What is a Furlough?
I’m sure you’re not surprised that I’m getting a lot of questions these days about “what is a furlough”, “will I be furloughed”, “how will a furlough affect me?”. First, what is a furlough? These days layoffs mean permanent loss of your job, while a furlough means you are still…
Additional tax implication COVID19 thoughts
Yesterday we talked about the CARES Act, focusing on the Economic Relief Rebate. Today we’re going to briefly cover two other financial implications of COVID19. First, a great graphic illustrating the rebate amounts vs AGI is hosted by the Tax Foundation. Second, separate from the CARES Act, the IRS has…
CARES act, or Economic Relief Funds part 2
Earlier this week we were talking about the possibilities of checks coming to Americans in this time of world-wide hardship. The US Congress passed, and the President signed, the CARES act into law today. We’ve talked previously about how major tax reform only comes around every ~20 years, and how…
The value of the right expert
Imagine this scenario. We have two couples. Couple #1: Sick Sally retired a while ago; she’s married to Sam. Sam is still working and carrying the family medical insurance. Couple #2: Working Wanda is approaching 65, but doesn’t plan to retire yet. Working Wanda’s husband Wayne is turning 65 in…
How do I know if my pension is valuable?
That seems like a weird title, doesn’t it. Aren’t all pensions valuable? After all, we’re past the golden age of the defined benefit plan, and most employers are all-in on just a defined contribution plan. Wasn’t it that pensions by definition are so valuable, that’s why they had to go…
Is your end of year bonus an actual thank you, or an insult?
The end of 2019 is approaching. Your employer has just announced a bonus! Possibly even a “we don’t usually do this” bonus! You should feel great! But have you stopped to consider if the bonus is such that it indicates actual appreciation, or a condescending pat on the head that…
Open Enrollment ends soon!
Many businesses are on a November 1st through November 15th open enrollment cycle. If that’s you, you’ve only got 1 day left of open enrollment, make your final selections. If you don’t go make selections proactively, the system will make some assumptions for you. But you may not be happy…
Coordination of benefits
You work, and are benefits eligible. Your spouse works, and is also benefit eligible. Your open enrollment periods, and benefit plan years, may or may not align with either. Never the less, to be efficient with your money (to avoid wasting it on premiums and to avoid having coverage gaps…
How to assess an employer benefit: Legal Insurance
What do I do if my employer just started offering legal insurance as a benefit for this year’s Open Enrollment? How do I decide if I should use this service? First, remember that insurance is to cover events that you cannot. The company offering insurance products are in it to…
Dependent care flexible spending accounts
This post had “Coming soon” as its text for way longer than I’d intended. Why? Because with kids in the picture, things never go as planned. Fortunately for the part of this that was due to a kiddo being home sick for 4 days in a row, from a child…