Author:Cory Smith

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Should you Opt Out of the Monthly Advance Child Tax Credit Payments?

Posted on September 11, 2021

With the monthly Advance Child Tax Credit Payments starting to be sent out in mid-July, we’ve received several inquiries from clients as to whether or not they should opt out of these payments (to avoid potentially having to pay it back when they file their 2021 returns). As such, I thought it would be helpful to provide an overview of how it works, how to calculate your 2021 amount, and how to decide if you should opt out of the monthly advanced payments.   By Laurence Schiffman, CFP® September 11, 2021   Estimated Read Time:  12-14 minutes If you don’t care about the details, scroll to the...

Important Message Regarding Long-Term Care Insurance

Posted on July 22, 2021

If you have long-term care insurance, you have most likely received a premium rate increase on your policy (potentially multiple ones depending on the insurance company). These are typically accompanied by a few options to make changes to your policy. In general, the options listed are typically more beneficial to the insurance company than the policy owner and are not the only options available. Here’s what I just went through for my parents: In May my parents received a notice from Genworth that their premiums would be increasing by 55%. This was on top of the 44% increase between 2013-2015 and the...

Hand Sanitizer and Masks are Tax-Deductible (and HSA eligible)

Posted on April 2, 2021

Last week the IRS announced that amounts paid for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which includes masks, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes are tax-deductible medical expenses if the primary purpose for purchasing them was to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. They also made this ruling retroactive to January 1, 2020. Unfortunately, in order to qualify for the deduction for medical expenses you need to itemize your deductions and only the portion of your medical expenses above 7.5% of your AGI is tax-deductible so very few people will actually be able to claim those deductions. Don’t fret though because there’s a twist to...

January 2021 Portfolio Update

Posted on February 2, 2021

We wanted to take a few minutes to loop you in on the rebalance we did earlier this week and some adjustments we made at the same time. A lot has happened over the past year. We saw the beginning and middle of a global pandemic, along with the markets' retreat and recovery along the way. Not only has Zoom become a household name, but many parents took up second careers as homeschool teachers. And most recently, we ushered in a new administration. With changes as large and impactful as these, it was prudent and timely to rebalance the portfolios...

October 2020 Portfolio Updates

Posted on October 27, 2020

This year has been one for the history books on many counts.  When we made the changes to our portfolios at the beginning of the year, we mentioned that we hadn’t experienced a bear market (i.e. 20% or greater decline) in over a decade.  While we did not know what would cause one, we knew (from a purely statistical standpoint) that we were on borrowed time and proactively adjusted our portfolios accordingly.  It turned out that the timing of our derisking was extremely timely.  When we made the changes to our portfolios, it was done so out of prudent investing...

September 11 – Never Forget

Posted on September 11, 2020

Where I was on September 11 I had just finished my freshman year at Temple University and, after almost failing out, decided I wasn’t ready for college yet and needed to take some time off. I moved back in with my parents in Jersey and ended up landing a job at a bedroom furniture store. Even though I wasn’t good at sales, I learned the products quickly and people seemed to like and trust me enough to buy from me. I had already made a few thousand dollars in that short time and since I didn’t really have any expenses (thank...

COVID-19 Update #5

Posted on April 24, 2020

COVID-19 Update While many parts of America may well have crested the wave and are coming back down from the surge of new cases, other parts of America are now just nearing the crest.  It was announced early Friday morning that the US death toll crossed over 50,000 human lives here in America.  This battle against COVID-19 is still far from over, but the good news is that the early projections of a quarter-million or more US deaths seem to be very far off with new projections closer to 70,000 deaths.   We heard at the beginning of this week that Colorado,...

COVID-19 Update #4

Posted on April 17, 2020

COVID-19 Update Since the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwan has been a leader in the response and handling of the virus. Through a rapid ramp-up of safety protocols and the expedited innovation of testing capabilities and procedures, Taiwan was able to keep its overall cases below 500 with only 6 deaths. They have once again shown how they are the leaders in the response through the development of a 1-hour test that has a 90% accuracy.  Another amazing aspect of this test is that it can detect the virus in the early stages of the incubation period.  They anticipate being...

COVID-19 Update #3

Posted on April 10, 2020

COVID-19 Update Given the amount of good news that we’ve shared regarding our fight with COVID-19 over the last two weeks, there’s little surprise that the news is better than initially expected.  In almost all states, we have effectively flattened the curve and eliminated or minimized the shortages of major resources such as hospital beds, intensive care beds, and ventilators.  According to some projections, America as a whole is only a few days away from the peak resource usage and will be heading down the curve as the COVID-19 cases continue to slow. The CDC made an important addition to their recommendations this week...

COVID-19 Update #2

Posted on April 3, 2020

While the past few weeks have felt like months (especially if you have a child at home), a lot has happened. COVID-19 Update Building on what we talked about in our last post, there continues to be a lot to mention regarding advancements in the fight against COVID-19. We started the week off on a strong note with the announcement that Johnson & Johnson identified a lead vaccine candidate, with expedited trials starting in September and the potential to bring it to market by early 2021. This timeline is among the fastest available to bring a product to market safely – amazing...

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Traverse Planning is a dba of Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC. Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC is a Registered Investment Adviser. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. This website is solely for informational purposes. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. No advice may be rendered by Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC unless a client service agreement is in place. Traverse Planning® is a registered trademark of Laurence Schiffman. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) owns the CFP® certification mark, the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification mark, and the CFP® certification mark (with plaque design) logo in the United States, which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.

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