Making Cents

By: John P. Napolitano, CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST

By: John P. Napolitano, CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST

By: John P. Napolitano, CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST

In today’s financial markets, hardly a day passes without news of one major acquisition or another.  Selling a business is easy when the economy is good, interest rates are low and companies are looking for a way to deploy capital.

But what about your small business? According to the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, firms with fewer than 100 employees accounted for 98.2% of all employer firms in 2016. That’s a lot more businesses that could or should be coming up for sale.

By: John P. Napolitano, CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST

By: John P. Napolitano, CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST

Every year about this time, I publish something about trying to cut your income tax bill. This time of year makes sense because in April, many people are looking back at the tax returns that they just filed or extended for 2018 and asking, how can they cut this bill for 2019.

Concentration risk has nothing to do with your ability to think. It is when your net worth is concentrated or heavily tilted towards any specific investment or class of assets.

Concentration risk means that you’re less diversified, and therefore the assets in your portfolio are highly correlated. A high correlation means that the value of your assets will generally rise and fall in lockstep.

When it comes to choosing a financial planner, most people will accept an introduction from a trusted source who has experience in dealing with that professional.

While this is the most common method, and perhaps one of the best, your diligence and selection should be based on a whole lot more than the fact that your neighbor loves that firm. You want to make sure that they are uniquely qualified to architect your specific situation.

The second half of the American dream of home ownership is to own that home without a partner, AKA a mortgage. For some, this may be a brilliant strategy. But for others, in the long run it may be that not paying it down faster is a better choice.

By: John P. Napolitano, CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST

The second half of the American dream of home ownership is to own that home without a partner, AKA a mortgage. For some, this may be a brilliant strategy. But for others, in the long run it may be that not paying it down faster is a better choice.

When it comes to choosing a financial planner, most people will accept an introduction from a trusted source who has experience in dealing with that professional. While this is the most common method, and perhaps one of the best, your diligence and selection should be based on a whole lot more than the fact that your neighbor loves that firm. You want to make sure that they are uniquely qualified to architect your specific situation.