Shotwell Rutter Baer

Join Dave and Nick as they review all the things you need to consider for your taxes for 2021.

They provide information on different tax forms, distributions, tax withholdings, and all of your accounts.

For additional information, please read our recent blog Tax Documents for 2021.

The guys review things like:

Here is the link to the Charitable Giving Strategies podcast episode we mentioned. mentioned in this episode.

The following flowcharts will help you determine contributions, charitable distributions, and deductible IRA contributions.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your tax documents, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office. We’re happy to help. Call us at 517-321-4832 or email [email protected].

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

Join Dave and Nick as they talk about what the market did overall for 2021, what is going on right now, and what is predicted for 2022.

Refining and securing fixed loans are a consideration right now. Remember, even though inflation is rising, 2021 was the 20th best year on record for the S&P 500. 2019 was 16th and 2020 was the 41st best. To have the last 3 years grouped in the top half is good news.

Stay invested. Don’t get caught up in a month-to-month view of it. History and trends prove to ride it out. Concentrate on long-term goals and objectives. Investing is not about beating the benchmark or figuring out what is going to be the best performing asset class or stock. It is about goals and objectives for the long term, which will ultimately lead to success. Be sure to have the right asset allocating that matched your goals.

Maintain your focus on what  really matters: 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

Have you set your financial goals for 2022?

Dave and Nick go over many things that you should be thinking about this month to set yourself up for a great financial year in 2022. Even if you do have goals, you might find some gems in this episode that you didn’t think of. Saving money, investment strategies, tax considerations, and more.

Please share this episode with someone you know who could benefit from this advice! They will thank you.

How much did you accomplish last year? Give yourself a pat on your back and appreciate what you did. What worked out well in 2021? Can you use these strategies in 2022? The markets did really well in 2021 – how is your portfolio?

Be realistic and come up with 1 -2 priorities. Get your retirement plan in shape. Pay down credit cards. You will have a much better time reaching your goals if you break them down and have a select few that are really important.

Moving, marriage, births, retirement, starting or ending college, changing jobs, and more. The more you can identify and prepare for these events, the better you can set yourself up financially. The more prepared you can be the more successful you can be.

Milestone ages are important in your overall financial plans. Check out the list below to discover which ones are coming up for you or your family members.

Are your income and expenses in flux and changing from last year? It is a good idea to review these things in January. You may get a raise, health insurance expenses may arise, and other changes.

Also, review your employee benefits to make sure you are taking advantage of all that it has to offer. If you are unsure, our financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer can help you sort through it and figure out the best plan with the options you have. HSA or FSA accounts and other things are good to review at the beginning of the year. If you have funds left in these from 2021 you may have a limited time to use them. These are plan specific and some will allow you to carry over to the next year.

Does it make sense for you to make a contribution for 2021 to offset your income and tax obligations? You have to April 15 most years to make that contribution for the previous year. If you are subject to required minimum distributions be sure you take out the minimum before the end of the year. Even if you plan on taking it out later in the year, it is good to have a plan now and set reminders to make sure you do it on time.

Are you saving enough toward retirement? Are you saving for things that will make 2022 exciting? A vacation. Home renovation. Other things that will make 2022 important to you. Figure out how much you need to set aside each month to make these things happen.

Do you need to replenish or adjust your emergency fund? Do you anticipate a job change this year? Health issues? Or other things that may require you to pad your emergency fund. The sooner you start this the easier it is to build it up.

Are you thinking of buying or selling real estate? A business? Shares? Any major purchases or sales could have tax implications that you should plan ahead for.

Is your risk tolerance where it should be? Do you want to take more or less risk based on your financial goals for the year? Your risk tolerance is a big factor in considering life milestones.

Review reasonable benchmarks for your accounts and go over them with your financial advisor.

Use the checklist below to ensure you are reviewing all of your financial considerations for 2022.

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

Happy New Year! Season Two is starting!

Join us, Dave and Nick, as we talk about our 2022 Financial Predictions, and other market predictions to try and make sense of it all.

What is going to happen this year in the finance world? Should you be optimistic? Should you be concerned?

Since we are in this industry, our inboxes get bombarded with predictions from other financial and market experts as well. Some are optimistic and some are more pessimistic. If we took the average of them all they would just cancel each other out and the market wouldn’t do anything. But we all know that is not what happens from year to year. So, without further ado, here are our predictions.

We have also provided two articles from Forbes and Bloomberg with their predictions.

Covid and Interest rates are two of the biggest drivers heading into 2022.

In our research, we found predictions from negative nine to positive 13, which is such a big difference. How is this possible?

Get your answers by listening to our episode.

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

Join Dave and Nick as they recap the SRB financial planning process and list out the key elements they look at with each client as they walk them through their personalized financial planning goals.

Some of the nitty-gritty decision-making things that make a successful financial plan and lifelong terms to create the life that you want.

Retirement – Existing savings like 401k, Roth IRA, etc. What are the contributions, and are the savings adequate to meet your needs?

Tax Planning – This often feeds into current retirement planning regarding pre or post-tax contributions.

Investments & Risks – For every increase in return there is more risk, so what level of risk makes the most sense for you based on your personality and where you are at in your timeline for retirement?

Asset Allocations – How do we mix stocks, bonds, and cash to come up with the best plan? And then how we implement these plans.

Budget – This is important to have a good balance between saving and spending. How long will it take to get to the savings goals you have?

Retirement Timeline – When can you retire to meet all of your financial retirement goals?

Social Security – One of the things we can play around with within a plan is social security. What if Social Security gets cut by 25%? If the planning is good, needs are typically still met, but you may have to adjust your wants and discretionary spending.

Market Corrections – What if we have a market crash like 2008? We can plan for these things that may happen. If your mind hasn’t gone there or thought about these possibilities, you are more likely to panic with market corrections.

Our software allows us to stress test financial plans – we can put in things like passing away earlier or later than expected, stock market behavior, social security returns, and more.

Estate Planning – Everybody should have an estate plan to make sure you are taken care of while living and your assets are assigned correctly.

Related: Estate Planning Webinar with Molly Petitjean

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

A recent article in the New York Times, The True Cost of Upgrading Your iPhone, discusses the opportunity cost of spending money on things versus investing that money.

Join Nick and Dave as they discuss this way of looking at spending and purchases. They both reveal some of their own personal spending habits that fall into this category.

Dave has a monthly TV streaming service to watch a couple of sporting events a week.  It costs him $60/month = $720 for the year. Using the same assumption as the iPhone scenario,  if he invested that money instead, over 30 years it would result in over $12,563. Dave admits that looking at is this way makes him think about the money he spends every month a lot more.

Nick spends about $300 on his gym which = $3600/year. With the same investment calculation, this would = $62, 817. Is it worth it? Nick is one of those people who does actually use his gym membership regularly. So, how many health problems is he avoiding by staying in shape, and how many medical expenses?

Listen to the entire episode to find out more info on the real cost of owning a car and other purchases.

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

It’s that time again – let’s take a look at where our economy is at the end of the year and what we can expect for next quarter.

The stock market is up 24.8% (S&P) from last year. A bull market climbs a wall of worry and there are many things in the media to make us worry – but the market keeps chugging along.

Interest rates are also really low, so there has been a boom in home buying and refinancing. Technology has advanced faster due to the Covid shutdown. Some experts are saying we are about 10 years ahead than we would have been without the shutdown.

Where is the stock market compared to corporate earnings? Price to earnings ratio is about 21.4%.

Basically, this means that the market is optimistic for growth and earnings.

Listen to the full episode for more info and advice on how to plan your finances for the coming year.

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

The end of the year is 6 weeks away. When it comes to your financials, there are some important things to consider this time of year.

Take stock now and be sure you don’t miss any important deadlines. Listen to the entire episode for tips and instructions on what you should be doing to set yourself up for 2022 and beyond.

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

This is the truly exciting step in your financial plan – You start to build your processes and portfolio to support your dreams and overcome your obstacles. This is when the action starts to happen.

Join Dave and Nick as they discuss Step Six of the Strategic Reliable Blueprint for your financial success. The build – the action – to make it all happen.

If you are just joining us for the first time, or haven’t listened to the previous episodes in this series on our entire Strategic Reliable Blueprint process, please go back and listen to those episodes first.

After completing all the previous steps in your financial plan, now you will be armed with specific recommendations to put your plan into action. This includes removing anything that stands in between you and your financial freedom. You’ll understand what you need to do today and what you need to keep living your ideal life now and in the future.

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.

Join Dave and Nick as they explain the Strategy step of the Strategic Reliable Blueprint process for your financial success

This is the step where we actually start to build solutions and recommendations for the client.

This isn’t us making recommendations from on high, this is really about a give and take with the client and working through the obstacles that they identified.

If you are just joining us for the first time, or haven’t listened to the previous episodes in this series on our entire Strategic Reliable Blueprint process, please go back and listen to those episodes first.

In the next step of your blueprint for financial success, we start by listing the pros and cons of different approaches to solving your obstacles to working, saving, and spending. We also use financial planning software to help you compare one plan to another and analyze savings and income strategies with different portfolio combinations.

If you are nearing retirement we will also look at in-depth strategies for social security and other income sources that may be available to you.

The financial advisors at Shotwell Rutter Baer work with many clients to maximize their retirement plan benefits and abilities. If you would like to find if there is more you can do with your plan, give us a call at 517-321-4832.

Check out our Strategic Reliable Blueprint process here. 

Shotwell Rutter Baer is proud to be an independent, fee-only registered investment advisory firm. This means that we are only compensated by our clients for our knowledge and guidance — not from commissions by selling financial products. Our only motivation is to help you achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. By structuring our business this way we believe that many of the conflicts of interest that plague the financial services industry are eliminated. We work for our clients, period.

Click here to learn about the Strategic Reliable Blueprint, our financial plan process for your future.

Call us at 517-321-4832 for financial and retirement investing advice.