Insights

Recent legislation, SECURE Act 2.0, makes important rule changes related to Roth IRAs, Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs), and more.

Investors are wondering why bond returns were down double digits in 2022. The reason is simple: rates are rising faster than any other time since 1988.

It’s impossible to know the direction any individual stock (or the stock market as a whole) will go at any point in time. Fortunately, successful investing does not require predicting precisely how investments will be priced at specific times. If it did, investing would be purely based on luck rather than research and analysis.

With inflation at its highest level in more than 40 years and a volatile equity market that has decreased by double digits through November of 2022, many investors are looking for an attractive investment where they can park their money without it losing value. For some, that could mean a high yield savings account – as of November 2022, interest rates of high yield savings accounts are well over 2%. For others, it could be bonds – savings, municipal, or corporate – but some of those options don’t pay a great return either and most bond mutual funds have losses for the year thus far. So, it begs the question: Where can investors earn income at the prevailing inflation rate with minimal risk?

For many parents, funding higher education is one of the largest, if not the largest expense regarding their children. An unfortunate truth about college education is that it’s expensive and the cost is rising. According to a report from the Georgetown University Center of Education and workforce, the cost of tuition, room and board, and fees has increased 169% from 1980 to 2020.

2023 is on the horizon, and we recommend taking advantage of some key planning opportunities before 2022 expires. The start of any new year marks a challenging time for financial planning, and today’s volatile economic landscape only heightens the sense of uncertainty.

October is cyber security awareness month. Here at Wealthstream, we take security seriously and discuss it often as a team. We would like to take this opportunity to help educate our clients on the steps that you can take to help mitigate the risk of being a victim of a cyber-attack.

You've put a great deal of effort into saving for retirement, and now you're ready to cash in. But wait, you need to determine how much you can consistently withdraw from your savings. Spending beyond your means can leave you with insufficient funds in your “golden years” and spending too little means you sacrificed doing things that you would have enjoyed.

Wealthstream Advisors has recently added to our team’s growing list of professional designations, Global Financial Planner (USA), or GFP (USA). We sought out this additional expertise because we know from experience that individuals and families who have lived in more than one nation have unique needs from a financial planning perspective.

When it comes to estate planning, our discussions with clients typically revolve around the Federal estate. Our clients are less aware of the careful planning and consideration needed to address their estate tax on the state level. For instance, as of 2022, 12 states and the District of Columbia levy estate taxes on estates over a certain value – and New York is one of them.