THE BABB BEAT
Insights into current financial planning trends,
upcoming events and latest news
Booyah! The “Cramer Effect”
If you have tuned into the Financial TV shows, you have seen the flashing graphics and heard the blaring sounds which paint a certain image of an investor—a restless individual, eyes glued to the screen, trying to [...]
Common Behavioral Finance Biases: A Closer Look at Investor Behavior
Behavioral finance is an essential field that explores the intersection of human psychology and financial decision-making. Recognizing these biases is crucial for investors because these psychological tendencies can cloud judgment, lead to flawed reasoning, and result in [...]
Estate Planning Best Practices
Estate planning is not always a fun topic to think about, but it's an essential part of ensuring that your wishes are carried out in the event of your incapacity or death. A well-crafted estate plan can [...]
Changes to TD Ameritrade on the Horizon!
In 2020, Schwab announced its acquisition of TD Ameritrade, and now after three years, the anticipated transition date will be September 5th of this year! You can rest assured there is little you need to do, and [...]
The 0% Capital Gains Rate, How Does it Work?
First, let's start with a brief overview of what capital gains are. Capital gains are profits earned from the sale of an asset, such as stocks, real estate, or artwork. If you sell an asset for more [...]
Federal Taxes Set to Rise
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought significant changes to the US tax code in 2017. Among them was the sunset provision of certain TCJA provisions at the end of 2025, which could potentially lead to [...]
Put Your Excess Cash Reserves to Work!
Recently, the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark borrowing rate to 5-5.25%, which was the 10th increase in over a year[1]. This rise in rates is the last rate increase most members of the Federal Reserve anticipate[2]. In [...]
Dimensional Ranked No. 1 in Barron’s ‘Best Fund Families of 2022’
As we know, 2022 was a challenging year for markets, but according to Barron’s, Dimensional Funds weathered the storm the best. After receiving a 5th overall ranking in 2021, Dimensional Funds took Barron’s top spot for 2022. [...]
Our next guest says the market is going to…
What makes for better television: Two market pundits arguing (maybe yelling) about what the future holds? Or those same commentators agreeing that they have no way to accurately predict the future, and any forecast they make is [...]
2022 Year In Review
2022 Market review -Although stocks ended with their worst performance since 2008, value stocks served as a bright spot for their second consecutive year, outperforming growth by the largest margin since 2000. For 2022 the MSCI All [...]
Predicting the Future
With 2022 behind us, we look forward to 2023 and the continuation of a tradition in which market analyst and pundits try to predict the future. To understand what weight, if any, we give predictions for 2023 [...]
Secure Act 2.0
After months of debate, Congress finally passed some major changes to retirement laws at the end of 2022. The Secure Act 2.0 is a piece of legislation that makes a number of changes to retirement savings plans [...]
The A, B, C’s and D’s of Medicare and More!
As you approach Medicare, you may find it daunting to make the right choice. With all of the letters, mail, and advertisements, it’s no wonder people can find Medicare overwhelming. This article aims to bring you peace [...]
Key Provisions of Student Loan Forgiveness
In the summer of 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the loan forgiveness portion of the administration's plan. This leaves the below information out-of-date, however, the new SAVE PLAN is still expected to move forward. [...]
Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD)
Many people believe they are getting a tax benefit from their donation, but did you know that you must have itemized deductions higher than the standard deduction to be able to claim the donation as a deduction? [...]