Author: Sarah Yakel

The Tax Form Breakdown: Key Docs and Their Deadlines As Nathan pointed out in his last Meridian Market Minute, tax forms are beginning to arrive in mailboxes across the country right about now. We do get a lot of questions about what forms are coming and when, so here is a list of common forms, […]

While even the IRS is scrambling to figure out how to comply with the new tax act—one portion of the new bill does seem clear, and is a really nice gift for parents and grandparents of students.  The new tax act allows 529 plan distributions for any eligible education expenses of K-12 education—not just the

Yesterday, we did one of my favorite holiday traditions.  Much to the consternation of my husband, the morning of New Years Day is when we take down every inch of Christmas decorations and put it all away.  Jonathan would happily leave all of the decorations up for another few weeks, but I love the fresh, […]

The 2017 holiday season is in full swing, and as always, by this point in the year, I am getting tired.  Our family has been to 6 Christmas concerts in 12 days…baked 20 dozen cookies…made (and decorated) 3 gingerbread houses…wrapped upteen gifts…and attended 8 holiday parties, each with its own gift exchange.

Over this past weekend, I joined the masses of Americans out shopping for Christmas.  I went to eight stores across three counties in under six hours.  Afterward, I joined most of Fauquier County on Main Street to watch the Warrenton Christmas parade with my family.  And, to end the weekend, my husband and I had

This weekend, our family went on a little mini-vacation to the Gaylord hotel in National Harbor.  If you’ve not been, the hotel is quite stunning when decked out for Christmas.  Numerous trees, twinkling lights, water fountain shows set to Christmas music, gingerbread villages—Christmas season was in full swing!

As a relatively new “swim parent,” I have learned a lot about swimming and swim meets in general. For those of you experienced swim parents, you are probably doing a combination of cringing and smiling right now; cringing at all of the early morning practices and smiling at all of the great experiences for both

Unfortunately for me and my family, I recently learned that the Professional Nitpicker does in fact exist and is apparently widely known. While I am tempted to go for the obvious joke and say that I thought that title belonged to my wife, I won’t go there. I am sure the same can be said […]

I recently heard a radio story about Fidelity Investment’s Rule of $2,000.  In an effort to simplify college planning for parents, Fidelity says that in order to determine how much you should have saved currently for your child’s college expenses, multiply your child’s current age by $2,000.  So for  my 11