Personal Financial Planning

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Fiscal Wisdom and its staff is dedicated to the betterment of your livelihood and financial well being. Financial planning involves areas such as Tax Planning, Budgeting, Estate Planning, Education Funding, and Risk Management. This is all possible through our various methods and areas of expertise that allow us to offer comprehensive financial planning in virtually all areas of your life. Knowing where to put your money isn’t an easy process anymore. We can help you on the track to save enough for a comfortable retirement, help fund your child’s college education, and even protect you and your family’s assets. The expertise of the staff at FWWM will help to find a plan for you that maximizes the potential of your hard-earned money.

Taxes are part of life and our job is to help you legally minimize what you’re paying. We look ahead and try to avoid taxes prior to incurring them. Most people look in the rear view mirror when it comes to taxes and they simply pay what they owe after the meeting with the CPA. We strive to avoid any taxes possible always consider the tax ramifications of any financial decisions. Taxes play a very important role in our lives and those who can best navigate the tax system will have better outcomes. Some people may avoid taxes altogether at times and many times we may not be able to avoid them, but we’ll do our best to always minimize them.
Trusts are very popular today, and for great reasons, as when a trust works well, nothing will do all of the things that a trust will do. Trusts have a plethora of uses from charitable planning, helping children, aiding those with disabilities, guarding against medical issues and Medicaid system and a host of other reasons. There are a lot of great applications for trusts that’ll help people for a specified period of time or for generations. With the constant advertising climate of our society today, it is important to understand that trusts are not for everyone. You have likely received a letter in the mail inviting you to a “free dinner” where you’ll hear a sales pitch for trusts. It may or may not make sense for you and we regularly have the conversation about should one set up a trust and what are the pros and cons of such a tool for you. We’ll be happy to work with your attorney or legal team to give you the best possible outcome and if you do not have an attorney you work with we’re happy to recommend some great ones.
The college decision is a HUGE one today and finding the right fit for your child is very important. We’re very experienced in helping families find the right college both for academic fit as well as financial fit. Sometimes there is no benefit to going to a high-end school and other times it’s the best possible choice. The public college isn’t always going to be the best value either. Many times your child or grandchild may actually get a better package with a lower net cost at a high-end private college over a local public one if they have skills or talents that the college wants to round out the class for that year. Not every child needs to go to college either. The mechanical and skilled craftspeople may be better served by following their skills directly into a trade. These are conversations we’ve had hundreds of times and are happy to share our findings with you. We work closely with College Planning USA and can facilitate all aspects of the college plan from school selection, finding the proper majors, completing the financial aid paperwork, helping your student get the best SAT or ACT scores, and negotiating with schools for the best financial aid package.
This is an area of our business that has grown substantially over the years and it’s a double-edged sword. We’re very sad that it happens to so many people, but we’re honored to be part of the team to help rebuild lives after this stage of life. There are many aspects of divorce that play into finances and the psychological piece is key to finding success after divorce. There are a lot of moving parts to this process, and if kids are involved it’s especially sensitive and complex due to the guilt that plagues all parents over the process. We can help you navigate the process from the initial decision to the split of assets and how will you rebuild your life and survive after the judge has pounded his or her gavel and made the declaration that you’re now newly single.
We’re financial thinkers and some debts are great and others are horrible. This too is a psychological thing where some believe debt is bad, period. In today’s world, many debts are low-rate, fixed-rate long-term debt and often on depreciating or flat assets. In those cases, debt is quite a useful tool. Simultaneously, we have many debts that are financial tools of destruction and those you want to avoid completely. We’ll help educate you on which ones are which and work through the decision of which debts to keep and pay according to schedule or which ones to accelerate as quickly as possible. We’ll also help you think through if debt can/should be used in the future in the acquisition of homes, cars, businesses, education, etc.
An important part of financial planning is identifying and managing the potential risks that can impact your finances. The value of insurance is that it’s a cost-effective way to mitigate or share the overwhelming costs of various risks. There are many different types of insurance plans to protect you from any possible risks. It is commonly suggested that a person wait until they have assets, then purchase adequate insurance to protect those assets. Income is an important asset that also deserves protection, but protecting purchases such as electronics and such is often not money well spent. We advocate protecting the big things in life and self-insuring the little ones. Protecting professional licenses and intellectual capital is very important as is protecting yourself from risk associated with various liabilities which may arise from occupation, business or other activity.
The three types of life insurance are: “Term”, “Level Premium” and “Whole Life”. Any type of policy that is not one of these three is some combination of them, often with other coverages thrown in such as long-term care. This is an area you want to know is properly addressed. We’ve been with many families who called us and asked about a letter they’ve received on an insurance contract they’ve had for decades that was supposed to be forever but it simply blew up and they were left with nothing at an older age when they were unable to replace it.

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