Financial advisors engage in a wide variety of financial areas, including tax return preparation and tax planning for their clients. Many, but not all, financial advisors specialize in tax issues and provide comprehensive tax advice to their clients, including tax problem resolution, tax planning, and return preparation as well as preparing estate, gift, and trust tax […]
In March 2022, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), the most common measure of inflation, rose at an annual rate of 8.5%, the highest level since December 1981.1 It’s not surprising that a Gallup poll at the end of March found that one out of six Americans considers inflation to be the most […]
The COVID-19 recession and the continuing pandemic pushed many older workers into retirement earlier than they had anticipated. A little more than 50% of Americans age 55 and older said they were retired in Q3 2021, up from about 48% two years earlier, before the pandemic.1 For people age 62 and older, retiring from the […]
Baseball stadiums are filled with optimists. Fans start each new season with the hope that even if last year ended badly, this year could finally be the year. After all, teams rally mid-season, curses are broken, and even underdogs sometimes make it to the World Series. As Yogi Berra famously put it, “It ain’t over till […]
About 4.3 million U.S. workers quit their jobs voluntarily in December 2021, after a record 4.5 million quit in November — the largest number since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began recording voluntary job separations in December 2020.1 There are plenty of theories about why people are quitting in droves, including a strong job […]
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which passed more than 30 years ago, made it illegal to deny job opportunities to people based on their disabilities, mandated “reasonable accommodations” to make buildings accessible, and required most private businesses to offer equal service to disabled customers. About 61 million people in the United States — one […]
As measured by the Consumer Price Index for food at home, grocery prices increased 3.4% in 2020, a faster rate than the 20-year historical average of 2.4%.1 More recently, food inflation accelerated by 6.5% during the 12 months ending in December 2021, while prices for the category that includes meat, poultry, fish, and eggs spiked 12.5%.2 […]
The unrelenting move higher in U.S. Treasury yields continued last week making it the 15th week (out of the past 16 weeks) that the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury security ended the week higher. Moreover, 10-year Treasury yields have increased by 130 basis points (1.3%) this year with a 110 basis points (1.1%) increase in […]
Inflation continues to soar, dominating conversation and stretching consumer wallets. Last week’s inflation data saw consumer prices up 8.5% year over year, the most since the early 1980s, while producer prices were up 11.2%, the most ever. What can the Federal Reserve (Fed) do? Will it ever stop? Is this the 1970s all over again? […]
One of the most prominent economic stories of the past year has been the supply shortage of semiconductors. As COVID-19 shut down chip making facilities across the globe, and consumers shifted their consumption from services to goods, the resulting combination created an unprecedented shortage of semiconductors that has affected everything from the automobile market to […]
