If you haven’t refinanced your older mortgage in the past few years, now is the time. “Interest rates are on their way up,” says Joseph Conroy, author of Decades & Decisions: Financial Planning at Any Age. “Shop your current mortgage rate around before the opportunity is gone.” Yes, the time and paperwork involved is a hassle, but your mortgage is a 15 or 30-year loan and a lower rate could save you thousands during that time period.
“In the hierarchy of funding sources for a client, a reverse mortgage ranks towards the bottom, just above taking a premature IRA or 401(k) distribution and paying the taxes and penalties,” said Joseph Conroy, a CFP at Synergy Financial Group in Towson, Md. “It is expensive, it takes away from future options and flexibility and […]
“When building a portfolio of forever stocks, you are usually facing a decision of buying a stock for income or for growth potential,” says Joseph Conroy, financial planner with at Maryland-based Synergy Financial Group. But he also notes that cigarette company Altria(MO, $53.36) “appears it might be able to offer both.”
Tax laws have traditionally been complicated for taxpayers to understand. The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) has added another layer of confusion — at least for the immediate future. As tax time approaches, many taxpayers are wondering how it will affect their tax bill when they file for 2018. New law or not, it’s […]