While the Federal government has created a number of tax-advantaged savings accounts designed to help lower- and middle-income workers save for retirement, these plans tend be less useful for employees earning larger salaries.
Traditional banks are haunted by financial technology – fintech – firms. Challengers such as mobile-first banks Chime in the US, Monzo in the UK and Germany’s N26 have been around for a number of years now, but big global and regional banks are still struggling to deal with the competition. While fintechs experience a goldrush of investment – US$39.6 billion in 2018, up from 120% from 20171 – banking CEOs find themselves under increasing pressure from shareholders alarmed at the slow rate of change taking place.
As summer heats up, it pays to take a good look at how flexible you are. When you plan for the future, you need to be adaptable. No one knows what tomorrow holds.
Capitalism is the best economic system in practice for charitable giving because it is the only one that gives us the freedom to allocate our capital as we see fit. But so many people equate capitalism with greed and think that the profit motive is not compatible with giving. This is a wrongheaded notion.
Taxes are a reality of life. As a result, taxes should be included in the evaluation and construction of any portfolio plan. Investors that ignore the effect of taxes on investments may end up paying higher taxes and earlier than needed. The good news is that investors have some control over when and how taxes will be generated in the investment process to reduce taxes.
Do Millennials think they're financially behind other generations because of a more difficult economy or is it all in their perception?