Sustainable investing is the idea that businesses can provide a net benefit to our society through their services or products and that by investing in these businesses your investments will be able to provide a more predictable and consistent earnings stream. This approach evolved out of socially responsible investing (SRI) which used negative screens to […]
Our Blog: The Bishop’s Piece
How to Reduce your Tax by Picking the way you Calculate Cost Basis
A simple way to reduce your tax liability can be to change how you calculate your cost basis on holdings that you sell. When investing in a globally diversified portfolio and using best practices by rebalancing on a standard time frame, you will end up having certain assets with varying cost basis, and hopefully capital […]
How to Take Advantage of the Tax Changes
With the new tax law comes lower taxes for some but it also changes the way you need to approach charitable giving if you want to take full advantage of the tax benefits. Now that the standard deduction has increased, many households will no longer be able to deduct their charitable contributions. However there are […]
How to Have Your Portfolio Last an Additional 7.5 Years
Most financial articles and research focus on the accumulation stage of retirement planning, involving what fund to invest in or what type of account to contribute to. But once you have saved and accumulated assets, the logistics of spending it are just as important. Traditional knowledge or “conventional wisdom” states that you want to take […]
Consider Tax Loss Harvesting for Additional Return
The markets, represented by the S&P 500, had a wild ride last week, dropping over 10% for the first time in a while. Even though no one enjoys these dips they can provide a tax opportunity through a strategy called tax loss harvesting, which has been shown to provide an additional return of .3%¹. Tax […]
Should you use Taxable or Tax-Free (Municipal) Bonds
Bonds come in many different shapes and sizes but one important aspect of them is their taxation. Some bonds pay a dividend that is taxable and some pay a dividend that is non-taxable, also called a Municipal bond. There are many caveats that can effect bond taxation, including the state that you live in, but […]
Don’t Forget About the ROTH Conversion!!!
When the new tax law was passed, it included a provision that got rid of recharacterizations of ROTH conversions. The rule used to state that if you converted an IRA into a ROTH, and then wanted to reverse that decision, you had until the due date for your tax return (including extensions) to do so. […]
To IRA or To ROTH? That is the Question.
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is if someone should contribute to an IRA or a ROTH. This is a great question and should be analyzed carefully because the net result can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars difference. To start out, an IRA contribution is put in prior to […]
Financial New Year’s Resolutions
I hope everyone is planning a New Year’s resolution. Even though according to U.S. News, about 80% of resolutions fail by the second week in February, it is still a good process to go through and you just may be that 20% that make it longer. For 2018, my resolution is to eat healthier, mainly by […]
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency (cryptocurrency). It is not controlled or regulated by a government or central bank and doesn’t need a middleman like a bank to transfer between users. Bitcoin has been the trendsetter and most well-known cryptocurrency, but others include Litecoin, Ethereum, etc. While they all work slightly different and use varying […]
