In brief: The CARES Act, enacted on March 27, 2020, provided federal student loan relief Federal student Loans have a 0% interest rate from March 13 through September 30 Federal student Loan payments are suspended Defaulted federal loans will not go into collections If you have student loans, you may have noticed that automatic payments made towards your federal student loans have stopped. This is because of the CARES Act, passed on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act is a stimulus package created to provide relief in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The Act created programs for both individuals and…
Insights & Advice
Zack Marcotte
How to make the best of your charitable donations
There have been many tax changes in recent years. In 2017, we had the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which arguably was the largest tax reform in the past two decades. Two years later, in 2019, Congress passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. This brought substantial changes to tax law and retirement planning. Finally, and most recently in 2020, we have The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)Act – the largest stimulus care package in U.S. history ($2.2 trillion) that was designed to stimulate the economy after being crippled by COVID-19. For context,…
Your expenses change with your age
Traditionally, many financial planners have used the income replacement ratio to determine how much money you will need to fund your retirement. The age-banding approach is an innovative strategy chosen due to its increased accuracy and lower initial money required to create an income stream throughout a 30+ year retirement. A hypothetical retirement will be divided into three separate periods. A different investment mix with different amounts of risk taken is then used for each period. Separating expenses into various bands allows your financial planner to develop a plan with both improved accuracy, and outcomes. Age banding is a relatively…
How to Achieve Financial Agility
What is financial agility? Well, it’s a term I made up, but it seems descriptive enough to be easily understood. Financial Agility is the ability to adapt to changes to your financial future, as well as to overcome any challenges along the way. Your “agility score” is tied to one simple metric: your fixed expenses. If we look at the costs you face every month compared to your total income, we will have our starting place. There are numerous ways to increase your agility, but not all of them are easy. First, you need to reduce your fixed costs. Things…