Category Archives: Personal Finance

What Are Your Earliest Memories of Money?

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The first impactful memory I have around money always comes to me right away. It’s a story I shared at my dad’s 70th birthday celebration. I was about 10 years old and was with him at the ATM. He always counted the money before putting it in his wallet.

When he counted it on this particular morning, there were two $20’s stuck together.

My 10-year old mind thought, “How AWESOME is THAT”?

I must have not only thought it but also said something along those lines because I remember CLEAR AS DAY my father’s response:

“Susan, this is not my money. I’ll return it to the bank on Monday”.

IMPACTFUL.

Sometime not too long after, he called me over to his chair where he sat every night to watch the evening news and read the paper. He showed me a piece of mail he had just opened. It was a letter from the president of the bank thanking him for his honesty in returning the $20.

IMPACTFUL.

I’d be remiss to leave out my mom in my earliest memories around money and the impact they’ve had on me. Mom handled all the day to day family finances and taught me how to balance a checkbook…to…the…penny. Of course, with today’s technology I don’t balance a checkbook anymore, but I do still watch every penny. It was also her influence that taught me that just because you can afford something doesn’t mean you should buy it and that if you can’t afford something, then you definitely shouldn’t buy it.

That’s Cash Flow Planning 101
Needs vs Wants
Spend less than you make.

And from all this, a trusted financial advisor was born. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My clients have heard me say that not every decision around money is black and white, that there is often an emotional component to our decisions that can make things a bit gray. Behavioral Finance has become a field of study in and of itself and is often a seminar topic at  financial industry conferences.

I’m sure my parents had NO IDEA at the time that all these little things would serve as defining moments for me and my approach to all things money in the future.

But it makes me stop and think, what little impacts am I having now on my kids and the way they head into their future thinking about money? I guess we’ll just add it to the list as one more thing to worry about, because parenting is definitely filled with a whole lot of gray.

Are You REALLY Paying More in Taxes, or Does it Just Feel That Way?

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A friend reminded me this past week of the story I tell on my website about my dad and taxes. “Don’t just file those away”, he said to me years ago. “Look them over and get an understanding of what’s going on”.

It was an early catalyst for discovering my love of personal finance.
  Many folks feel overwhelmed by any talk around taxes. This is understandable. Our federal tax code can be a tough code to crack. It is a moving target of rules, income phaseouts and brackets which seem to change on a near constant basis.

Effective Tax Rate vs Marginal Tax Rate

We follow a progressive tax system in the US. This means the amount of tax we pay on the first dollar we earn is less than the tax we pay on the last dollar we earn. This progression results in a taxpayer’s Effective Tax Rate, or average overall tax rate, being less than their Marginal Tax Rate, or the tax rate of their final dollar(s) earned.

It tends to be a taxpayer’s marginal tax rate that is referred to most often, however it is the effective tax rate that more accurately reflects the average amount of tax you pay. When a taxpayer falls into the 24% tax bracket for example, this is their marginal tax rate…24%. This simply means that the highest level of tax paid was 24%, even if it was only $1 of income in that bracket. But their effective tax rate, the amount of tax they paid as a percentage of their overall income, is typically lower.

Total Tax Liability vs Amount You Owe

If you look at page 2, line 23 of your 1040 you’ll see “Amount You Owe”.

This is NOT your total tax liability for the year, which is up above on line 16, aptly named “total tax”.  

Amount you Owe is what is still left to pay of your total tax liability for the year, unless of course, you are getting a refund.

Your total tax liability in any given year depends on many different factors. And even if the figure on line 16 is higher this year, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are paying more in taxes.

You have to take into account what percentage of your overall income that number represents, which as you read above, is your effective income tax rate.

Let’s compare apples to apples:

In 2018, I picked 100 apples and had to give 20% of them to Uncle Sam.
That’s 20 apples (Total Tax, line 16).
I paid in 1 apple each month for the year, so in April I owed 8 more apples (Amount You Owe, line 23).

In 2019, I picked 200 apples and had to give 20% of them to Uncle Sam.
That’s 40 apples (Total Tax, line 16).
I paid in 1apple each month for the year, so in April I owed 28 more apples (Amount You Owe, line 23).

Since 40 is more than 20, it would appear I owed more to Uncle Sam in 2019, and as a flat amount of apples I did, but as a percentage of my overall apple income, my taxes did not go up.

I owed the same amount as a percentage of my apple income…20%.

And since the amount I owed in April (line 23) was 28 instead of 8 this year, it may appear as if I owed more in 2019, but it’s because I didn’t pay enough apples each month along the way in 2019 (paycheck withholdings). Overall, I still paid 20% both years.

Now for purposes of simplicity in this example, I used a flat tax of 20% instead of a progressive tax that I explained up above. You may be thinking this would not happen, because if I picked more apples, I would have owed more than 20% this year. However, this example helps to demonstrate what the expanded tax brackets did for many Americans with the passing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

From 2018 through 2025, when this law is scheduled to sunset, many Americans can earn more while remaining in the same tax bracket, or in some cases a lower bracket, than they were in prior to 2018.

That sounds like a pretty good tax deal to me!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

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I recently had the opportunity to help out at our local high school with a group of students who were participating in a program called “Credit for Life”. I had never heard of it, but with a quick Google search, I learned it is a nationally recognized program designed to help high school students develop personal financial management skills. SIGN ME UP!

I had a blast. I really did. I was assigned to the “Savings and Retirement” booth. I got so jazzed up talking with these kids about real world money matters. OK, granted, some of them I was talking at instead of with, but that was to be expected. But for the ones that were really listening and trying to take in what I was saying, it was very fulfilling. I had my first glimpse into the satisfaction teachers get out of molding young minds.

The advice I was repeating over and over to each group is really no different than what I would tell a client. At any age, the foundations of financial security and independence are the same. I didn’t want to throw so much at them that they walked away feeling overwhelmed and having learned nothing, so I kept repeating the following during those precious few minutes I had their attention:

Don’t spend more than you make.

Pay yourself first.

Most eyes glazed over when I spoke the phrase, “power of compounding interest”, but when I pulled out my graph to show them a visual of what their money could do for them if they committed to paying themselves first, and how that money could grow exponentially over time, their eyes lit up. I pointed out on their expense tracker that this sum of money they were “spending” from their paycheck was different than every other expense they had listed on that sheet because IT WAS STILL THEIR MONEY!

Imagine my excitement when I heard one student approach a group of friends and say something along the lines of, “guys, go over there, pay yourselves first”. Eureka!  My heart skipped a beat. And my pure, unadulterated joy when a friend shared with me that her daughter told her,  “Mrs. Danson said I can start contributing to a Roth IRA and it will keep growing and growing and I won’t have to pay taxes on it”. Wowzer! This young lady is going to be just fine when it comes to her future financial well-being.

Full disclosure, there was another student I overheard saying, “don’t go there, she takes 10% of your money”. I laughed out loud and said to the huddle of teens, “I’m not Uncle Sam, this is still your money”! I’m sure none of them understood the Uncle Sam joke, but I knew you would appreciate my humor. They’ll understand soon enough.

But interesting, isn’t it, that this was student #2’s interpretation of my message?

To that end, I leave you with this-

Spend less than you make and pay yourself first.

Is “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Art Imitating Life in 1960 or 2020?

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Have you been watching Amazon’s hit comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”? Do you love it? I have-and I DO! It’s simple. It’s funny. I can fall asleep after it is over with a light heart. I binge watched Season 3 over the holidays.

The story line focuses on Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a NYC housewife in the late 1950s/early 1960s who discovers she has a knack for stand-up comedy and begins actively pursuing a career. To keep it simple without need of spoiler alerts, her husband can’t handle her success, has an affair with his secretary and they separate.

I love that it brings current day recognition to the female pioneers that paved the way for the careers we women pursue today (although still today, this is not without challenges and/or risks to our financial well-being, but that’s a topic for another newsletter).

“Mrs. Maisel” depicts, in a “making fun of what used to be” sort of way, the early phases of breaking the mold during a time that was probably anything but fun for women choosing this path. I love that it makes me recognize and appreciate how much things have changed for women.

Yet after watching an episode of Season 3, I began to wonder if in some ways, despite the 1960’s setting, “Mrs. Maisel” is also current day art imitating life when it comes to many women and their finances. As Midge gains earning power, she washes her hands of money management and leaves it in the trusted hands of her talent manager Susie, who fails miserably. And then, of all people, Susie goes to Midge’s EX-HUSBAND, begging him to take over Midge’s finances. So Midge has a successful career and is taking on the world…but will still be relying on her ex-husband to handle her money.

Unusual for the times? No, not at all. Women weren’t even allowed to apply for their own credit cards until 1974! But how much has truly changed in regards to women being fully engaged in their finances?

Certainly, there have been HUGE strides over the decades in so many areas for women, but there are still inroads that we need to make for our financial security and that of our families.

I leave you with this question:

On a scale of 1-10, how “in the loop” are you in the understanding of your personal or family finances?

If you are not an 8 or above, I encourage you to become more engaged, ask questions if you don’t understand, and make 2020 the year that you become your own pioneer in financial empowerment.

‘Tis the Season to be…Fearful?

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Earlier this week, I was engaging in the nightly ritual of moving the Elf on the Shelf to a new location. As the tale goes, he had flown back to the North Pole overnight and reported to Santa whether my children were naughty or nice that day. Given my boys are now 16, 14 and 12, there’s a whole lot of not so nice around here and long gone is the fear that Ruckert the Elf is going to tell Santa about it. At best, my youngest is humoring me by even looking for the Elf each morning.

It got me thinking about what we all know as the “fear tactic”, most often used with children, to get them to do or act in a way which we desire…

  • Behave nicely or Santa won’t bring you any toys.
  • Eat your vegetables or you won’t grow big and strong.
  • And let’s not forget about Pinocchio and his nose.  

But let’s face it, kids aren’t the only targets of the fear tactic. If it’s a subject area I know little or nothing about (like car maintenance for example), I could be “told and sold” just about anything. After all, they’re the experts, right?

Well the financial services industry is no different. There are folks out there trying to instill fear to get you to take action. And not always, but often, that action is favorable to them in some way.

Tid bits you may hear along the way, such as…

  • Do YOU know your 401(k) balance after recent market volatility? 
  • Are you afraid of outliving your money?  

and my personal favorite….

  • Don’t let the nursing home take all of your hard earned cash. Come see us before it’s too late!

Fear Tactic…

The point is, when it comes to financial decisions, making a rash decision to DO or BUY or CHANGE anything out of fear is often met with regret down the road. You have some time… to ask questions and understand, to plan according to your needs and to make a decision from a place of knowledge and clarity.

I wish I could say the same for my car maintenance!