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Personal Finance

HSAs and what you need to know about them!

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By Mack Bekeza

Since 2003, Health Savings Accounts (“HSAs”) have been an excellent tool for families to help cover current healthcare costs, along with future healthcare costs. HSAs are also known to be an excellent tax-planning tool since participants are allowed to contribute on a pre-tax basis and the funds grow tax deferred. Additionally, participants are able to make tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses. Funds in an HSA may also be invested in a list of mutual funds, or even have a brokerage link for more savvy investors. On top of that, people have until April of the following year to make contributions (similar to an IRA).

With all of these excellent benefits, there are a few caveats:

  • There is a yearly contribution limit of $3,400 per year for individuals and $6,750 for family plans in 2017. If your health plan runs from January to September, you can only make contributions for these months.
  • There can be tax penalties if withdrawals are made for non-qualified medical expenses before age 65. This involves paying income taxes for the non-qualified withdrawals as well as a whopping 20% penalty.
  • In order to qualify to contribute to an HSA, individuals must have a high-deductible health care plan (“HDHP”). This means that an individual plan must have a minimum deducible of $1,300 and minimum “maximum out-of-pocket costs” of $6,550 for 2017. For family plans, the minimum deductibles and maximum out of pocket costs would be $2,600 and $13,100 respectively. You also cannot be enrolled in Medicare.
  • Finally, if you are currently enrolled in a health plan that is a part of a healthcare.gov exchange, finding a health plan that is HSA eligible for 2017 will be nearly impossible since the requirements for a health plan to be eligible for a government exchange go against the requirements for a plan to be HSA eligible.

These setbacks should not prevent people from taking advantage of these accounts. In fact, HSAs will more than likely save people money in the long term and even in the short term. With having a HDHP, premiums will be notably less expensive for individuals and families, meaning that people can use those up front savings towards HSA contributions. Also, people can reimburse themselves for medical expenses that occurred in the past as long as the HSA was opened before that expense occurred. This means that if someone needed to make a non-qualified distribution, he or she can make it appear as if they were reimbursing themselves for a prior medical expense.

Although you will have to increase your deductible and maximum-out of pocket costs, utilizing a Health Savings Account could be one of the best decisions you will make if you want to plan for future health needs, even in retirement. And, don’t forget to keep your medical receipts…you may need them later!

© 2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

Active Versus Passive Investment Strategy…Which is Best?

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By Mack Bekeza

Investors have been debating if it is better to have an active investment strategy or a passive one. On one side, investors claim that being active will allow them to capture the best investment opportunities and optimally manage risk. On the other side, investors claim that going passive will help them secure long-term returns while being able to diversify unnecessary risk. Is one side more accurate than the other? We can’t really say. However, we can say that there is one thing that plays a very significant role in this argument…fees!

How do fees affect investment returns? First, let’s review the three common places fees show up in our investments, particularly mutual funds: Sales-loads, management fees, and 12b-1 fees.

How do these fees affect overall investment performance? Recently, Standard and Poor’s conducted research on how fees affect active managers’ performance against their benchmarks and came out with some noteworthy results. For U.S equity funds,       70% – 92% of active funds in their respective categories underperformed their benchmarks[1] over five years, net of fees. In other words, the vast majority of actively managed U.S equity funds underperformed U.S equity index funds over the course of five years[2] after fees. However, only 30-65% of actively managed fixed-income funds in their categories (excluding long term government, high-yield, and emerging markets) have underperformed their benchmarks after fees. International equity funds have also experienced a smaller percentage of their funds underperforming after fees, ranging from 47%-79% in their categories.

So, what does this mean for those who invest in mutual funds? Although there could be a case made that going active in fixed-income has benefited investors, being passive (investing in market index funds) has been more rewarding to investors over the course of five years. Will this trend continue? We don’t know. However, we do know this: index funds have posted better long-term performance than active funds due to having fewer fees and by mimicking the market, rather than trying to beat it.

© Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

[1] Note that the benchmarks in this study are indexes made by Standard and Poor’s, this writing only mentions returns after fees with retail mutual funds, not institutional mutual funds. Here is the study that we are referencing: http://us.spindices.com/documents/research/research-spiva-institutional-scorecard-how-much-do-fees-affect-the-active-versus-passive-debate.pdf?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Eloqua

[2] Index funds are not the benchmarks themselves, rather they attempt to mimic them.

Rouge Broker Steals $1.3 Million From an 89-Year old!

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By Mack Bekeza

On July 2016, FINRA discovered that Travis Wetzel, a former broker who was originally barred from the industry in 2013, had been making fraudulent annuity withdrawal requests for an 89-year old’s Variable Annuity with Prudential. Once Prudential got wind of this, it immediately investigated the situation and discovered that the withdrawals were being made from an account in the broker’s wife’s maiden name! Overall, there were a total of 114 withdrawals made to this account between July 2010 through September 2012. Unfortunately for Prudential, even though it responded promptly and reimbursed the 89-year old, it was fined $950,000 by FINRA for failing to spot this while the withdrawals were being made.

Even though this story seems to be very unfortunate for both the 89-year old and Prudential, things like this happen more frequently than most people would think. For instance, MetLife was fined $25 million dollars for similar reasons. And, on top of that, LPL has paid over $12 million in fines and restitution for failing to supervise fraud in variable annuities, non-traded REITS, and even certain ETFs.

Since variable annuities are complex products that are mostly sold to the elderly, FINRA places a very high level of scrutiny on possible fraudulent activity. And, it can be quite a task for brokers to spot these transactions since they process millions of transactions on a daily basis. So, being able to spot fraudulent activity the minute it happens can be nearly impossible. In fact, it can take up to a couple of years to find out what exactly happened!

Is there anything the client can do to avoid these mishaps? Fortunately, yes, there is! Individuals can hire a financial advisor, such as Castle Rock Investment Company, that operates as a fiduciary to help them make the right choices and not get sucked in by a dishonest broker. Another thing that a client can do is look up their broker or investment advisor through FINRA’s Broker-Check website to see if they have had previous client complaints. Although most financial professionals are honest people, it is important that individuals seeking financial advice do their homework to see if they are walking into a trap.

© 2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

How to Get the Most Out of Index Funds

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By Mack Bekeza

Although index funds can be an excellent choice for retirement investing, many people do not have a complete understanding of how they work. Before we get into the main topic, let’s get some facts straight about what these funds have done historically.

  1. Over the long term, have index funds outperformed the large majority of their active cohorts? Yes!
  2. Are index funds a much cheaper way to invest than actively managed funds? Yes!
  3. So, just because someone is only invested in index funds, have they significantly reduced their portfolio risk? Well… not exactly.

Being able to understand the risk of an index fund has been difficult for some investors, simply because they do not have a complete understanding of what they are invested in. For instance, a study conducted by Natixis, found that 64% of investors believe that index funds will help minimize investment losses. Natixis also found that nearly 7 out of 10 investors believe that index funds “provide the same access to the best investment opportunities in the market.”[1] Is this true? Again…not exactly. So, how can investors reduce investment losses with index funds? The simple answer is through diversification.

Diversification, or what is known to academics as the only free lunch in investing, is simply investing across different asset classes (stocks, bonds, cash, etc.) and across numerous regions around the world (i.e. domestic funds and international funds). As a result, investors reduce risk by having funds that do not all go up and down together. For example, let’s take a $1,000 portfolio that has 50% invested in a stock index fund and 50% invested in a bond index fund. If the stock index fund loses 2% in one year and the bond index fund gains 4%, the portfolio has increased by 1%.

So why doesn’t the portfolio go up 2% if it has a 50/50 split between stocks and bonds? Well… let’s find out. At the end of the year, the $500 that was in the stock fund turned into $490 and the $500 in the bond fund turned into $520. If we add them together, the portfolio is now worth $1,010, a 1% gain. Diversification is meant to be used to reduce risk and stabilize the portfolio. And, if you diversify with index funds, you have found a way reduce risk while saving money!

© 2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

[1] Here is the article about the study: http://www.planadviser.com/Investors-Miss-Much-of-the-Subtlety-in–Active-vs-Passive-/

How to use Credit Cards the right way!

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By Mack Bekeza

Credit Cards, just a piece of plastic that spirals people into debt right? Well… not always. In fact, many people who use credit cards tend to actually save money on certain items. That’s right! People can actually save money by utilizing a credit card! But how? Although there are plenty of ways one can utilize credit cards, here are the two most common ways people can save money with them:

  1. Utilizing a Cash-Back Card for everyday purchases and racking up rewards in a form of a statement credit or even a check.
  2. Frequent travelers using a Travel Rewards Card to lower their travel expenses substantially via points when staying at a hotel, renting a car, or even everyday purchases.

Although these perks are great for people trying to save money, it is crucial that you pay off these credit cards on-time and on a regular basis. It is also important to note that cards with very generous rewards are known for charging higher interests rates (even to those with excellent credit).

So what is the best way to manage your credit cards without paying interest?

  1. One rule of thumb is to check and pay your balance once a week or every other week depending on how frequently you use it. Not only will doing this increase your credit score, you also will not have to worry about paying your bank any extra money!
  2. Another tip is to only use a credit card if you can pay the balance instantly, meaning that if you couldn’t pay for an item with a debit card without going into overdraft, don’t use a credit card!
  3. Last but certainly not least, do not pressure yourself to spend more money just to get a sign-up bonus, in fact, do not change your budget what so ever! Only attempt to go for the sign-up bonus if your regular spending habits will allow you to do so.

Now that you have an idea on how to manage credit cards, how do you know which one is right for you? There are a few things to consider:

  1. If you haven’t done so already, check your credit score or even your full credit report(credit reports are only free to view once a year). Many Banks and Credit Card Companies only issue certain cards to people who meet specific criteria such as credit score and income thresholds.
  2. Think of how can you best utilize a credit card. For instance, do you travel a lot? Do you frequently go grocery shopping? Or do you just spend a lot of money in general? Either way, there is a high chance that there is a credit card that can help you save money on certain or even all frequent expenditures.
  3. Like previously mentioned, make sure that you find a credit card that you can get the sign-up bonus without having to alter your spending habits.

If you have any questions about certain credit cards or how to interpret your credit score, don’t hesitate to contact us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com

© 2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

 

The Importance of Saving

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By Mack Bekeza

Saving, sounds hard, right? Well actually not as much as you think, but it does require will power and a positive attitude. In most cases, people begin to start saving but end up quitting because of a few things:

  1. They save too much and end up having to spend most of it to pay for life’s necessities.
  2. They save too little and think there is no point to continue saving at all.
  3. They save a fair amount of money but end seeing a big sale at their favorite stores and decide to blow it on clothes or other things.

So how can someone avoid those three things? It can be achieved by following a few steps:

  1. Develop a monthly budget for your bills and discretionary spending (budgeting tips can be found in our previous personal finance blog attached here).
  2. Think of a couple things that you can set a savings goal for. For instance, you could plan to start an emergency fund that can cover 3-6 months of expenses (Please take note that this should be done over a course of a couple years so don’t rush yourself on this).
  3. If you have not done so already, another goal you can start is creating a retirement savings goal. You know that 401(k) that your employer offers…take advantage of it! Not only will it possibly allow to exclude a portion of your income for tax purposes, it can be a big help to get you prepared for retirement.
  4. To fund these great savings goals, think of a suitable savings rate that can cover these goals. For instance, a rule of thumb is to be able to save 10%-15% of your income for an emergency fund and eventually contribute another 10% to your retirement goals. This might sound like a lot, but you do not have to automatically save this amount right away. These things take time to start building, so start with at least 5% for both and gradually increase the amount over time.
  5. Now that you have these in mind, how do you resist the temptation of using these savings for things you do not need? For starters, you can open your new savings account with an another bank so you really feel like you are putting money away and do not have instant access to it. However, for an emergency fund, it is important to have at least a check book to pay for emergencies (Money Market Savings Accounts allow you to have a check book and might even allow you to have a debit card). Check out banks that offer High Yield Money Market Accounts here.

Hopefully you will take this to heart and begin a plan to save! Although we will continue to write personal finance blogs over time, do not hesitate to contact us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com if you would like us to help with your goals!

© 2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

Water Cooler Wisdom: Second Quarter 2016

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By Mack Bekeza

Is the U.S the only place for long term returns?

Although the United States has experienced one of the best bull markets in terms of duration and returns, investors have been wondering what is next. This past year has not been as invigorating as the prior few years and, on top of that, economists are predicting U.S GDP growth to be at around 1.5% for the next few years. You may have also been hearing from either presidential debates or that “one guy” at the bar that everything is going down the tubes and that we have seen our best days. Are they right? The answer is, we do not know.

What we do know is this, even though the U.S is still considered the safest place for investors, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should only be invested in American securities. Did you know that the rest of world accounts for 95.5% of the human population, nearly 75% of the global GDP, and nearly 60% of the total stock market? On top of that, international securities are not perfectly correlated with the U.S markets so they can be used as a very effective diversification tool for people of all age groups and time horizons. So why don’t people invest outside of the U.S?

There a couple of reasons:

  1. Many people have a bias towards their home country
  2. Many people fear that investing internationally is unbearably risky

To respond to those two reasons, there is nothing necessarily bad about being biased toward your home team but there is also nothing wrong with tapping into other developed countries and even emerging markets such as China and India to name a couple. And for people fearing that going international is overly risky, that is not necessarily true. Although volatility is more prevalent, that does not mean that international securities are a sure way to lose money. In fact, it is the volatility that will allow more buying opportunities which in turn can boost returns for people like you and I.

So despite what happened this past quarter (Brexit, continued negative interest rates in Europe, along with current slow global growth), we should still expand our horizons into the international markets and tap into the opportunities they present.

Attached are a few slides about global markets for the past quarter.

©2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights and comments with us at Mack@CastleRockInvesting.com.