You can find part 2 of Budgeting HERE When I was ten, we would visit our family friends in Michigan called “the five boys”, for obvious reasons. Being a ten-year-old looking for fun, their pig farm was perfect. We would arrive and clamber out of the car yearning for the green light from our parents….
In my previous blog post, I gave several examples of families caring for the elders in their lives. Today I want to look at a few of the many options available. I’ll cover traditional options like Senior Living and Continuing Care Retirement Communities along with lesser-known options like “Golden Girls” Shared Living, and even something new called…
Thanksgiving 1986, we traveled to Sewanee, TN to see Jonathan’s family: parents, sisters, cousins, and a host of golden retrievers. Jonathan’s mom, Charlotte, always got an A+ on Thanksgiving. Her home was inviting, her turkey was perfect, she had mastered all the sides as well – always with what seemed like such ease. But that…
On the heels of a rough end to 2018, we’ve seen the largest increase in the S&P 500 to start the year since 1997. The chart below from Charlie Bilello details the other top 10 first 127 trading days of the year since 1928. And before your eyes drift to the red, remember that you’re…
I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite hiking games is “would you rather.” So, I want you to imagine that we are hiking on a foggy day in the Blue Ridge Mountains and I ask you, “Would you rather buy a brand new car or travel the world for a year?” It’s a…
This year we’ve been working through an unusually high number of lump sum investing scenarios with clients. No one has won the lottery or discovered a long-lost rich uncle who left them an inheritance. Rather, what we’ve encountered falls into two categories: a) an influx of cash (sale of a business, receipt of deferred compensation,…
For most, owning a home is one of the next big steps after college. A few years pass and you’re either earning more money or starting a family and you roll your equity into a bigger house. However, after the real estate market took a hit in ’08/’09 people have started questioning this age-old wisdom…
We often ask clients about their best and worst money choices. It is probably not surprising to learn that “lending money to family” can show up in either column. Below, we’ll touch on the essential aspects of loaning money to family so that if you decide to go down that route (either as borrower or…
One of my privileges in 2019 is to serve as President of the Women’s Professional Forum (WPF). Last fall one of the members of WPF asked me if I thought WPF would like to be part of the 2019 Habitat For Humanity Women Build. I offered her idea to our board of directors who quickly…
Most of us, including myself, get hung up on allowing a dollar figure to determine how “wealthy” we are. When in fact, wealth can be made up of things that are worth far more than money but are harder to quantify. Because of this difficulty in measuring, we often default to overlook these alternative measures….
At Smith Partners Wealth Management we evaluate each prospective client for best fit. We would be glad to meet with you to understand your needs and determine whether you would be well served here. To learn more about becoming a Smith Partners client, please contact us. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you.