Financial Floyd Blogspot

Good Morning, Last weekend, MarketWatch published an article about how a family went from not saving at all to becoming extreme savers. The article has some critical points: 1. It highlights the FIRE (Financially Independent and Retire Early) movement that centers around being a frugal saver to retire early. This concept has gained popularity from the blogger Mr. Money Mustache 2. Emphasis on creating a more frugal lifestyle is possible 3. Reinforces that lifestyle should be tied to lincome 4. Housing, transportation, and food were their biggest expenses I thought this article was a great way to introduce how context is relevant within financial blogging and advice. Off the bat I recognized a couple things: 1. Their take-home income was 142k after taxes which would be in the range of 203k before taxes (federal, state, and local) which is well above the median two family income in the US 2. The flexibility for one person to work from home allows them to be able to save on th...

Good Morning, The end of January is quickly approaching, which the means tax season is upon us. Everyone hasn’t their own method of filing their taxes, but the new 1040 form is now the size of a postcard. Marketwatch came out with an article highlighting this change and other sources. The key points from the article are: 1. Despite it being smaller, it isn’t more different than simplistic 2. You need to file schedules if you are: itemizing, have business activities, capital gains/losses or dividend/interest income associated with investments, etc. 3. The due date for most taxpayers is 4/15 When the new tax laws were put in place the goal was to simplify the tax code and allow more people to use the standard deduction. What most of us will find out is that with a change to the tax code the size of our refunds/payments will change based on the taxable percentages changing.   The simplification of the tax code might change the need for a tax preparer, but before...

Good Afternoon, Most of us have made New Years Resolutions that involve getting ourselves in shape physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially. When it comes to the financial aspect we tend to think about our spending but neglect our retirement savings, which gets overlooked. Reuters published an article about Target Date Funds that is worth reading since these funds are usually the default options for company/government retirement plans. This article dives deep into some of the details but a couple of points worth noting are: 1. Not all funds are created the same 2. Time to retirement matters most when being aggressive or conservative 3. These funds aren't immune to losses While most of us, set it and forget it when it comes to our retirement the composition of a target date fund matters. Without knowing it you could be exposed to higher volatility, lower fees, or global risk based on the composure. These vehicles are great ways to start saving but based on your...

Good Morning, As we start the new year, why not grab a book or two to better understand the financial markets? Marketwatch recently released a list of some books worth reading. Most people mention reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad , but the top two books ( The Intelligent Investor and A Random Walk Down Wallstreet ) mentioned on this list are the ones I would recommend because they give you a solid fundamental understanding of investing in the financial markets. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-the-one-best-book-to-learn-about-investing-2017-05-23?link=sfmw_tw #financialliteracy #marketwatch #books #investments #intelligentinvestor #randomwalk #richdadpoordad #financialfloyd #phillyfinance

Good Morning and Happy New Year, I hope that everyone has had a chance to enjoy the Holiday Season and is starting the New Year off right. During this period, most of us put together either a vision board or create some New Year Resolutions, and usually getting our finances are one of the top things in mind. MarketWatch came out with an article during the holiday season which gives some topics for us to be aware of in 2019. The article highlights a presentation given by DeutscheBank about the 30 Risks to the Market for 2019, that is broad but provides something for us to think about. From the presentation a couple of key points were: 1. Slowing growth in China and Europe negatively impacting American business who receive a significant amount of revenues from overseas 2. Brexit not being as smooth as expected 3. Trade wars between the US and China or the US and Europe 4. The Fed making a policy mistake As an individual person, none of these seem like they would directly imp...