(This post has been updated with additional information from our friends at Accountability Services.) When we sit down with clients to review their long-term objectives, often we discuss the basics such as retirement and college savings. These topics are heavily covered and the savings vehicles available to help meet these needs are well known. However, another top planning priority tends to be long-term health care. Most of the people…
What is financial shape? What does it mean? Being in good financial shape is a lot like being in good physical shape. It generally means you are routinely doing things to improve your current state. It doesn’t mean you have the biggest savings account balance, largest investment portfolio or are an early investor in Uber. It means you are doing the right things, consistently, so you can meet your personal…
Bear Mountain Capital believes in supporting our community. We donate our time and money to many worthwhile causes in the Seattle area, from arts and education to disease cure/prevention and environmental causes. When we heard about Forterra’s new initiative to work with companies and organizations in the region to help offset their impact on their environment, we were excited to get involved. Through Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture Program (ECC), Bear…
Many people are aware of the benefits of a Roth IRA: you put your after-tax money into it, after 20 or 30 years when you retire, you pull all of the money out tax-free. This can be a big benefit when you consider the effect of compounding returns over time. However, not everyone can contribute to a Roth IRA. The reality is the IRS puts limitations on who can contribute…
Finding ways to save money is not an easy exercise. There are ways to make it less painful, such as setting up automatic savings plans. However, if you haven’t done a long-term plan to determine what you are saving for and how much you need to save, then the commitment to maintaining a savings plan is greatly diminished.
My wife and I have a 5 year old. In fact, he just turned 5 this month. We also have a 3 year old (“3 and a half!”, he likes to say). We could not love them more. No matter how much time we spend together, soaking in these precious years, I can’t get past how fast they grow up. It amazes me how quickly they go from newborns to…
We often get questions about the various ways to save and pay for college expenses. Many people are aware of the benefits and availability of 529 plans (either pre-paid tuition plans or college savings plans). However, did you know you can also use Roth IRA funds for educational expenses?? In fact, for purposes of Qualified Higher Education Expenses (QHEE), you can withdraw funds from a Roth IRA prior to the…
In the media there is a lot of talk about the Federal Reserve Board (“the Fed”) and its chairman, Ben Bernanke. The Fed is often charged with managing the country’s monetary policy. Monetary policy helps manage the amount of actual money in the financial system and helps establish interest rates for US borrowers. Currently, the Fed is taking extraordinary steps to keep interest rates low in order to help facilitate…
Clients have been listening to us discuss the record low interest rate environment and what it means for the future of their investments. Interest rate declining since the 70’s have fueled economic expansion, equity returns and bond returns alike. However, rates cannot decrease below zero, and if you have a savings account, you know we are near zero. This article highlights how clients who need to live off their investments…
Traditional investment asset allocation exposure has been built upon the securities country of domicile. So, if you were looking to gain exposure to China, you would buy securities of companies domiciled in China. However, a more interesting approach is beginning to go more mainstream, where asset allocation is now built not upon domicile, but upon how much revenue a specific company generates from a certain region or country. This means…
