Annuity.org

Prudent utilization of credit is a means to make purchases that may otherwise be unaffordable. For many people, debt financing is essential to buy a car, a home or a college education. However, excessive borrowing can easily ruin your credit profile and prevent you from saving money and investing for retirement. That said, there are a few strategies that can help you reduce your debt load and better manage your finances. Two of them are outlined below.

The Federal Reserve has rolled out a steady stream of interest rate hikes over the past year to slow climbing inflation. It’s expected to slow the hikes going into 2023, but the rates remain the highest in years, according to an article by Reuters. Inflation and Interest Rates: 3 Strategies To Reduce Your Investment Risk Sustained, high interest rates pose significant risk to the average U.S. investor, but there are some things you can do to mitigate against the downside.

Consumers can fall victim to numerous financial scams. Unfortunately, there are always bad actors who are looking to take advantage of those who may not have the financial knowledge or experience to see a trick coming. One common scam to watch out for relates to the tax relief industry. You may have heard of tax relief from television commercials and online ads as a way for you to reduce the amount of taxes you owe to the government.

Unless you’ve been living off-the-grid, it should come as no surprise that interest rates are on the rise — quite dramatically so. Since the beginning of 2022, the U.S. Federal Reserve has aggressively hiked the federal funds rate, the overnight lending rate for depository institutions, from a target range of 0.00–0.25% to 3.75–4.00%.

On November 9, 2022, the National Association for Fixed Annuities (NAFA) presented a webinar for members entitled, “Retiring with Confidence: A Case for Using FIAs in Pre-Retiree Accumulation Portfolios.” The webinar was led by Igor Zamkovsky, a Product Specialist at BlackRock. Zamkovsky presented research on the performance of fixed-indexed annuities (FIAs) in a variety of hypothetical portfolios.

As the 2022 calendar year draws to a close, it’s a good time to review your investments, particularly your taxable holdings. This year’s extreme stock market volatility may have caused you to back away from checking your brokerage account balance, but it’s time to assess your positions. I say this with an eye toward a savvy investment strategy known as tax loss harvesting.

Soon, it will be time to file your 2022 tax returns, and advance preparation is important. To prepare, you can gain an awareness of the tax deductions available to you, regardless of whether you do your own taxes or enlist the help of a professional. You may think a tax accountant will ensure you claim everything properly, but you can’t ever be too sure. Did You Know? A tax deduction is a provision that allows a taxpayer to subtract an expense from income before filing his or her taxes.

Alternative minimum tax exemption For individual taxpayers, the alternative minimum tax exemption is $81,300 and phases out at $578,150. For married couples filing jointly, the minimum is $126,500 and phases out at $1,156,300 Earned income tax credit The 2023 maximum income tax credit is $7,430 for qualifying taxpayers with three or more children. The amount was raised compared to the maximum of $6,935 in 2022.

Rubina K. Hossain, a Certified Financial Planner™ and one of Annuity.org’s esteemed financial experts, will lead a virtual presentation as part of Bloomberg Tax’s Lunch and Learn series for October. The event will take place from noon to 1 p.m. EDT on Oct. 26, 2022.

Over the past decade or so, investors have experienced historically low levels of volatility. This is largely due to the unprecedented fiscal intervention employed by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the Great Recession. Essentially, the Fed flooded capital markets with immense amounts of liquidity and kept the federal funds rate near zero for about 10 years.