Author- Clay Wood

Happy New Year!

Estate planning gets complex sometimes. Clients often ask about the benefits of converting a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. And there are benefits. So, maybe we should consider them.

Leaving Roth money in an estate has 4 basic benefits.

Roth accounts are a great addition to your retirement savings. You put in after-tax dollars and it grows tax-free, which is such a beneficial to supplement your retirement income. By using Roth money, many times in retirement you can help keep yourself in a lower tax bracket, minimizing taxes.

Young people who are just starting out in their professional careers often feel like they've been thrown to the wind when it comes to financial matters.  It’s odd – but understandable – that they’ve just spent a minimum of four years intensely focused on getting the education necessary to secure a good financial future, yet they frequently enter the “real

When people hear the word "budget," they tend to equate it with “restrictions” – how much they can afford to spend, what they’re allowed to spend it on, and capping overall spending so they can save more.  They think about recording every penny that goes out so they can see where they’ve gone over-budget and how they can make up for it.

Recently I have noticed a lot of news stories about ridesharing that went wrong.  Anyone who uses the apps Uber and Lyft have probably had their fair share of strange drivers, but it ended in them arriving at their destination safely.  Because these are a relatively new service provided to the public, there really isn’t much of a protocol for best practices when using a rideshar

Taxes are complicated.  That is why there are people whose entire job revolves around helping individuals pay the government what they owe.  There are so many different variables that can affect the amount you are required to pay that it helps to have a professional assist you.  To make it even more complicated, some folks who aren’t experts by any means spread misinformati

High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) are becoming more common in the healthcare space these days.  Because of this, we have been receiving a lot of questions from clients about how their Health Savings Accounts (HSA) fits into their financial plan.  I wanted to go over some of the questions that have been coming up.

Alabama’s 529 Plan recently received a “Silver” rating by Morningstar.  The Silver rating makes the plan rate in the Top 8 in the country!  That is a great rating, but you might be wondering why you shouldn’t just choose the Top “Gold” ranked plan?  If there is a better plan, would I not want my money in that one for my child?  If you live

At the end of September Congress amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require reporting agencies to freeze reports for no charge.  This was a result of the data breach at Equifax that exposes around 148 million Americans’ personal information.  When you place a freeze on your reports, it restricts lenders from accessing your information.  But just because it is free doe