Critical Thinking Required

Starting from the end of 2021, the U.S. stock market has been quite volatile.  We have seen some mini corrections here and there.  Many people have asked us: is the market going to crash in 2022?  If so, what should I do?  When the Federal Reserve indicated that it was strongly considering raising the interest rates to ease inflation, the market reacted, especially some of the hot, trendy, but hig...

We get asked a lot about Self-Directed IRAs (“SDIRA”).  An SDIRA is a type of individual retirement account (IRA) that can hold a variety of alternative investments that regular IRAs can't.  For example, it can hold precious metals, crypto, commodities, and most people use it to hold real estate.  In terms of the annual contribution limits, it works just like any other Traditional IRA or Roth...

This is another episode in our LBW Family series.  Ying is our Creative Director and has been recently promoted to partner.  In this episode, she talked about her wonderful childhood memories growing up in Shanghai, China, her creative talent, her struggle with depression as a teen, and how her mentor helped her, her work experience with a domestic violence victim protection program, her experienc...

This is our quarterly commentary for Q4 2021.  Inflation is a hot topic right now.  What's going to happen?  What will the government do?  What does that mean for me?  The U.S.' year-end 2021 inflation is just almost 7%. At 6.9%, inflation will be at its highest in almost forty years.  The Federal Reserve has eyed a faster timetable for raising interest rates this year, potentially in Ma...

This is our year-end episode where the trio talked about their favorite podcasts of the year.  We invited some pretty awesome guests to talk about business, finance, investing, art, space, healthcare, personal growth, and so much more.  What's your favorite?  Also, what topics are you interested in?  Let us know!  Have an incredible 2022!

It's the Christmas season again!  If you want to gift something, either cash, stock, cars, or property to someone your love, or for charity, please watch this episode.  People assume they can gift others whatever they want, because "well it's my money!"  But you know the IRS, they want to tax you for everything.  You can't, as a matter of fact, just give out free money/gif...

This is Part II of LBW's Journey.  Oh dear, do we have some crazy and silly stories for you!  What happened to the office parking lot?  Why did Nathaniel meet a client with a pink towel wrapped around his waist?  Why did Ying come to the office with no pants?  This has been a fun and fruitful 6 years, and we can not express our appreciation enough.  With all of your help and support, we will...

LBW just had its 6-year birthday.  What's our journey been so far?  Let's go back to 1982 when Dan was born... Just kidding!  We started LBW together back in 2015, well, let's be honest because we hated our industry: we didn't want to sell unnecessary insurance products to our clients to fill our pockets, we didn't want to tell our clients to "take 4% distributions&qu...

Almost never, will you hear someone say: I wish I could pay more taxes.  Today, we are going to break down this bias and try to explain why sometimes, it's a better choice to pay a little bit more tax in the short term.  Tax bias is everywhere.  For example, we often see some advisors holding onto a stock just because they don’t want to trigger a tax event, or selling a stock prematurely beca...

Meet our new team member: Financial Planning Analyst Gary Grosskopf.  Growing up in Waunakee, Wisconsin, just north of Madison, Gary spent most of his time outside of school helping his dad take care of his classic cars and boats. Learning about how to fix these machines and solve problems formed his early understandings of the world.  In the interview, Gary talked about why he switched his major...

In this episode, Nathaniel and Tim shared their home purchasing journeys and discussed the emotional aspect of it.  Nathaniel and Ying have decided to stick with the urban condo concept for its convenient lifestyle.  Tim and Becca have chosen the traditional house route for the extra square footage and family BBQ time in the backyard.  They all went through the emotional roller coaster, and have s...

This is Part II of “Personal Household Merger – Communicate and Conquer!”  There’s not a “one right way” to do this: it doesn’t matter who pays what; but there’s certainly a “wrong way” to do this: not communicating your financial decisions or hiding your spending.  As Tim said, regardless of you wanting to combine your finances or not, sometimes it might be a good idea to have one person take the...

This is Part I of Household Finance Merger: To Combine, or not to Combine.  We have been asked quite frequently whether people should combine their finances if they get married, or commit to a long-term relationship.  You can go either way really, there’s no wrong answer.  But what really matters is to truly understand what it means and what it takes to combine (or not) finances.  Dan and Tim talk...

For this episode, we are going to discuss technology in the financial industry.  Tim just came back from the Money Experience Summit presented by MX, and he was eager to share his thoughts.  He talked about the state of the Financial Services tech and Wealth tech landscapes.  Just like the healthcare system, the financial industry has so much data, but the old infrastructure and tech systems have...

This episode is for investing DIYers, and/or you are interested in learning about portfolio management.  Nathaniel and Dan are going to talk about 6 Dos and Don’ts about investing. 1. Do have a long-term investment time frame.  Please do NOT invest, for example, your down payment if you plan to use it in the short term. 2. Don’t time the market, give it time.  Nathaniel had some shocking but not s...

This POD is a highly requested episode from our clients: understanding the equity package that tech companies and startups offer nowadays as part of an employee’s compensation.  There are different types of equity - some of the most common ones are RSU (restricted stock units), NQSO (non-qualified stock options), and ISO (incentive stock options).  How should one decide what package to choose if t...

With more and more talented females entering the workforce and playing important leadership roles, stay-at-home dads and nannies are becoming the new normal.  Today, we invited Katie Provinziano, the founder of Westside Nannies and is based out of Los Angeles, to talk about her industry.  As you can imagine, because of COVID, the demand for nannies has grown exponentially (school/daycare are close...

In this episode, we invited one of Dan’s friends Skip Schrayer, a 3rd generation business owner to talk about insurance, not so much about the product, but more about the industry and its culture.  Tim started the conversation by asking about the history of Skip’s family insurance business.  Dan was interested in the changes over the year in the industry.  Skip thought technology played an importa...

This is Part II of the episode where we talk about private equity investment with Brent Beshore from Permanent Equity.  Nathaniel asked about Brent’s definition of a successful acquisition and what his due diligence process looks like.  Ah well, as you may imagine…it sucks.  It’s going through never-ending papers, statements, double-checking all information, and investigating any potential frauds....

This is Part I of the episode where we talk about private equity investing with Brent Beshore, the CEO of Permanent Equity.  Brent's firm Permanent Equity is quite different from most private equity investors in the market: instead of buying a company and then selling it to the highest bidder within a few years for a quick return, Brent's investors have a long initial 30 years lockup per...

For this episode, we invited Cece Delgado from Fairway to talk about reverse mortgages.  Dan started the conversation by asking about the history and milestones of reverse mortgages.  Cece then explained some typical misconceptions: some people think once you sign the reverse mortgage, the house is no longer yours, or that they will leave their heirs a lot of debt.  On the contrary, reverse mortga...

This is the third installment in our “Buyer Beware” series, and we are going to talk about 529 plans. A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged investment vehicle in the United States designed to encourage saving for the future higher-education expenses of a designated beneficiary. Once you make the contributions to the account, like a Roth IRA, all the growth is tax-free if its funds are used for the benefi...

In the last episode, we talked about 0-3% down payments.  In this episode, we are going to talk about everything else about a mortgage: interest rates, closing costs, points to pre-pay interest, cash offers, and waiving contingencies. Dan and Tim talked about fixed interest rate vs ARM (Adjusted Rate Mortgage) vs interest-only mortgages, and under what circumstances each of them makes sense.  The...

In this mini-series “Buyer Beware”, we are going to give you our brutally honest opinion on a lot of financial products/services that are so common nowadays, but we believe the buyers should think twice before they get into it.  The first one: mortgages.  We have heard so much from our LA clients: “My realtor told me that I only need to put down a 0-3% payment, and get that 2 million house, is tha...

Starting from July 15, 2021, and for the next 6 months, some families with child(ren) will receive monthly cash as an advanced child tax credit so that you can start spending it.  Some people are either confused about what’s going on or are worried that taking the credit now will hurt them later in the year when they pay their taxes.  Here’s a breakdown (assuming one child): 2020 Child Tax Credit:...