How to Review Your Tax Return – Common Tax Planning Mistakes
It’s important to review your tax return. People rarely review their tax return, and if they do, they often don’t review it properly. They may review it to make sure everything is accurate, but they don’t think about common tax planning mistakes they may be making. They don’t plan how to reduce their lifetime tax […]
How to Fire Your Financial Advisor in 4 Steps
Steps to Fire Your Financial Advisor
2025 IRMAA Brackets – How to Avoid IRMAA Surcharges
The Medicare IRMAA brackets are important to know to avoid surcharges, which is an additional fee many people discover as an unpleasant surprise. They think they will pay a certain amount for Medicare, but because of a higher income, they may be in a higher Medicare IRMAA bracket. The good news is that the IRMAA […]
2023 Financial Planning New Year’s Checklist
You’re retired, and it’s the start of 2023. What is on your financial planning New Year’s checklist? Instead of waiting until the end of the year, getting too busy in summer, or ignoring it during tax time, take a few moments to go through this financial planning new year checklist to potentially put yourself in […]
How to Talk to Adult Kids About Money and Inheritances
I’ve heard and seen many families make mistakes about inheritances, estate plans, and talking about money. Unfortunately, money is a taboo topic in most families. Parents might say, “We are doing fine.” They might also say, “Yes, we prepared for long-term care”, without actually understanding what it means to be prepared. Adult kids are thinking […]
How to Optimize Social Security Survivor Benefits as a Widow
Deciding how to claim Social Security survivor benefits as a widow could be a decision worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Deciding how to claim Social Security survivor benefits, while trying to navigate everything else when your loved one dies, is not a straightforward decision. Optimizing Social Security benefits requires you to consider your life […]
Kindness Financial Planning Turns 1 – Reflections from the 1st Year
Kindness Financial Planning, LLC turned 1 on December 9. I have learned many lessons over the past year. Building a fee-only financial planning firm is rewarding, challenging, frustrating, tedious, educational, soul-crushing, and spirit-lifting. People were not lying when they said entrepreneurship is filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows – sometimes in the […]
Tax-Loss Harvesting – Rules and Examples of a Year-Round Strategy
The stock market going down is a natural part of investing. When an investment goes down in value, there are silver linings. One of the silver linings is that you may be able to use a strategy called tax-loss harvesting, where you sell an investment for a loss in a brokerage account. The benefit of […]
Is Long-Term Care Insurance Worth It?
How to plan for long-term care and whether to purchase long-term care insurance is a difficult decision. Most people never plan on living years or decades with health issues, but it is becoming more common, which makes planning for long-term care important. How will you pay for care? Which assets will you use? Do you […]
What I’m Thankful for in 2022
It’s that time of year many people take a moment to reflect and ask themselves, “What am I thankful for this year?” It’s also a time people may want to practice gratitude. Their acts of gratitude may be as simple as keeping a thankful journal or inviting a friend to a meal. Those small acts […]
