Life Stage
Beginning to End
From Birth through End-of-Life planning, knowing what you are trying to achieve helps you plot your course and enjoy your life more effectively. Everyone’s life experience is different, but many people’s journeys include some key steps
College
From choosing a major, to paying back college loans, these formative years determine many of the next steps in a person’s life. Learning to identify your own goals, set your own standards, and design your own life can make huge impacts in how the next stages of your life will play out. In these years, it is about more than just getting a degree.
- Independence
- Budgeting
- First Car
- Establishing Credit
First Job
Understanding the power of compounding, both of investments and of debt, can make a big difference in your long term financial picture. Knowing when to pay taxes and when to defer them, when to invest in additional self-improvement and living life versus saving for the future, are all important decisions early in your career.
- Understanding your Paycheck
- Building Credit
- Developing a Savings Strategy
- Getting Health Insurance
Marriage
Joining your life with another often entails finances as well, but not always. Now, your decisions will dramatically impact the life of another person, and vice versa. Compromise, communication, and a host of new financial decisions become part of your world.
- Paying for your Wedding
- Creating a Will and Living Will
- Commingling Assets
- Buying a Home
Having Children
As your family grows, each child will bring wonderful new experiences, as well as additional financial responsibilities. Public or private school, saving for college, clubs and activities, needing more space, pets, and much more will impact both your financial budget and your time. There are also a number of financial steps to take to keep your financial world under control.
- Develop a budget
- Update your Will
- Save for College
- Evaluate your Insurance Needs
College Planning
These days, a college education often costs more than a first home. There are a number of important questions to answer. We can help you navigate big questions such as:
- How much will it cost?
- How much do I need to save?
- What types of accounts are best to save in?
- What other strategies should I consider?
Business Ownership/Leadership
As your career progresses, you move into positions of greater responsibility, leadership, and often tax payments. You may start your own business, and may become responsible for a larger burden of responsibility that goes with having employees, business assets, benefit plans, retirement accounts, and much more. However, you are not alone. We can help you:
- Evaluate and implement funding strategies for you and your employees
- Reduce your income tax burden
- Review your employee retention strategies and benefit offerings
- Implement strategies to be more tax efficient
Retirement
- Understand Your Retirement Picture
- Determine Your Retirement Incomes and Expenses
- Review and Consider Pensions and Social Security Options
- Evaluate Tax Efficient Methods of Funding Excess Expenses
- Rightsizing Your Home
Emotionally, the transition from saving for retirement to living off your retirement is one of the most challenging of all. Knowing this, it is important to take certain steps to be better prepared.
Estate Planning
Everything that you would want to pass on to your heirs or to charities makes up your estate. You have accumulated investments, assets, property, and more, and would like to figure out to transfer everything as efficiently as possible, minimizing the amount of work and taxes that would go into the process. Having a plan is important. And taking certain key steps can help make implementing that plan a lot more effective:
- Update Wills and Living Wills
- Set up Revocable and/or Irrevocable Trusts
- Implement a Gifting Strategy While Living
- Review Investments, Titling, Liquidity, Tax Impact
Eldercare
Advances in healthcare are helping us living longer, fuller lives. However, living longer often means having the opportunity to accumulate more health challenges over time. This holds true of our parents as well as our future selves. One of the biggest challenges is to continue to keep track of everything when we may no longer be as sharp as we used to be, or to take care of parents who are going through health challenges of their own. The sooner certain steps are taken, the better able you may be to take care of those around you.
- Powers of Attorney
- Healthcare Directives
- Permissions and Access to Doctors and Medical Records
- Long Term Health Emergency Preparation
End-of-Life Planning
As emotionally traumatic as it is to lose a loved one, there are certain steps that to take as early as possible that help ease the burden and stress on those who are going through crisis or grieving.
- Updating Living Wills
- Updating Healthcare Representatives
- Keeping Key Information Organized and Accessible
- Using Trusts to Ensure Your Wishes are Achieved
