Wilma Broering, CFP®, is a financial counselor to military service members. She is dedicated to helping service members navigate the day-to-day challenges of military life, take advantage of their benefits, and save for retirement. She retired from a financial planning practice in 2008, where she served the general population, before narrowing her focus to military members.

Has your financial situation changed, or do you expect it to change, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? Review your emergency fund and make any changes you need to make; review your estate planning documents, and take advantage of expanded unemployment benefits and delayed student loan payments. 

Talk to your financial advisor about immediate, specific steps you can take to weather this storm. 

Read more: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-35-planning-in-times-of-uncertainty

This show was initially syndicated partially to Apple Podcasts. We're republishing it in an effort to share the full show. 

The last two weeks have been full of market volatility, making many people anxious about their finances. The COVID-19 is putting external pressure on our economy. Traditional economic stimulus tools may not work as they have in the past. The next weeks and months are likely going to be rocky, but that doesn’t mean you should pull your investments out of the markets — that’s a risky gamble that, historically, has not paid off.  ABOUT THE GUEST: Trace Tisler, CFP® is a financial advisor based in Hudson, Ohio, who primarily works with mid-career professionals and clients transitioning into retirement. He founded his firm, Epic Financial, in 2013. Read more: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-34-navigating-the-market-uncertainty-of-covid-19

The last two weeks have been full of market volatility, making many people anxious about their finances. The COVID-19 is putting external pressure on our economy. Traditional economic stimulus tools may not work as they have in the past. The next weeks and months are likely going to be rocky, but that doesn’t mean you should pull your investments out of the markets — that’s a risky gamble that, historically, has not paid off. 

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Trace Tisler, CFP® is a financial advisor based in Hudson, Ohio, who primarily works with mid-career professionals and clients transitioning into retirement. He founded his firm, Epic Financial, in 2013.

Read more: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-34-navigating-the-market-uncertainty-of-covid-19

Puneet Cham joins Money Checkup to talk about the nuts and bolts of making your estate plan: Power of attorney for healthcare, power of attorney for property, guardianship for minor children, revocable trusts, a succession plan for your business, and more. Even if you feel like you won’t need your estate plan for many years, putting one in place will ensure that your family and your asset are protected.  

Puneet Cham is a partner at Latimer LeVay Fyock who focuses on holistic estate planning and business succession planning. 

Read more on www.fitadvisors.com. 

Want a financial planner in your corner?! I'd love to connect. You can reach me at anjali@fitadvisors.com.

Kaya Ladejobi is the founder of Earn Into Wealth, a financial planning firm that serves high-earning women and dual-career couples. Kaya holds an MBA in entrepreneurship and is a Certified Financial Planner™.

She works virtually with clients in their 30s and 40s as they navigate student debt, weddings and honeymoons, having children and planning for family obligations. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Weddings are often the first big expenses couples assume together. Kaya encourages her clients to understand what’s on the horizon. If couples plan to have kids or purchase a home right away, they may need to spend less money on a wedding to have funds available for a down payment, childcare, or other coming expenses. 
• Many high-earning professionals carry high levels of student debt. Kaya encourages clients who have six-figure debt to make it a top financial priority. 
• Talking about finances before marriage and creating a detailed cash flow plan can help couples avoid conflict later. 
• Kaya estimates that about half of her clients are first- or second-generation Americans who have cultural obligations to their parents or extended family members, so she includes that in their cash flow plans. 

For more, check out the show here: https://fitadvisors.com/planning-for-marriage-from-weddings-to-college-funds 

David Draghinas is the host of Doctors Unbound, a podcast for and about physicians who are doing extraordinary things inside and outside the medical field. He practices clinical medicine as an anesthesiologist in the Dallas area on top of spending time with his wife and their four children.

David is an anesthesiologist in working private practice with Metropolitan Anesthesia Consultants in the Dallas area. He is a graduate of the USC Keck School of Medicine who started his career as a U.S. Navy physician in San Diego. David and his wife have four young children. 

Social, website, book links:

Follow David on Twitter at @ddraghinas. 

Learn more about Doctors Unbound at www.doctorsunbound.com. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• As Dr. Dragahinas met more and more physicians, he found that many of them had fascinating stories outside their work in clinical medicine, from founding companies to running for office. He launched Doctors Unbound to share those stories. 
• More physicians than ever are talking about burnout, which gives physicians more power to adjust their practice or their finances to reduce or eliminate the causes of burnout. 
• David started in short-term rentals by offering a home they already owned on AirBnB. About nine months in, they felt there was enough demand to purchase another home to market exclusively as a luxury AirBnB. These two homes generate 8 to 10 times as much revenue as standard long-term rentals. 
• Initially, David planned to develop a long-term rental business, but he found it would be very difficult to cash flow more than $200 per month per unit. Their AirBnBs can cash flow as much as $2,000 per month per unit. But when he purchases a home, David considers its viability both as a short- and a long-term rental in case local regulations change. 
• David and his wife do due diligence on their guests and share their cell phone numbers with their properties’ neighbors. When guests seem like they might be rowdy or upset neighbors, they leave money on the table rather than jeopardize relationships. 
• David seeks to practice “work-life harmony” rather than “work-life balance.” He tries to batch his projects by, for example, spending a full day working ahead on Doctors Unbound so he can step away from it for a month. 
• David and his wife both aim to spend quality one-on-one time with each of their kids at least once per quarter.

When it comes to financial planning, the default is to think that you’re just dealing with dollars and cents. In reality, it’s so much more than that. financial planning is about figuring out what you value in life, too.

In today’s episode, my guest, Scott Frank, CFA, CFP, of Stone Steps Financial talks about how to connect what you’re doing with your money to what you’re doing with your life. And as financial planners, what we can do to help!

Read more about Scott here: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-30-values-based-financial-life-planning

Anjali Jariwala, CPA, CFP® is the founder of FIT Advisors. She works with physicians and business owners to build stable financial futures and use their money in ways that support their values. 

“Give yourself a year-end checkup just to make sure that you’re set for not only this year, but set up appropriately for 2020.”

KEY RESOURCES REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

• For more about P&C insurance, try Money Checkup Episode 20.
• For more on retirement plans for small business owners, try Episode 13.
• For more on life insurance, try Episode 16.
• To learn more about college savings options, read this blog post. 
• To better understand your small business’s financials, read this.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• As soon as possible, revisit your retirement plan contributions. You can contribute up to $19,500 to a 401(k) in 2020, plus an additional $6,500 if you’re 50 or older. 
• Revisit your contributions to your HSA and deferred compensation plans. HSA limits for 2020 are $3,550 for individuals and $7,100 for couples, plus an additional $1,000 per person if you’re 55 or older. 
• Do a detailed review of your cash flow so you know how much you bring in, how much you spend and how much you save. Start by listing all your fixed expenses. Then prioritize your savings for both short-term and long-term goals. 
• However much income is left is how much you have available for discretionary spending. review your recent credit card and bank statements to see how much you spend in various discretionary categories, including eating out, shopping and entertainment. If you’re spending more than you’d like to, put yourself on a budget in 2020.
• If you contribute to a 529 or other college savings plan, revisit your contributions at the start of the year. Find out if your state offers a tax deduction to contributing to their college savings plan. In general, I recommend that my clients invest 50% of the cost of college in a 529 and 50% in a taxable investment account. 
• Check your credit report using annualcreditreport.com or a free credit monitoring service. 
• Calculate your net worth annually. To do this, list your assets and then subtract your liabilities or debts. If your net worth is growing, is it due to increasing assets, shrinking debt, or both? 
• Review your debt. A good rule of thumb, generally, is to carry debt worth less than 28% of your pre-tax income. Work with your financial advisor to eliminate your high-cost, non-tax-deductible consumer debt and gradually pay down your other debts. 
• Review your insurance policies. Is your umbrella coverage sufficient for your net worth? Has your income increased such that you need more life or disability insurance? 
• Lastly, for individuals: Review your investment portfolio. Revisit your investment allocations to make sure they are consistent with your projected retirement date, and work with your financial advisor to identify tax-efficient investments. Rebalance your investments if necessary. 
• Business owners: Use the start of the year to clean up your books. See if your accounting practices are providing the data you need to effectively run your business. If you’re in the service sector, break out your revenue and expenses by service to understand how profitable each revenue stream is. If you have employees, try to understand the revenue generated by each person. 
• Compare your 2019 P&L to those of prior years. How much did your revenue, expenses and profit change? Compare the reality to your projections from last year, and use your experience to set goals for 2020. Work with a financial advisor or CPA to make projections for the next 1, 3, 5 and 10 years. 
• If you own an S Corp, note that negative equity means you pulled out more than you should have from your business, and you may need to pay tax on your withdrawals. 
• Review your tax payments from 2019. If you haven’t yet made sufficient payments, put aside money for the bill that will be due April 15, and update your accounting procedures so you make on-time payments throughout 2020. 
• If you own an S Corp, talk to your CPA about revising your salary for 2020. And if you don’t yet have a retirement plan set up for your business, talk to your financial advisor about whether that’s a realistic goal for 2020.
• You don’t need to address every single one of these goals in January. Focus on those that feel most pressing to you and your situation, and work with a financial advisor to prioritize those. 

STAY IN THE LOOP WITH US!

Follow FIT Advisors on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, or sign up for our monthly email newsletter at the bottom of the homepage.

Do you like Money Checkup? Please be sure to let me know by rating and reviewing the show!

If you loved this episode, try Episode 23: How Business Owners Can Build Balanced Lives.

In this episode, we will look at the benefits of being an independent contractor and some of the tax challenges you might also run into.

As an added bonus I’ll take a deep dive into the Qualified Business Income deduction (“QBI”) that came out last year with the new tax changes. We will go over the good, bad and what you can do to optimize the QBI for your taxes this year.

Oh look! We've written a companion blog that can be found here: https://fitadvisors.com/tax-and-retirement-planning-for-independent-contractors/