Did you know retirement is listed as one of the ten most stressful life events, alongside things like marriage, divorce, and pregnancy?! Even joyous, momentous times in our lives can be stressful because of all the unknowns that change can bring. While we can’t help you figure out what hobbies will keep you busy or what volunteer work will fulfill you during your retirement years, we can be your partner as you navigate all things related to your finances.
Fall is easily my favorite season of the year. It brings pumpkin spice lattes, brightly colored leaves, and football nearly every day of the week! With Giving Tuesday right around the corner, fall is also an important time of the year for charitable giving, as many donors make their year-end gifts. From our perspective, it’s a great time to think about year-end tax planning, with charitable donations as a powerful tax planning tool.
Haunted houses are not the only thing that can be downright terrifying, give you a shock, and make it hard for you to sleep at night. A poorly made or forgotten-about estate plan can leave your loved ones vulnerable to hauntings of the financial kind.
The change in seasons and routine is always welcome for us at Woodward. As we enjoy these crisp North Carolina mornings here at our headquarters in Chapel Hill, it is fun to think back to our recent fun-filled hazy dazy summer adventures and activities. We hope you made some enjoyable memories of your own this summer, perhaps filled with sunshine and flowers, trips, or time with family. Check out how the WFA team members spent their summer in this blog post.
2022, in no uncertain terms, was a bad year for global bond markets. After years of high prices and low yields, the rapid rise of interest rates, intended to reduce inflation, impacted the bottom line of bond investors in a historical way. Fortunately, the Fed’s approach seems to have made a sizable impact on inflation ...
When I began my financial planning degree program in 1996, it really didn’t occur to me that I was entering a male-dominated profession. My mother had always been the leader in financial decision-making in our family, which didn’t seem unusual to me at all. Through her, I learned the value of a dollar and the value of giving back. Almost three decades later, it is now the norm for women to direct their own as well as their family’s finances. In fact, two separate studies show that women’s investment returns were .4%1 to 1%2 higher annually than their male counterparts. They suggest the main reasons for women outperforming men with regard to investment returns boil down to “overconfidence” and “overactivity.