The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something! If you can do something proactive other than just sitting on your hands and hoping that the markets turn around soon, you’ll be better able to get through this difficult time while keeping your long term investment strategy intact. 

Today, I’m talking about one of the most important things you can do during a stock market downturn, which is rebalancing. 

If at the end of last year, you had a portfolio made up of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, but now your portfolio is down 25%, that mix is probably off by a few % points. If a portfolio has drifted from it’s target mix of stocks and bonds in either direction by more than 5%, then it’s time to rebalance.

Because the stocks are now worth less and are a lower percentage of the portfolio because of the market downturn, when you rebalance to get back to your 60% stock allocation target, you’ll be adding to stocks. 

Yes, adding to stocks when they’re down 15,20,25%! Everyone wishes they could buy low and sell high, but when you’re disciplined about rebalancing in good markets and in bad, that’s exactly what you’re able to achieve. 

Research shows that rebalancing and taking advantage of a market downturn to add to stocks adds to your long-term returns in a real and meaningful way. 

Plus, it helps you take a more opportunistic stance with your investment portfolio by adding to stocks, rather than running for cover, selling everything, and hiding out until you feel better. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: Don’t Just sit there. Do Something! 

When the stock market is in freefall, and with high inflation, a war in Ukraine, and rising interest rates causing angst among investors, it’s easy to fall into the temptation to abandon your long-term investment strategy, sell everything, and go to cash until things start looking up again. 

But what if you could do something to take advantage of the current downturn in the market? 

This week, I’ll share with you my best ideas for ways you can take action to improve your long-term situation, that may scratch that itch you have to do something about what’s going on right now, without taking the extreme action of abandoning your long-term strategy and selling everything, locking in your losses after the market is already down 20% for the year. 

I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast

This week the theme was: How To Earn More On Your Cash

In case you missed any episodesI talked about how you can earn more on your cash though a variety of investments without sacrificing liquidity when needed or putting your money at a significant risk, just to earn a little more yield. With interest rates still very low, there aren’t a lot of options, but I tried giving you a few idea this week, including:

• Money Market Funds
• High-Yield Savings Accounts
• Floating Rate Funds
• T-Bills
• Short-Term Corporate Bonds

The most important takeaway from this week is: 

Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something! 

As I record today’s episode, the S&P 500 has dropped 16% this year. At one point just a few days ago, it nearly touched bear market territory, which is a drop of 20% or more. So with the stock and bond markets in a tailspin this year, it’s tempting to step in to stop the bleeding. While it would be a big mistake to sell your investments and abandon your long-term investment strategy during a downturn in the stock market, it doesn’t mean that you just have to sit there either and do nothing.

So next week, I’ll share with you some important and productive actions you can take during this scary time. 

Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement. 

Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash

Yesterday and today, I’ve ventured into the land of needing to tie up your cash for 6 months or more to get a better yield. Yesterday I talked about short-term US treasury bonds (aka T-bills). Today I’m talking about Short-term corporate bonds. 

More specifically, these are bonds that will mature sometime within the next 1-2 years. 

And because they are corporate bonds, you can earn a higher rate compared to a treasury bond with the same time to maturity. 

My favorite way to access bonds that mature in a specific time is by purchasing a bond fund with a specific maturity, say 2023. 

There are several different bond funds, usually these are exchange traded funds. All of the bonds in the fund are bonds that mature in that year, and the basket of bonds in the portfolio might include several hundred different bonds. Because of this, the credit risk is minimal if you choose an investment grade bond fund, and the 2023 bond ETF that I use for many of my clients is yielding about 2.6%. It will mature at the end of 2023, so you’re tying up your money for about a year and a half, but you can sell the fund at any time, and the price is relatively stable. 

This particular fund is down about 1.3% this year, whereas most bonds across the board are down anywhere from 6-12%. 

So if you’re really wanting to earn some more yield, and you’re ok with the potential that it could lose a little bit, I like the 2023 bond ETFs as an option to get more income on your cash. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash. So far this week, I’ve covered money market funds, high yield savings accounts, and floating rate funds. These are all investments that offer liquidity and a high level of safety without tying up your money for a specific period of time. 

If you want any hoping of earning more that 1% on your cash right now, you’ll want to start venturing into tying up your money for a set period of time - say 3 or 6 months. 

A great way to do that with an investment that is short term - in this case only invested for 6 months, and offers the highest degree of safety - backed by the full faith and credit of the US government - still the safest place to put your money in the world - then you’ll want to consider T Bills. 

T bills are treasury bills (aka bonds) that have a maturity of 1 year or less. What make a T bill different than a regular treasury bond is simply the shorter term of the investment period. 

Right now you can purchase a 6 month T Bill and earn an annualized yield of 1.435%. Not too bad for a risk-free way to invest your cash for the next 6 months in this very low interest rate environment. 

Despite their safety and relatively decent rates right now, there are a couple drawbacks to these investments: 

1. could lose money if you need to sell early, and 
2. if you buy short term treasury bills directly from the treasury, there are no fees, but it’s one more place you’ll need to open an account and keep track your funds 

You can buy other investments like mutual funds and exchange traded funds that own T Bills, so you don’t need to buy the T Bills directly from the treasury and open a new account, but the added fees on these investments will reduce the yield. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash

Today, I’m talking about floating rate funds - an underutilized investment for earning a bit more on your cash. 

You can purchase these funds in brokerage accounts and IRAs and they’re great for the rising interest rate environment that we’re in right now. Here’s how they work:

A floating rate fund is a mutual fund or an exchange traded fund or index fund that invests in short-term bonds with a variable interest rate. The interest that you earn will fluctuate with the underlying interest rate level, which means that when the rates are rising like they are right now, the interest that you earn also increases in lockstep. 

Floating rate funds are often made up of corporate bonds as well as loans made by banks to companies. For that reason, you’ll want to ensure that the credit quality of the fund is high, so you have minimal credit risk.

That being said, floating rate funds are paying around 1% right now - a much better deal than your traditional savings account - in fact, the yield is almost 100x higher than what most depositors are earning at the bank right now. 

The other thing to note that unlike money markets and high yield savings accounts, it’s possible that your investment could be worth less that what you invested, but even this year with bond prices in the toilet, floating rate funds have maintained price stability, which is encouraging. 

Another thing I like about these funds is their liquidity. Since they’re mutual funds or ETFs that trade similar to a stock, so you can access your money at any time if you need it, and it’s not tied up for a predetermined amount of time compared to something like a CD.  

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Today, I’m talking about earning more on your cash with a high yield savings account. 

Compared to parking your cash in checking or savings at your bank and earning virtually no interest right now, a high yield savings account is paying a much better rate - many of the ones I checked online were paying slightly over ½% - and most were in the .60% range. 

The problem with high yield savings accounts is that you may have to shop around for the best rates, and it’s not easy or practical often to open a new account, move your funds over, and keep it there, unless those high yielding rates stay competitive. 

One of the things I do like about high yield savings accounts from these online banks is that they’re FDIC insured, and it’s usually very  easy to access funds when you need them. 

A drawback as I mentioned earlier is that if you open one of these high yield savings accounts and the rates don’t stay competitive, you could be looking at the hassle of moving your funds to a new financial institution, which is a real pain and probably not worth the trouble. 

Another drawback of these accounts is that some require a certain number of transactions a month or additional deposits to get the higher rate, so just make sure you read the fine print.

And of course, always do the math. If you keep $10,000 or less in your savings and bank A is offering .5%, while bank B is offering .75%, that’s a difference of $25 a year in interest, so is it really worth it to shop around, transfer the money and close the old account? 

For me, it would never be worth the hassle, time and effort, for $25. On the other hand, if I have $100,000 in savings and the difference in rates in 1%, then that difference in $1,000 per year might now be worth the time and hassle of switching. 

Yesterday, I talked about money market funds. I prefer money markets to high yield savings accounts, because even though the rate is a bit lower, it does tend to adjust more quickly and could provide a higher interest rate compared to high yield savings accounts if rates continue to rise. Plus, since they’re mutual funds, you can easily switch to a different money market without opening and closing the account if you find a better money market alternative. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: How to earn more on your cash

Today, I’m talking about one of the easiest ways to earn more on your cash, and that is by investing in a money market fund.

Money market funds are mutual funds that invest in very short term bonds and have minimal credit risk. They’re so low risk, that even during volatile time periods, including the financial crisis in 2008, these investments historically have not lost any value. The drawback of these investments compared to savings accounts is that they lack the FDIC insurance you get with a bank account, but given the historic stability of these funds and what you can earn in interest, I think it’s a fair trade off. 

We use money market funds frequently with clients, and have 10s of millions of client assets invested in money market funds at any one time. 

You can buy a variety of different money market funds. Some even provide tax-exempt interest, if you’re in a high tax bracket and you’re looking to minimize taxes on your investment income.

So what about the rates?  

Compared to most savings accounts which are paying .01% of interest right now, money market funds are paying about .5% right now, which is astronomically higher than savings accounts but with nearly as much security and virtually the same liquidity. 

For this reason it’s my favorite place to park cash for clients that might be needed in the next few months to a year, and they deserve serious consideration for your cash holdings. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: How to earn more on your cash

Despite interest rates ticking up significantly so far in 2022, I’m getting a whopping .01% on my savings account at my bank account. That means for every $10,000 I have in my savings account, I will earn $1 of interest per year. 

My guess is you’re probably a similar boat and I’m not alone here. Many of the big banks - BofA, Wells Fargo, and Chase - are all paying .01% on their savings accounts. Seems a little unfair, but these big banks have no incentive to raise the money they’re paying out on deposits, since they have much higher deposits then they need or even know what to do with at the moment. In previous periods of rising interest rates, it’s always a slow trickle down to deposits, so don’t expect your .01% APY on your savings account to go up by much anytime soon. 

What’s even more frustrating is that I’m actually losing money in real terms because inflation is currently running around 8%. That means I’ll actually lose $799 on that $10,000 in savings in real terms. Yikes! 

So how do you find an investment that won’t put your cash at risk, still provide liquidity and access to funds when you need it, while earning more than $1 a year in interest?

That’s what we’ll be covering this week on the podcast. 

I’ll share with you the best ways to earn more on your cash, while still maintaining that safety and liquidity dual mandate that is so important for your cash holdings. 

I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast

This week the theme was: Analyze Your Tax Return Like A CPA

In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:

• Analyze Your Tax Return: Marginal Tax Rates
• Analyze Your Tax Return: Capital Gains & Losses
• Analyze Your Tax Return: Tax Deductions
• Analyze Your Tax Return: Tax Loss Carryforward
• Analyze Your Tax Return: Charitable Giving

The most important takeaway from this week is: Don’t just file away your tax return, never to look at it again. There are hidden opportunities in your tax return that can help you make smarter and better decisions with your investments and retirement. 

Tomorrow, come on back because we’re starting a brand new theme: How To Earn More On Your Cash.

Interest rates are heading higher, which means rates are also going higher on the money market and cash-like alternatives to park your funds that can earn you more in interest than your checking account can offer. 

So next week, I’ll share with you some of the best places to invest your cash to maximize your returns without tying up your money for too long or sacrificing access to your funds when you need it. 

Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement. 

Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance