Financial Planning
Bright Sunshine Day
Are solar panels worth it? This week’s blog features a client request on how to calculate if it’s a wise decision to have solar panels installed at your home. Yellow ribbon back home at the yellow barn after earning the last score for our USDF Bronze Medal! Most of us are aware o
Sarah YakelMay 25, 2022
Silver Lining Opportunities
The past few days have given lots of reprieve from the colder weather, but the roller coaster in the markets seems to continue. Needless to say, investors have been put through an emotional ringer the last 2 years through stomaching the lows of the market drop in 2020, the unknow
Sarah IrvingMay 18, 2022Are I Bonds a Good Idea?
Many of you have read Lucy’s blog about I Bonds, and we’ve been answering lots of questions about buying I Bonds and whether they are a good idea or not…so, we wanted to send a quick note to answer some of the questions we keep hearing… First of all, we scooped the Washington Pos
Sarah YakelMay 5, 2022
Should I Pay or Should I Go?
Recently, we have been fielding many questions about whether it is more prudent to use excess cash to pay off a mortgage or go invest. While we do answer this question with regularity, the interest in paying off (or accelerating paydown) a mortgage seems to have risen over the pa
Sarah YakelMay 3, 2022529s – Filling up the Education Basket
Despite the wintry mix yesterday, Spring feels like it may be here (knock on wood!). My family is enjoying the beginnings of spring and Easter 2022 was a success. This was the first time both of our youngsters were able to experience the thrill of racing against a pack of other k
Sarah IrvingApr 19, 2022
An 8% Raise
Just because you are eligible for Social Security benefits doesn’t mean you should start taking them right away. We often hear our clients ask about taking social security as soon as they are able, using reasoning such as: “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around.” – none of
Nathan GilbertApr 5, 2022
Capital Gains – Wallstreet Weight Lifting
If something you own goes up in value and you sell it, then you’ve made a profit. That profit is called a capital gain, and a capital gains tax is the tax you may owe on that profit. This tax isn’t just for wealthy investors. Capital gains tax can apply to anything of value, even
Sarah YakelMar 29, 2022Rates are Increasing… What to Do?
In writing the blog for this week I debated whether I should write about something completely opposite from the overload of information we have had on the current economic and geopolitical landscape or if I should meet a very relevant topic head on. Needless to say, Jerome Powell
Sarah IrvingMar 22, 2022
Inflation Hedge?
Other than the very obvious and depressing headlines that Sarah Yakel deftly navigated in her last post, the next highest thing on investors’ minds is inflation and what to do about it. Like anything when it comes to investing, there is no perfect answer to how to invest in the f
Nathan GilbertMar 15, 2022
Retirement: How Much Do You Need to Save?
Most people have plans to retire and even have a fairly good idea of how they’ll use that new-found free time, but few actually know how much money they’ll need to save in order to afford retirement. There’s an old age golden rule of having $1 million set aside for you to retire,
Sarah YakelMar 1, 2022
There’s Still Time
For everyone eagerly awaiting to file their taxes, Meridian sent an email last week letting our clients know that 1099s have been physically mailed /emailed from Charles Schwab. However, before you submit all of your tax filing documents, there are still things you can before the
Sarah IrvingFeb 22, 2022
Safety and Return
In many initial client meetings (and sometimes beyond the initial meeting), clients are often in search of a unicorn, an investment that provides a high rate of return without any risk. Most people won’t explicitly say that, although we do often laugh about one particular prospec
Nathan GilbertFeb 15, 2022