Kim Laughton, is President of Schwab Charitable, a non-profit, donor-advised fund provider established with the support of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. to make charitable giving simpler and more tax-efficient for clients. She is responsible for the general management of Schwab Charitable and the fulfillment of its charitable mission, setting strategy and priorities and ensuring all contractual obligations and goals are met. She’s here today to show us how to link your investment strategy with your tax strategy. Your investments can help reduce your tax bill in certain situations. You can even donate your required minimum IRA distribution. It’s Tax Day, so everyone is thinking about their taxes, but truthfully, thinking about taxes long before Tax Day will help you maximize your tax due.

Listen as Kim and Kate discuss:

• Charitable giving is a very flexible way to reduce your taxes.
• How donating appreciable investments can allow you to give 20% more than usual.
• Only a qualified 501(c)3 can accept these sorts of charitable donations.
• Donations made for a tax perspective can be made into a Donor Advised fund, and donations can be made later from the fund. It separates the tax decision from the giving decision.
• What you need to pay attention to in any Individual Tax Reform Legislation
• Now is the time to start looking at your tax situation longer term than just from one year to the next.
• An accountant or investment advisor can help you plan your tax strategy.
• Who is eligible for the $100K Required Minimum Distribution
• The tax benefits and savings from donating your RMD to charity

www.schwabcharitable.org

Today, Kate and her guest talk about Social Security. For the last three years, Kate has been teaching people about Social Security with her seminars. This has been really important when considering that there is an endless supply of Baby Boomers out there, turning sixty two every month, who are interested in finding out more about the Social Security system.

When Kate started doing these seminars back in 2013 and she was looking for relevant information, one of the first books she read was Social Security Made Simple. On today's show, Kate talks to Mike Piper, the author of that book. Although Mike is a licensed CPA,  he's no longer in the CPA business, as these days, he is a full time author. Listen in today to find out more about the current Social Security system and how it could affect you.

Today, Mike talks to Kate about:

•How the significant tweaks to the Social Security system, late last year and early this year, have necessitated some re-writing of his book.

•Whether the claims that Social Security is going bankrupt and that it cannot pay out projected benefits is a legitimate cause for concern, or not.

•The kinds of mistakes that people tend to make, that ends up costing them a lot of money.

•That the appropriate time for people to apply for Social Security is not necessarily linked to their age at the time of their retirement .

•Whether there could be times when claiming Social Security benefits early could make some sense.

•Some restricted strategies that are still available to people who were born at certain times.

•An overview of the complicated situations that tend to affect people who work for certain Government entities, like the Windfall Elimination Provision and the GPO and why people really don't like this .

•The best course of action for people who are affected by these complicated situations.

•The Family Benefit Maximum- what it means and where it's applied.

•How people should go about looking into the Family Benefit Maximum if they think that it applies to them.

•Some of the tax issues that people tend to make mistakes about with Social Security.

Mike's Blog: ObliviousInvestor.com

Taxes Made Simple and all of Mike's other books are available on Amazon.

If you're pouring time and money into a business that's not generating a return and you would like to find out whether it's worth continuing, or if your business is just limping along and you're wondering whether to keep going or throw in the towel, listen in  to today's show and find out from someone who really knows.

Today's guest is Stacy Tuschl, an entrepreneur, Business Coach and author of the book Is Your Business Worth Saving. Stacy's book, which was launched in September, had thirteen thousand downloads in the first forty eight hours and also became a number one best seller. Listen in today and get some of the nuts and bolts education that you just don't get in Business School.

Today, Stacy and Kate discuss:

•The title of Stacy's book- why it works.

•What goes into the decision about whether to start your business in the first place.

•Stacy's practical advice about dealing with money in your business.

•Why hiring an expert can save you a lot.

•Some of the warning signs that your business may be in trouble.

•When it's a wise idea to throw in the towel and walk away.

•How to go about saving an ailing business.

•Dealing with psychological blocks in business.

•The main things that Stacy sees that get in the way of people having a successful business.

Links:

Stacy's website: www.stacytuschl.com

Stacy's Podcast: Business Rescue Roadmap

Stacy's Free Facebook Group: Level Up Your Tribe

Resources:

Books: Is Your Business Worth Saving by Stacy Tuschl

                               and

           Don't Let Your Money Kick The Bucket Before You Do by Kate Stalter

Today, Kate and her guest, Wendy J. Cook talk about evidence-based investing, something which is not very easy to understand. Wendy explains the need for investors to understand what passive, or evidence-based investing is and that typically, in the financial media, you will find that the magazines, TV channels and newsletters make their money by getting you to put your portfolio together in reaction to what's happening in the current news. She explains the necessity of ignoring this short term noise, which doesn't contribute to the long term returns.  She talks about some of the behavioral biases that control investors to make poor decisions and buy a random collection of what can best be described as ''stuff''.  

Kate points out that this is  neither an allocation, nor is it diversification- it's just a bunch of  ''stuff''. She explains that this would be  neither an effective nor an efficient way to manage your portfolio, as that is only a short term viewpoint, which makes people feel like they're doing something, yet it's just the illusion of a control bias. Wendy talks about this and she also clears up some of the jargon you might hear from the financial media. 

Wendy is the owner of Wendy J. Cook Communications, which provides writing and editing services  to evidence-based registered Investment Adviser Firms that construct client portfolios using funds from Dimensional Fund Advisers. This is exactly what is done at Kate's firm, Better Money Decisions- they use Dimensional Fund Advisers, as well as other, similarly structured solutions. Wendy was formerly the Director of Communications for Bam Advisor Services, Buckingham Asset Management. Listen in today and find out why your investment portfolio management should be based on the science of investing, rather than a reaction to current events.

Today, Wendy talks to Kate about:

•A simple definition of what evidence-based investing is.

•How having a plan when you start out can prevent you from buying just a whole lot of “stuff”.

•How she faces the challenge of breaking down the terms which refer to active vs passive investments.

•Why she would prefer to work with a professional financial advisor, even though she understands all the over-arching principals of investing.

•That the behavioral component is the most important thing.

•That the greed component is still evident to her today.

•How we, as a financial community, come up with what is and what is not supported by evidence.

•Five points from Larry Swedroe's new book, The Complete Guide To Factor Based Investing: 1) It has to be Persistent   2) It has to be Pervasive  3) It has to be Robust  4) It has to be Investable  5) It has to be Explainable 

•That it takes some training to understand the data in studies. (Kate points out that data is not opinion based.)

•There is no cohesive strategy coming through the media- they are usually working against the investor and the science of investing.

Links: 

Wendy's website: www.wendyjcook.com

Wendy on Twitter: @wendyjcook

For your questions about anything in the show, or otherwise, write to: [email protected]

Resource: The Complete Guide To Factor Based Investing by Larry Swedroe

The question of whether or not to buy gold comes up a lot for Kate. She mentions that people often tend to think of gold as having special powers, due to the lack of correlation with the stock market. Kate understands the appeal as an alternative asset class, however, she does point out that the lack of correlation is often the wrong reason to buy gold. Also, she reminds you to be aware that talk radio shows are often sponsored by gold traders and gold companies. 

Today's guest is Peter Hug, a Gold Trader and expert commentator with Kitco. Today, Peter explains about the different types of gold investors. He also talks about rebalancing and about the times that gold is a poor investment. He gives the pros and cons of investing in it and explains that gold is merely an asset class, not a supernatural type of protection against inflation, the president, or anything else. He explains the importance of being prepared and understanding your reasons for investing in it and also understanding where gold fits into a diversified market. Listen in today and equip yourself to make the right choice, when making an investment.

Today Peter talks to Kate about:

•Himself, Kitco and what he does there.

•The idea of people using gold and precious metals as investments, in context with the other holdings in their portfolios.

•That the psychology of selling or adding  to a position on weakness is difficult for a lot of investors- yet you need to do it.

•The pros and cons for an investor to be using products like ETF, IAU or GLD.

•Some of the risks inherent with buying gold because people think that something is going to happen to make the gold price go up.

•Why he thinks that BREXIT won't be as bad as people think.

•His advice to investors with an allocated portfolio, looking at financial planning, about where to start researching whether or not to buy gold.

Links:

Peter's Blog: www.kitco.com 

Peter's email: [email protected]

For your free portfolio risk assessment: [email protected]

Today's guest is Jordan E. Goodman, America's Money Answers man. He is a nationally recognized expert on personal finance as well as being a regular guest in the media, such as The View, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, CBS and many other places. He is the co-author of thirteen best selling books on personal finance and he was previously the Wall Street correspondent at Money Magazine.

Lately, Jordan has been examining the idea of a Life Settlement- in other words, when it makes sense to sell your life insurance policy into the Life Settlement Market, for cash. He points out that 10,000 people per day turn sixty five, many of whom have not saved nearly enough money for a decent retirement. He explains that many of these people have a life insurance policy, an asset that they may not even realize that they can sell into the Life Settlement Market for cash, which they can then invest to create a steady source of income for their retirement years. Listen in today to find out what the Life Settlement Market is all about and how it could help you to create financial security for your retirement.

On today's show, Jordan talks to Kate about:

•How easily you will sell your policy and the amount of money that you will be paid out depends on your age and state of health.

•Who would benefit from selling their Life Insurance policies.

•How you could create a regular source of income for your retirement by selling your policy.

•That you can't buy a policy with the intention of selling it.

•Another option for retirement, without affecting people's lifestyle, could be a reverse mortgage, which has both pro's and con's.

•Why it's not a good idea to sell a policy to pay for long term health care.

•Why Medicare will not be sufficient to cover your health issues, post retirement.

•Why Medicate is a planned impoverishment business.

•How to go about selling your policy to the Life Settlement Market.

•Why your Life Insurance Agent is not going to help you to sell your policy.

Today, Kate answers a question from Shay about coverage for health care, should she need skilled nursing when she's older. Kate points out that the traditional policies have some significant issues. She explains that a good financial advisor can help you to sort the good products from the bad. She also discusses ways to cover yourself for long term care concerns, with fixed annuities and with life insurance, both with long term care benefits. Listen in to find out about the advantages and disadvantages of these options and how they work and also about new hybrid life and annuity products that could give you solutions to  your health care issues, when you retire. 

Links Mentioned:

Jordan's website: www.moneyanswers.com

Jordan's Radio Show: The Money Answers Show, with a link on The Voice Of America Business Network.

To ask questions or contact Kate: [email protected] 

Resources Mentioned: 

www.fundinglife.com  - Independent Broker to bring buyers and sellers together.

Jordan's books: Fast Profits And Hard Times, Master Your Debt and The Dictionary of Finance And Investment Terms are available from Amazon, as well as his other books.

Today's guest, Rob Lutts, is the author of The Great Game of Business- Investing to Win. He is the Chief Investment Officer and President at Cabot Wealth Management in Salem, Massachusetts. Although Kate was initially unsure about interviewing him on her show, as Rob and his team have a different investment policy to Kate's company, Better Money Decisions, she's happy now that she decided to have him as her guest. This is because too many investors are trapped in the idea that there's a big crash coming, with 2008 still fresh in everybody's minds. The truth is that we never know what the market will bring. If it were all certain, stock investing would not be a particularly lucrative endeavor.

Rob's company uses single stocks, something that Kate's firm does not advocate, yet even though their philosophies differ, Rob makes some points that Kate fully agrees with. Kate is intrigued by Rob's views on the future of investing. He talks about getting people out of the negative mindset that it's all going to come crashing down. His view is that technology is advancing and that's investable. Kate reminds you that the investing world is about companies and regardless of the current 'zeitgeist', profitability remains the bottom line, no matter what the products are. She points out that the idea of a systemic collapse overlooks all the current technological advances- which are investable.  Listen in today and keep yourself up to speed, when it comes to making your investments.

Today, Rob talks to Kate about:

• His book, The Great game Of Business, about what works in financial markets.
• The idea that everything is going to come crashing down.
• The role of the Financial Adviser.
• How he sees emerging markets as an investment opportunity today.
• How the speed of technology today is leading to incredible advancements, with the USA being a leader in this space.
• That the capability of computers is going to continue to accelerate.
• The idea that we raise expectations in the negative cycle so high that people actually believe that it's true.
• The wonderful systems in place in the USA today, as compared with the rest of the world.
• Why he thinks that the USA is dominating in so many spaces today.
• What's driving returns in the long run.
• Stemwinders- what they are and what they do.
• Why investors need to get used to things moving faster.
• Why his favorite place to look for wealth creation is in Artificial Intelligence.
• Why he sees the winning companies to be those with all the data, like Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

Today, Kate answers an email from Amy, who asks: “How much can I contribute to my 401K? Listen in to hear Kate's Response.

Recommended books:

Singularity by Ray Kurzweil

The Progress Paradox by Gregg Easterbrook

Tom Corley points out that when you pursue success, the emotional downturns are about ninety five percent of what you have to contend with. He maintains that, due to this, it's your vision, your dream and your passion that will ultimately keep you in the game. He should know this as all his books to date, have focused on the idea of rich habits.

Tom, who is getting better known as an author and a speaker, is a CPA, a CFP and he holds a Masters Degree in taxation. He's the president of Cerefice and Company, a CPA firm and he also has the Rich Habits Institute. Tom's latest book focuses on the science of habit change, as well as on his own research on habits that helped to transform one hundred and seventy seven ordinary individuals into self made millionaires. Today, he talks to Kate about his latest book, Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.

Tom talks to Kate about:

•How he selected the particular group that he studied for his book.

•Some habits that he observed with the self-made millionaires.

•That you will quit in business if you're pursuing profit, not passion. If you're pursuing passion, you will engage.

•The idea of growing- how you grow and where growth takes place.

•How he surrounds himself with people who really get what he does.

•Three things to ensure your success: 1) Pursue your dream 2) Read every day 3) Surround yourself with like minded people, who get you.

•How it disrupts the 'herd' when one of them pulls away to do something unique or different, so they try to stop them, rather than trying to change themselves.

•What he has found in his research about people having grown up with issues of poverty and poor education.

•A story to demonstrate the difference between how rich and poor kids are raised and how changing their habits can change this.

•That close to 85% of the poverty in America is due to negligent parenting.

•That his second (award-winning) book, Rich Kids, was written to educate the educators.

Tom's website: www.richhabits.net

The guest on today's show is Marc Miller, founder of Career Pivot, a company that helps people to move forward into a new career in small practical steps, landing them where they want to be. Mark has had an interesting career journey. He left his position at IBM in 2000, after working there for twenty two years and then had various thriving tech startups. He subsequently had what he describes as a painful stint as a high school teacher and also did a gig, raising funds for the Jewish Community Association of Austin- as a non-Jew. Later, he had a near fatal bicycle accident, which changed his perspective forever. 

On today's show, Marc talks about his bicycle accident and how it lead his doing what he does today. He also explains how he helps people to make the transition to doing what they love. Listen in today and find out how you can take some small steps to land just where you want to be.

Today Marc talks to Kate about:

• His accident and how it happened.
• How this accident changed his perspective.
• His multi-cultural approach to life.
• The processes involved with Career Pivot.
• One of his interns as an example to demonstrate how the Pivot works as a multi- step process.
• That he's actually a closet introvert- how he's learned to behave like an extrovert.
• Stealth Competitors- what they are.
• Changing who you are because it will pay you more.
• Helping closet creatives to find their niche.
• The value in using Restoritive Niches.
• The emotions involved in the transition from one career to another.
• The  revised version of his book, Repurpose Your Career- A Practical Guide For Baby Boomers.

Links:

Marc's website: www.careerpivot.com

Marc's email: [email protected]

Go to www.careerpivot.com/bettermoneydecisions and subscribe to Marc's blog to get a download of the three preview chapters of the revised version of Repurpose Your Career.

Books Marc recommends: 

Know Your Value by Mika Brzezinski

                   and

Quiet by Susan Cain

The guest on today's show is a popular author, Kimberly Palmer. Kimberly was the senior Money Editor at US News and World Report for nine years. She's currently the Features Editor on The Money Team at AARP. Her focus is on work and jobs content. Her latest book is called Smart Mom, Rich Mom. In her previous book, The Economy Of You- Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur and Recession-Proof Your Life, Kimberly tells the stories of 100 people who built financial security for themselves by launching a side business. This includes her own story of the Etsy Shop with her money planners. She's also written the book Generation Earned- The Young Professional's Guide To Spending, Investing and Giving Back. Listen in today and find out how to ensure that you can afford to retire when the time comes.

Today, Kate points out that for many reasons, retirement is very different now to how it was back in Grampa's day. She says that although the Boomers are healthier and more active than their parents were, the downside is that many of them don't have the financial resources that their parents had to retire. Join Kate and Kimberly today and become inspired to keep growing, personally and financially.

Today, Kate and Kimberly talk about:

• The main take away that Kimberly gets from the experts and the ordinary people that she interviews.
• Why you should start saving as soon as possible.
• Why people need to connect and network with as many people as possible, in order to stay on top of things today.
• The amount of interest that people are showing in embracing some form of entrepreneurialism.
• How people have to think about maintaining and protecting their jobs today and the effort that it takes to stay on top of things.
• That as a mom today, you could easily end up working for someone who used to work for you before.
• That it's not always up to you how long you keep your current job, so you need to have a Plan B.
• The number of people in their 50's going back to school and going for career changes today.
• Some lessons that younger people could take from the Boomers.

Links:

Kimberly's website: www.kimberly-palmer.com

Kimberly on Twitter: @kimberlypalmer

Her book 'Smart Mom Rich Mom' is available from Amazon and other bookstores.