If I Want to Establish a SIMPLE IRA, Do I Have to Establish One For All Owners of My Business?
Only employees must be included in SIMPLE IRAs. The IRS has about 20 criteria for assessing whether an employee-employer relationship exists. Silent partners and other owners who do not participate in the business or draw wages do not need to be included in the plan. You have to offer SIMPLE IRAs to all of your employees who received at least $5,000 in compensation in the preceding year two years. Unionized employees can be excluded. Continue reading...
What is a Money Purchase/Profit Sharing Plan?
Money Purchase plans and Profit Sharing plans are two types of Defined Contribution plans that can be used at a business, together if desired. Both of these are Defined Contribution plans, which means that only the terms of the contributions to the plan are defined in the plan document. This is different than Defined Benefit plans, which specifically define the benefit due to an employee at retirement, which is generally a monthly pension payment. If an employer wants to use both a Money Purchase plan and a Profit Sharing plan, it is possible, but since both of them are Defined Contribution plans, they will be limited in aggregate to the allowable defined contribution limits for employer contributions. Continue reading...
What Does Medicaid Cover?
Medicaid will cover many things, but it is reserved for those without enough assets to get such care on their own or to pay for other coverage. Some examples of covered services include checkups and childbirth for low income pregnant women, and nursing home care for low-income elderly people with long term care needs. Medicaid covers a very wide range of medical costs, including hospital expenses, visits to the doctor, nursing home expenses, and so on. Continue reading...
How is a Will Implemented After my Death?
After a person’s death, their will is typically reviewed by probate court which will enforce the terms of the will and ensure the assets are distributed according to the wishes of the deceased. Any disputes or contest to the distribution of assets will likely be heard by probate court, and can be costly if dragged out over long stretches of time. What is the Difference Between a Will and a Trust? Do I Need a Will? Continue reading...
How Long Will It Take Me to Pay Off Debt?
Paying off debt depends on a variety of factors, like the total amount of debt, your payment schedule, the principal amount, and interest rates. There are plenty of financial calculators you can access on the web, which would allow you to calculate your payment schedule. Your financial advisor should also have software available to run these numbers for you, or in the very least, a financial calculator to run the numbers quickly. The 'inputs' you need to complete the calculation are: the size of your debt, your planned payments, and the interest rate you’re paying. Continue reading...
What is the Home Market Effect?
The Home Market Effect is a term used in macroeconomic theory describing a concentration of an industry’s production facilities being concentrated in the larger national economies where its primary consumers exist. The home market effect (HME) is a theoretical term used in trade theory economics. The domestic economy in this case has an effect on the international prices and economy related to these goods. Continue reading...
What is Income Property?
An income property is also called an investment property, which is a piece of developed commercial or residential real estate that is used by a third party tenant who makes rental or lease payments for the use of it. Income property can be a good source of income for an individual or business. It can include single- or multi-family residential or commercial properties. Sometimes people co-own income properties together, and receive a proportionate share of the proceeds according to the amount of the start-up capital they paid in. Continue reading...
What is Ripple?
Ripple is a protocol for cryptocurrency transactions primarily focused on offering solutions to the financial sector for implementing blockchain technology. Banks and other financial institutions have been experimenting with ways to implement blockchain technology for years. Many of these have gravitated toward Ethereum, with its platform distributed applications and smart contracts, but the San Francisco-based startup Ripple has been gaining traction in this space recently. Continue reading...
What is Cash Budget?
Budgeting is the act of planning accounts for the future. A cash budget plans out the expected cash flow of a business. Sales and production estimations are used along with historical cash flow data to project where money will come from and where it will be spent in the months ahead. A cash budget tends to be laid out on a monthly basis. Accounting is the documentation of the outlay of all expenses and income from the past, while budgeting is act of building an outlay for the future. A cash budget tries to ensure that there is more cash coming in than going out; any excess cash can be rolled forward into the budget plans for the following months, and this is called a cash roll. Continue reading...
What was the “Tulip” Bubble?
Markets have been around for much longer than most people think. The Tulip bubble happened in the 1500's! In the last decade of the 1500’s, Tulips were brought to Holland from Constantinople by botanist Carolus Clusius. Within a few years, the Tulips began to spread through Holland like wildfire, becoming luxury goods. As demand rose to astronomical levels, prices skyrocketed along with it. Eventually, people would gain and lose entire fortunes on the beautiful (but not that beautiful) plants. Of course, the actual value of the tulip bulbs was nowhere near the thousands of dollars (if the amounts were converted into today’s standards) that the traders paid for them. Eventually, people began to sell their invaluable tulip bulbs for real cash, and a domino effect ensued. Continue reading...