Good Financial Reads: Security Reminders For the Holidays, Living a Richer Life, and More

Following along with the blogs of financial advisors is a great way to access valuable, educational information about finance — and it doesn’t cost you a thing! Our financial planners love to share their knowledge and help everyone regardless of age or assets.

Catch up on some of the latest posts with this week's roundup:

3 Security Reminders for the Holiday Season

by Daniel Wrenne, Wrenne Financial Planning 

As if the Monday following a nice vacation isn’t enough of a bummer already, we came back from the Thanksgiving holiday to find that our website had been hacked. Fortunately, we work with a good team and make sure to backup and protect all of our work. Everything was fixed in less than 48 hours, and we’re back up and running again! What could have been a year’s worth of lost work really just turned out to be a minor inconvenience.

Security issues and scams seem to run rampant each holiday season with the increase in online shopping, spending, traveling, etc., and in light of our recent inconvenience, we thought we’d share a few security reminders & precautions we take in order to help you avoid major security breaches. A lack of planning and/or protection from these situations can result in a (potentially avoidable) disaster.

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Living a Richer Life with Gratitude

by Katie Brewer, Your Richest Life

It’s human nature to set your sights a little bit bigger time after time. We set goals to become stronger, faster, smarter and wealthier. We’re always trying to get a little better bit by bit.

But when it comes to money, always wanting more will mean that you’ll never have enough. It’s hard to be in a place of satisfaction and gratitude when there’s a desire for more.

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Money Matters - Talk to Your Family

by Aaron Britz, Legacy Wealth Management

We live in a time where freedom of speech is alive and well. It seems that nothing is taboo. That is, except, when we're talking about money. I learned over the years that nothing sends a chill through the air faster that broaching the subject among uneager listeners.

For some of us, talking about money with our own family may be hard. Wait, painful. We often don't even include family into our financial plan until much later in life. Instead, we disconnect.

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How To Save More Taxes If You Are Charitably Inclined

by Vid Ponnapalli, Unique Financial Advisors

When it comes to saving money and planning for financial future, there is one certain question on anyone’s mind: How can I save money on Income taxes? What strategies help me reduce my tax bite? There is no better time of the year than now to plan for this. Presented below is one technique that could help you give some relief come tax time.

If you are charitably inclined, donate to charity often, and take a tax deduction for the amount you donated, the good news is that you have an opportunity to increase your savings! Instead of donating cash to charity, if you donate a long-term appreciated stock, you can potentially save capital gains tax on the stock appreciation. This may, indeed, allow you to donate more to the charity (to the extent of your savings on capital gains), and take a tax deduction on this higher amount. Let us see how this works.

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