught that investing is something that is best done passively: buy a diversified portfolio that tries to maximize expected return (by asset class) while minimizing overall risk of the portfolio (by having non-correlated assets.) I’ve read books like “The Incredible Shrinking Alpha” and scholarly papers. Both explain that we aren’t going to come up with some bright idea that beats the market through our particular genius, other than by sheer chance. I’ve been […]

What is a Custodian?

 in Tea T.I.M.E. / Thanksgiving Family Money Letter  tagged investing by (updated 86 days ago)

What’s a custodian? That’s the Fort Knox for your money. They safeguard it, they do reports (including issuing tax forms), and they’re who you write the checks out to when you’re depositing money. They provide the app and website software for you to access your account, too. For individual investors who are doing things themselves, the lines get blurred a lot of the time. I commonly see people confused because they know Vanguard funds are […]

Are you ready for ProsperiTea?

 in Our business / ProsperiTea Planning / Tea T.I.M.E.  tagged new prospects by (updated 806 days ago)

Who should hire me? Meet four people, all amalgams, of people who are happy they did. Awesome Elder Alex is retired and wants to be off living a fun life. Alex wants a trustworthy person to do the money stuff, including designing a cash flow strategy, and keeping funds invested prudently. Wendy works as a retirement concierge, being the financial person on their team. Financially Free (or Retired Now) Fran doesn’t want financial planning, Fran […]

My thoughts on 529 College Savings Plans

 in CFP / Tea T.I.M.E. / Thanksgiving Family Money Letter  tagged college planning / estate planning / financial planning / investing / Thanksgiving Family Money Letter by (updated 2526 days ago)

I’m not in love with 529 plans. I think they are really fabulous in a few settings, but most of the time they’d be my third or fourth choice for ways to save for college. (Update on 12-22-2017: they can also be used for private school now. It doesn’t change any of this advice.) First: when SHOULD you use a 529 plan? When you’re trying to create a trust fund on the cheap. If a […]

College Savings Plans

Book Review: “Your Money & Your Brain”

 in Book Reviews / Tea T.I.M.E.  tagged book reviews / investing / recommended by (updated 2560 days ago)

This book explains just how stupid you really are. I’ve heard this mentioned a couple of times and so, when I saw it on the shelves at the local library (what, you don’t cruise the 332 section of the library just on spec?) I picked up Jason Zweig’s “Your Money & Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich.”   I liked it. I dislike the subtitle, though.  I bet there […]