THE BABB BEAT
Insights into current financial planning trends,
upcoming events and latest news
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
On August 24th 2022, a student loan relief program was announced and we have summarized key points from this action which you can find below: Borrowers who have income less than $125,000 for a single filer or [...]
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? [...]
Donor Advised Funds (DAF)
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? [...]
Roth Conversions, to Convert or Not Convert, that is the “?”
To determine whether a Roth conversion is right for you boils down to two rates, your current marginal tax rate, and your expected future marginal rate. If you believe your rate to be higher in the future, [...]
Market Returns During Past US Recessions
Given all the media attention surrounding the possibility of a recession, we thought we would share some facts as it relates to past recessions. Before the Covid recession of 2020, the United States had experienced 15 recessions [...]
Bear Markets
As of the close of market on June 13, 2022, the S&P 500 has receded to levels that were last seen in February 2021 which is officially a bear market as defined by a 20% drawdown from [...]
Stay The Course
A recent Morningstar report looked at fund managers that implement market timing strategies also known as Tactical Strategies. The report examined the results of two types of funds, each holding a mix of stocks and bonds[1]: Balanced: Minimal [...]