4 Minute Money

How to Make the Most Out of Your Parents’ Stocks By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® What should you do if you inherit a portfolio of stocks from your parents? Should you sell them? To answer the question of whether you should sell the stocks, start by asking yourself whether you would buy these stocks if you had extra cash. You have no moral or legal obligation to keep the positions just because your pare...

What You Need to Know About Start-Up Investing By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® In a dramatic repeat of what I saw many times in the late 1990s-2000, another start-up company just collapsed, taking with it millions of dollars from investors’ pockets. Not only are the founders’ dream shattered, but its investors’ profits are destroyed and cash lost. As a financial advisor, I review many new companies fro...

What to Do With Your Money at the End of the Year By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® As the fiscal year draws to a close, it’s time to review your financial plan. Here are three important aspects that you need to look at: Savings goals What are your long-term and short-term goals? Are they the same as they were last year? If your goals are both time and dollar specific, it’s easy to tell whether you are o...

Do You Suffer from “Inheritance Loyalty Syndrome?” by Douglas Goldstein, CFP ® It is common to feel emotional angst after receiving an inheritance. Inheritors may have doubts as to whether they are “allowed” to use the assets as they wish, or whether they somehow have to use them in a way the benefactor would have chosen to use them. There are two ways to approach a sudden influx of money into you...

Don’t Leave Tax-Loss Harvesting to the End of the Year By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Many investors optimize their portfolio to minimize capital-gains tax. One popular strategy is to do tax-loss harvesting. What is tax-loss harvesting? Tax-loss harvesting is the practice of selling a position at a loss, and matching the loss against a gain of different stock that you sold. By offsetting losses agains...

What Should You Do When You Get An Inheritance? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Many of my client relationships began as a result of receiving an inheritance. The sudden infusion of money is a good impetus for a review of one’s goals. The first thing to do when you get an inheritance is – nothing. There’s usually no rush to spend or invest the money. Let the pain you may feel at losing a loved one and...

How to Help Your Children Become Financially Independent By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® A client told me about her married daughter who is in a financially dysfunctional marriage. The young couple finds it hard to make ends meet, and often applies for help from charitable organizations. Yet despite their lack of funds, they still live a fairly extravagant lifestyle. Occasionally, the daughter asks her...

How To Break Your Bad Habits And Get Rich By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Money woes are generally not due to a market gone awry or a low salary. The number one cause of most money problems is bad financial habits. Do you spend without tracking what is leaving your wallet, neglect to make regular deposits in savings, and overlook regular financial reviews and discussion of financial goals with your par...

Are Bonds a Good Investment for You? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Bonds are a very popular investment, but before you buy any, let me tell you what I share with my clients about them. Think of a bond as a loan between you and a company or government. Assuming all goes normally, here’s how it looks: You lend them a sum of money They pay you interest periodically until “maturity.” They return the prin...

Problems With Your U.S. Brokerage Account? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP®   Many readers have recently contacted me because they received a letter from their U.S. brokerage firm informing them that either “You can no longer purchase additional shares of mutual funds in your account,” or “We will no longer provide investment advisory services to you and/or you may only enter liquidating orders or non-s...

How Quickly Should You Invest The Money You Inherit? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Though I often advise people to wait before investing an inheritance, sometimes you must take quick action. When do you need to act quickly? If you inherited a risky position, you should consider liquidating it. For example, the grandfather who always managed the stock portfolio passes away, leaving large amounts of mo...

Are You Getting The Social Security You Deserve? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® The “Greenberg Settlement,” the resolution of a class-action lawsuit brought against the Social Security Administration (SSA), changes the way American olim receive their American Social Security payments. Under the SSA’s Windfall Elimination Provision, if you receive a foreign earnings-based pension, your American benefit...

When Should You Give Trading Authority to Your Children? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Recently, one of my clients had a serious fall at home, breaking his hip, and ended up in the hospital. As a result of his injuries, it was clear that he could not deal with his finances for the foreseeable future and had to hand over trading authority to his daughter.  As this all happened suddenly, decisions had...

What You Need to Do After You Inherit an IRA By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® If you receive an inheritance, it might come in the form of property, a bank account, or brokerage account. But what if you receive an inheritance from someone’s individual retirement account (often called an “IRA”)? IRAs are different from regular brokerage accounts A regular brokerage account is normally structured as either...

By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Regardless of the more modern way people look at gender, there are significant differences in how men and women should invest their money. Here’s why: Women’s pensions tend to be smaller Women’s pension payouts tend to be lower than men’s payouts, because most women work fewer hours and have lower salaries than their male counterparts. Even though “paternity leave” is be...

Non-Americans who want to invest internationally often use U.S. brokerage accounts. While it may seem counter-intuitive for a non-American to open an American brokerage account from overseas, there are several reasons why this is a good move. 2 reasons why non-U.S. folks use American accounts Efficiency – U.S. securities markets may be the most efficient and individual-investor friendly in the wor...

Are bonds safe as an investment? Explore how they can provide safety and increase diversification in an investment portfolio.