Many people seem to devote more time to planning a vacation, choosing a car to buy, or even selecting a spot to eat dinner than they do to estate planning—deciding who will inherit their assets after they’re gone. And, quite frankly, we get it. It’s not as ...
We live in a world of taxes. Some taxes are obvious and affect most people: income or sales taxes, for example. Some taxes, ...
One lament of the newly-retired person is the realization that although their careers might have ended, their tax liabilities ...
In a high-inflation environment, investors seek out market returns. In a volatile market environment, investors seek out ...
Americans are both pragmatic and competitive. So, it’s unsurprising that they often wonder, “Am I doing ok financially at this ...
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f you have a home mortgage, you know it’s a big deal. A massive, 30-year big deal. But you also know that retirement is a big ...
Sharing a life with someone brings much joy and lasting memories. Spouses, children, parents, and partners. But sharing a life ...
Growing up means many things, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially. And most people agree that teaching ...
We strive to remain optimistic during rough economic times, as investment and financial well-being can be stressful, even in good ...
If you are a homeowner, your primary house is often your most valuable asset. However, unlike other assets, you can’t just sell ...
The process can be confusing no matter how you prepare your tax returns. You intuitively understand that a certain percentage of ...
It’s tax season. Again. And as we all file our tax returns, it might be helpful to know that, when it comes to taxing their ...
Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It suggests 80% of an outcome is often the result of just 20% of the effort you put into it.
Whether you’re leaving your job by choice or not, don’t forget about your 401(k) plan. As workers continue to leave their jobs at ...
Going to the gym? Reading more? Taking that long-awaited vacation? Everybody wants the new year to start well, and personal ...
Every January, it’s typical to reflect on market data from the year past. You’ll see the results in your own quarterly reports, ...
Who doesn’t enjoy tying up year-end loose ends? The original SECURE Act was signed into law on December 20th, 2019. Its “sequel,” ...
Tax season is just around the corner, which means it’s that time to ask yourself a familiar question: will I owe money, or will I ...
With a new year comes new goals, hopes, and aspirations. Much less exciting, however, the new year comes with new tax changes, ...
It’s becoming more common every year: Americans are transferring money electronically more than ever. Not surprisingly, the IRS ...
Ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the 1935 Social Security Act, most Americans have ended up pondering ...
In our last piece, we described our marvelous markets, and how to account for their being both robust and random at the same ...
The government really wants Americans to save for retirement. As a result, the government sets up rules and incentives to ...
In our last piece, we introduced the importance of saving,which is the first of five basics that have served investors well over ...
To say the least, there’s been plenty of political, financial, and economic action this year—from rising interest rates, to ...
It may be hard to believe, but the holiday season is here, which means many Americans are planning to donate to their favorite ...
In our last piece, we wrote about how recency bias can damage your investments by causing current crises to loom large, while ...
Football, back to school, and…health insurance? Yes, it’s that time of year once again when millions of American workers get to ...
In part one of our series, we explored the world of target date mutual funds. These funds are incredibly common options within ...
In part one of our series, we began to explore the often-vague world of FICO scores, more commonly known as credit scores. In ...
There were so many big events competing for our attention this summer … said nearly every investor, almost every summer, ever.
Remember your grade point average (GPA) in high school or college? We don’t blame you if you don’t. But we do know that soon ...
If you’re feeling unsteady amid stock market volatility, high inflation, and rising interest rates, you may wonder how much cash ...
As a financial advisor, the invention of the target date mutual fund ranks right up there with the invention of the mutual fund ...
For younger Americans, it’s a movie and television cliché. For older Americans, it was a staple of American life. What are we ...
Last month, we highlighted the importance of teaching children financial literacy, specifically ages 3 to 10. This month let’s ...
After taking a closer look at interest rates in part 1 and inflation in part 2 we come to the heart of the matter: When interest ...
Even though we know it was just dumb luck, can we get a round of applause for seeming to forecast last month’s surprisingly ...
Last month, we addressed some of the most common concerns for those looking to begin investing. In our third and final part of ...
The employer-sponsored 401(k) plan is so ubiquitous that “retirement plan” and “401(k)” are often used interchangeably by working ...
Has rising inflation got you down? In our last piece, “Understanding Interest Rates” we explored how rising and falling interest ...
Unfortunately, the K-12 education system currently does a poor to middling job of teaching financial literacy to students. As a ...
Entering the retirement phase of life is a significant change for many people. From a financial standpoint, some things don’t ...
Last month, we began our series for new investors who are anxious to get started. Investing can be daunting for beginners, but we ...
There’s been a lot of talk about recessions lately: Whether one is near, far, or perhaps already here. Whether we can or should ...
Since March, the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised its federal target funds rate by 1.50%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has also ...
Most Americans are hard-working, maintain a disciplined budget, live within their means, and are good savers. But good savers are ...
The great American humorist, Will Rogers, said it best: “Buy land. They ain’t making any more of it”. What he is saying is that ...
American workers rely on their employer-sponsored retirement plan to build their nest eggs. They also change jobs more than ever, ...
This might be the ultimate good news/bad news scenario: most Americans live longer than ever before, but this means our ...
In 2021, the average U.S. home seller made a profit of $94,092, up a whopping 71% from 2019. Great news for sellers, right? ...
Medicare is the most widely-used federal entitlement program, providing comprehensive health insurance for over 59.9 million ...
Recency bias: a cognitive bias that gives greater importance to the most recent events. It’s natural. It’s human. Even the most ...
All industries have obscure jargon, terminologies, and professional designations. The financial industry is no different. As a ...
Let’s start with a very common scenario: you’ve just received a big promotion at your job. Very few things feel quite as good as ...
Along with Social Security, Medicare is the most widely-used federal entitlement program, providing comprehensive health ...
In September 2017, a massive Equifax security breach became public knowledge. If there was a silver lining to this infamous ...
Flipping houses. Booming real estate markets. Bidding wars. There seems to be nothing that gets the average person to care about ...
Let’s first get the hard part out of the way: Is it possible for people to retire early? Yes. Absolutely. Okay, let’s now explore ...
In the final part of our tax-planning series, we aim to bring it all together. It’s one thing to know the best tax strategies; ...
In our last piece, we covered fund management costs. Next, let’s take a step back from the mutual funds, ETFs, or other holdings ...
Tax season is just around the corner, which means it’s that time to ask yourself a familiar question: will I owe money, or will I ...
The price of a college education has grown considerably in the last few decades. Why? That’s a different question for a different ...
Estate planning is the forgotten element of comprehensive financial planning. Why? It’s obvious, right? We don’t want to ponder ...
In part one of our tax-planning series, we discussed the tools at your disposal to maximize tax-efficient strategies. For part ...
Since we maintain a long-term investment strategy that discourages individual stock-picking, we often utilize two types of ...
Doctors write prescriptions. Auto mechanics perform tune-ups. Lawyers prepare briefs. Financial advisors help you manage your ...
What are your investments really costing you? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. It’s not like you’re handed a menu of charges ...
Is investing riskier than usual these days? In our experience, probably not. If there is such a thing as “normal” in this world ...
For better or worse, many of us have had more time than usual to engage in new or different pursuits in 2020 and 2021. Even if ...
The government really, really wants Americans to save for retirement. As a result, the government sets up rules and incentives to ...
Whether you’re saving, investing, spending, bequeathing, or receiving wealth, there’s scarcely a move you can make without ...
Believe it or not, another year has rounded third base and is dashing toward home plate. That said, there’s still time to make a ...
For those of you who are currently utilizing Multnomah Group’s client portal, we are excited to announce a mobile app version of ...
As we’ve discussed in a previous blog, Social Security benefits increase annually based on inflation, also known as the ...
As Oregon residents, you have probably grown accustomed to Oregon’s—for better or worse—quirky state and local governmental ...
Halloween. A fun season for some people. A dreaded season for others. For those Halloween enthusiasts out there who love the ...
Market indexes. You read about them all the time, such as when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the Dow) breaks a new record. In ...
For as long as we’ve been in business, we have encouraged investors to adopt a patient, long-term approach to capturing the ...
Social Security is the comprehensive federal benefits program designed to provide guaranteed income for retirees and their ...
Sometimes the best, most rigorously developed financial advice is so obvious, it’s become cliché. And yet, investors often end up ...
As we covered in our last piece, indexes have their uses. They can roughly gauge the mood of a market and its participants. If ...
Pre-tax or post-tax? The eternal question. In other words, when faced with the option of the Roth IRA or the Traditional IRA, to ...
We appreciate your following our five-part series on value investing. If you’ve made it this far, your journey is nearly complete.
We’re sure you’ve read or heard something recently about the expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit, arguably the most ...
We see it often: Whenever investors are spooked by turbulent times, dollars tend to flow out of the stock market, and into “safe ...
If there is a universal investment ideal, it is this: Every investor wants to buy low and sell high. What if we told you there is ...
If you’ve been following our series on value investing so far, you may be wondering what other evidence we have considered with ...
Here at Multnomah Group, we try to keep the financial jargon to a minimum. But even where we may succeed, you’re likely to ...
It’s certainly understandable if the economic uncertainty unfolding in the daily news has left you wondering – or worrying – ...
“The Dow was up 131 points today…”, you hear the news anchor say. You know they are referring to the stock market. You know up is ...
So far in our five-part series on value investing, we’ve explored the factor’s origins, and proposed that evidence-based ...
Economists are always keenly aware of it. The average American? Not so much, generally speaking. What are we referring to? ...
As we covered in the most recent installment in our “How To Be Positively Skeptical” series, there are only so many hours in the ...
Clearly, there is a lot to think about when planning for retirement. While we have a degree of control over many of the choices ...
We are proud to share that David Imhoff, our financial planner, has obtained his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification!
We’ll be perfectly honest about something: whenever we tell someone we work at a financial planning firm, they ask us in a ...
Young or old, wealthy or poor, online or in person … Nobody is immune from financial and identity theft scams. No matter who you ...
If you were expecting to read about the French Riviera, we are sorry to disappoint. But, perhaps, your retirement portfolio will ...
So much of investing is beyond our control (picking stock prices, timing market movements and so on), it’s nice to know that ...
In our last newsletter, we launched our five-part series exploring the ongoing viability of the value premium. After enduring ...
In previous installments of our “How To Be Positively Skeptical” series, we covered the many forces that fool us into falling for ...
You’re probably already familiar with the three most important factors in real estate: location, location, and location. Asset ...
If you’ve been an evidence-based investor for a while, you know the drill:
Are your investments liquid or illiquid? When a holding is liquid, it simply means you can sell it anytime the market in which it ...
Even though a few years have passed, it’s never too late to consider how the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will impact your ...
In our recent newsletter, we introduced our multipart series on the importance of separating fact from fiction – as an investor, ...
We don’t need to remind anyone that 2020 has been volatile year, and we certainly don’t need to revisit it. Instead, let’s hope ...
Whether you’re considering an investment opportunity or simply browsing various media for insights and entertainment, it has ...
Asset allocation. It’s so ingrained in how we manage our clients’ investment portfolios, we talk about it all the time. But what ...
Whether due to disability, dementia, or simply enjoying an exotic vacation, there are many ways you can end up unavailable to ...
“We don’t expect people to fly their own airplanes or take out their kids’ appendixes, and yet we expect them to manage their ...
Estate planning is usually the most overlooked aspect of a person’s financial plan. This makes sense, as people do not want to ...
We hope everyone is remaining safe and healthy as we all adjust to the reality of quarantine. But let’s try and make the best of ...
Remember the first paycheck you ever received? You were so proud of, in all likelihood, the minimal amount of money you had ...
Just a couple of weeks ago, we seemed bullet-proof. The market was hitting all-time highs, and it seemed impervious to any ...
It is hard to believe it is already February. It seems like the New Year just started, but time seems to fly by faster and faster ...
If you’re anything like us, February is the time of year when a typical Pacific Northwest winter seems never-ending. Not only ...
As an investment professional, one of my biggest pet peeves are guesses (our industry calls them “forecasts”) that everyone is ...
It may be hard to believe, but the holiday season is here, which means many Americans are planning to donate to their favorite ...
You may be familiar with the so-called ‘4% rule,’ which can be used as an estimate for a person’s projected retirement spending. ...
For many Oregonians, quirky cultural norms come naturally. For better or worse, this quirkiness sometimes extends to Oregon’s tax ...