Archive for July, 2018
Financial Planning for Special Needs Individuals
Caring for a special needs individual can easily deplete a family’s time and resources. Without knowing the available opportunities and potential pitfalls, you could jeopardize this individual’s financial future and miss out on significant benefits and opportunities. Be Aware of The Different Financial and Educational Life Stages From a financial perspective, if a child is under 18 then the caregiver has primary support obligations and is considered a “natural guardian.” Deeming rules are in place for government assistance which confers your assets to the child for resource calculation purposes. After age 18, the child may need to have a guardian appointed. In terms of education, birth to age 3 involves detection and early intervention, from 3-5 you will help develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), from 15-21 the child will finish high school and potentially pursue college or vocational school, after age 21 the child will no longer have…
Navigating Healthcare & Medicare Expenses in Retirement
Preparing for healthcare expenses in retirement can be a daunting task but educating yourself and having your financial plan stress-tested are critical first steps and ones that we want to help you with. While these expenses can no doubt be significant, pro-actively planning for them could result in much better outcomes and allow you to stay focused on your other retirement goals! A Few Quick Statistics… Before diving in, it’s important to understand where we are today, and where we might be in the future in regards to these expenses. In summary, and which is likely not a surprise to you: healthcare has outpaced inflation for the past decade with prescription drug costs leading the way. For example, a prescription that cost $100 ten years ago would cost roughly $120 today. What the “Average” American Might Expect to Pay for Medicare This is incredibly difficult to determine due to the…
Weekly Talking Points
The S&P 500 was essentially flat last week returning just 0.04%, however there were some sizable moves throughout the week. Some of the biggest movers included United Continental Holdings (up 12.22%) and Netflix (down 8.78%). If anyone is looking for a reason to doubt the current recovery, the latest housing starts report gave them one. Housing starts not only declined 12.3% in June, but the decline was broad based nationally and included both single-family and multi-unit starts. In addition, building permits declined 2.2% in June. There just wasn’t much good is this report. We have to keep in mind monthly data can be volatile, and the first six months of this year was still better than the first six months of last year. Industrial production rose 0.6% in June. Auto production rose 7.7% for the month and is up 3.6% from a year ago. Along the lines of monthly data…
Weekly Talking Points
The S&P 500 ended the week up 1.56% as data is finally starting to win over headline fear. The S&P is now up 4.25% YTD, while the Dow lags at 0.82% up for the year. The big gainers continue to be technology and small-caps with their respective indices up 11.99% and 11.02% year-to-date. On Friday another solid jobs report was released. For the month of June the US created 213,000 new jobs (195,000 were expected), but even better than that, including revisions to April/May the total number rose to 250,000. Despite the job gains, the unemployment rate actually rose from 3.8% to 4.0%. This happens when workers return to the workforce. For many years after the financial crisis some “experts” lamented the fact that while the unemployment rate was decreasing the percentage of people participating in the labor force was actually dropping. Some of this was demographics – there are…
Weekly Talking Points
The S&P 500 ended the week down 1.31%, mainly on continued worries over tariffs and the threat thereof. Interestingly President Trump, during his rally in North Dakota, stated rather adamantly that the “trade disputes will ultimately be worked out.” Once (or is it “if”?) the trade issues “get worked out” I am still of the opinion that the market has a way to run in this current cycle. As of Friday’s close of business, the year-to-date numbers on the markets are as follows: S&P 500 is up 2.6%; Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.73%; NASDAQ is up 9.37% and the EAFE (International) is down 2.37%. Earnings and revenues are still growing, and growing broadly across sectors. Last week it was reported that durable goods orders for the month of May declined 0.6%. The decline was largely driven by auto’s, and related parts, along with aircraft. Despite the month-over-month decline,…
Aspen Wealth Strategies Q3 Market Commentary
“It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine” R.E.M. (1997) – American Alternative/Indie band “It’s the end of the world as we know it…” Many of you may best remember this song from the opening scene of the first “Independence Day” movie – you know, right before the alien horde destroyed most of the planet. The ironical foreshadowing set the tone for the eventual end of the film as the human race triumphed over the alien evil and everyone was left “feeling fine”. I feel like the financial media has been playing this song on their Pandora/Spotify/iPhone on repeat for the last several months. We have all seen the headlines and news regarding tariffs, and truth be told, regardless of the long-term success or failure of these tariffs – in the short-term – markets hate the uncertainty. I recently spoke with a fellow I went…
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