Beacon Wealthcare |

09 Mar 2023 529-to-Roth IRA Transfers

Posted at 14:13h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

If the goal is to save for college, there isn't a better vehicle than the 529 plan. Because of their unique combination of tax benefits, which vary by state, they can offer a greater after-tax return than a normal brokerage account. How much greater depends...

09 Feb 2023 Happy Money

Posted at 14:41h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

The question of what makes a happy life has been talked about a lot lately thanks to the release of the book, "The Good Life," which summarizes the 85-year-long (and counting) Harvard Study of Adult Development. What the book says, and the study found, is...

12 Jan 2023 How SECURE Act 2.0 Impacts IRAs, 401(k)s, 529s, and RMDs

Posted at 06:00h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

As 2022 came to a close, Congress passed a spending bill that included a retirement bill commonly referred to as "SECURE Act 2.0." Its predecessor, 1.0, passed at the tail-end of 2019 and lifted the starting age for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from 70 to...

01 Dec 2022 Anchoring

Posted at 15:58h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

In 1974, two psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, published the paper, "Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases." In it, they discuss biases inherent in all of us that, consciously or not (usually not) impact our decision-making. All were groundbreaking at the time and remain...