Planning

When looking at money over time, especially in long-term planning, it is important to understand whether figures are shown in nominal dollars or real dollars.You can use nominal or real numbers can be used to project out account balances, expenses, income, and more. Each is useful in its own way.  What is Nominal vs Real? Let's start with simple definitions:Nominal dollars are the actual expected dollar amounts we expect to see now and in the future. You see Nominal Dollars on statements, paychecks, and account balances at face value. Real dollars are dollars adjusted for inflation, showing what that money can…

Reviewing your spending regularly is a foundational step to building long-term wealth.It’s hard enough to look at your spending on your own, and doing it as a couple can feel even more challenging.Looking back at a full year of spending can stir up emotions. Stress, guilt, or frustration. And that's doubled for a couple.On top of that, for many couples, there’s an uneven level of knowledge or involvement. One partner may be more naturally organized, while the other feels overwhelmed by the details. It’s also common for tension to surface when one spouse feels responsible for most of the spending…

Transferring your investment or retirement accounts to a new advisor or financial institution is far simpler than most people expect. The process is... Standardized across the industry Designed to be secure Requires little involvement beyond the authorization Authorize Transfer The first step to transferring your account to Gilbert Wealth is the authorize the transfer. We will require two things to complete this step:First PartYou will need to provide a current statement for your accounts.What You Do: Provide Gilbert Wealth a copy of the latest statement.What Gilbert Wealth Does: Once we receive these, we will complete all of the paperwork to…

Have I got an opportunity for you! Remote Work, Great Daily Pay, Flexible Hours, and No Experience Required. Earn up to $287,000 working just 5 hours a week!Queue eye roll.🙄I'm certain most people by now have received at least one of these. For some reason, I receive one every couple of weeks. Messages like this—often claiming to be from legitimate companies such as Randstad, Amazon, or FedEx—are part of a growing wave of employment scams designed to steal your money, personal information, or both.While it's hard to believe that people fall for this, the mere fact that they are still sending…

Losing a spouse is hard enough without financial surprises adding to the pain. Unfortunately, one of the biggest surprises many survivors face is higher taxes. It’s called the widow’s penalty—a built-in function of our tax system that can surprise surviving spouses. Just when they are most vulnerable, the widow's penalty comes in and can have a meaningfully negative impact on their finances.  What is the Widow's Penalty? The widow’s penalty refers to the increase in taxes that occurs when a surviving spouse’s income doesn’t drop nearly as much as their tax brackets, deductions, and thresholds do.When both spouses are alive…

Lending money to family or friends can be a great way to help them out in a time of need or give them favorable terms while keeping banks and the underwriting requirements out of the equation. Personal loans can be used to buy a home, a car, or help fund education.While lending money to family or friends can seem like a simple, keeping-it-in-the-family arrangement, the IRS sees things differently.Personal loans to family and friends can impact the taxes of the lender and the borrower if not done right.  When personal loans aren’t properly documented or charged an appropriate interest rate,…

Borrowing against your investment portfolio—often through a Securities-Backed Line of Credit (SBLOC)—has become a popular strategy. The sales pitch sounds appealing: instead of selling investments and triggering taxes, you simply borrow against them, pay a low interest rate, and let your money keep growing.Billionaires do this all the time to avoid taxes ("Buy Borrow Die"). Then there are illustrations like the following that I found from a very well known financial firm with over $150B in assets and is one of the largest insurers in the country. It compares the cost of liquidating a portfolio to cover an expense (like a…

A Roth IRA conversion near the end of the year can be a great move for your long-term tax strategy — locking in today’s rates and allowing future growth to be completely tax-free. But there’s a catch: conversions that happen late in the year can create a timing mismatch between when the tax is owed and when you actually pay it.If you don’t plan carefully, the IRS could charge a penalty for underpayment, even if you pay everything when you file your return in April. Here are some practical tips to help you manage the taxes on a late-year Roth…

Across the financial industry, investors are bombarded with an endless stream of charts, projections, and “what-if” scenarios—each crafted to make a particular product or strategy look superior. Mutual fund companies, insurance carriers, and annuity providers all publish their own versions, often based on selective or exaggerated assumptions: perfect timing, static tax brackets, no fees, or implausible turnover rates. The problem isn’t the math—it’s the motivation. These illustrations are designed to sell an idea, not to model reality. Without understanding the inputs behind the chart, investors can easily be misled into believing that one vehicle or structure guarantees a better outcome…