Intrinsic Blog

While we are not tax professionals at our firm, tax planning is a significant part of the financial planning and investment management process that we go through with clients, in collaboration with their tax professionals. And so, it makes sense we get asked a lot of questions relating to taxes. One such question is how long does one need to keep tax documents? Is it three years, six years, seven years? Forever?!

We often talk about “filling up a tax bracket” or using up a bracket to its fullest potential. And it dawned on us that perhaps this lingo needed to be explained better in non “tech” terms. You see, generally speaking, in the US we operate under a progressive tax system. This means that there are tiers, or “brackets”, with different rates. Each tier gets filled up from the bottom up, until it spills over into the next tier.

Prompted by an article Neal sent my way… I embarked on the task of freezing my kids’ credit bureau files. Given this would be something we recommend all of our clients with minor children do, I wanted to do that “eating our own cooking” thing and go through the steps first for my three kiddos, in hopes I could share my experience with you and possibly pass on some useful information.

While my parents had been great role models of financial discipline, there are still things I wish I would have known before leaving the comfort of my parents’ home.

When we got married more than a decade ago, we said we would take a trip to Scotland before we had kids. We never got around to it before we had kids. Finally though, everything lined up for us to be able to go this year.

But no matter how hard you pinch, this isn’t something you’re waking up from and in fact, you’ve become a victim of identity theft.

If you find yourself in a situation like this, there’s no time to lose. You have to act quickly to mitigate any further damage.

Have you ever had a friend express any of these thoughts or questions?
– We make a lot of money, but we have no idea where it’s going…
– What can I do to shelter more of my income now that I’m in a higher tax bracket?

Many of our clients are at a stage of life where they are thinking about how to help children, or more often grandchildren, with the cost of higher education. While there are a variety of ways to do this, one of the most popular tools is through a savings-vehicle called a 529 Plan.

While we recommend you work with an expert Medicare insurance agent when choosing your specific plan due to the many complexities involved, we thought we would put together a quick overview of the basics of Medicare.

I don’t know how much of the conversation he’ll remember, but hopefully at least a tiny part will stick with him. And hopefully as he grows, and he hears my husband and I repeat the line “When you’re older, and done with school, and you get a really good job, you can SAVE…”, he’ll eventually have it memorized!