Week in Review – Spring Cleaning for Your Finances

This Week in Review:

Spring Cleaning for
Your Finances

This Week:

  • Weekly Spotlight
  • Featured Polaris Insights
  • Market Snapshot
Spring cleaning makes your home feel lighter and brighter heading into the summer. But why stop there? We can lighten your emotional load by putting your finances in order, freeing you up to focus on sunscreen and summer travel. Let’s start with these simple suggestions and then talk more in our next meeting.
  • Organize your income and expenses. Spending patterns shifted for all of us during the pandemic. Your income may have changed over the last few years due to a new job or a salary adjustment, too. With travel and entertainment back to pre-pandemic levels, now is a great moment to scrub your budget. Let’s look at your income and expenses to make sure your personal balance sheet is on track.
  • Straighten out beneficiaries. Did you know that the beneficiaries listed on your retirement plans, life insurance policies, annuities and other accounts supersede what’s specified in your will? It takes only a few minutes to make sure your beneficiaries are correct on your accounts—and we’re happy to help. While we’re at it, let’s make sure your contingent beneficiaries are updated as well. This is the type of thing that will help give you and your family peace of mind.
  • Spruce up insurance coverage. If it’s been a few years since you’ve looked at your insurance coverage, it may be time for us to talk about a refresh. These are the basics: Life, disability, home and auto, and umbrella liability. Insurance needs change when milestones come along, whether that means getting married, buying a new home or selling your business. Each of these life events is a catalyst for reviewing your insurance to make sure you’re sufficiently covered.
  • Refresh tax withholdings. Tax season is in its eleventh hour, making now an ideal time to scrutinize your withholdings. While it feels nice to get a refund check from the IRS, this isn’t always the most efficient way to manage your cash flow—and the government thanks you for your interest-free loan! If you suspect you may be withholding too much or too little, let’s check in. Or you can use the IRS’ online tax withholding estimator. We recommend the $500 rule of thumb: If you owe or are refunded more than that, it’s time to tweak your withholding.
  • Clean up your accounts. Odds are you haven’t spent your entire career with one employer—meaning you may have retirement funds stashed in several 401(k)s or other accounts. Leaving funds forgotten in ancient accounts often means they’re part of a stale investment strategy that’s no longer suitable for your goals. In some cases, rolling the funds into an IRA might lower your costs and improve your returns; in others, it may be preferable to consolidate into one 401(k). We can help you with all of this

Once you’ve run through this list, your financial picture will be in even sunnier shape. But these items just scratch the surface of what we can do for you, so let’s connect if you have any questions or would like to review your financial goals or investment portfolio. We’re happy to help.

Financial Planning in Your Prime

With inflation concerns so persistent, financial planning is more important than ever—but no two plans are the same. That’s why we take a holistic tack to tailor financial plans to meet your specific needs. With that in mind, we’ve covered a variety of considerations based on life stages that may apply to you. You can find some of our advice in the following financial planning blog posts:

Market & Economy Snapshot

Markets rebounded through Thursday this week on the back of fresh data showing inflation dropping to its lowest level in almost two years, but they wavered on Friday morning following news of a weak retail sales report. And coming off another strong month for the labor market in March, there are some signs hiring may cool off down the road. This boosts the odds that the Federal Reserve will shift its interest-rate policy from hikes to a pause or even cuts in the second half of the year, increasing Wall Street’s appetite for riskier assets on the assumption that borrowing will be less expensive.

Today, we will be parsing earnings results from some of the largest banks: JP Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and PNC. Their perspectives on the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, deposit flows and tighter lending standards will give us insight on the health of the banking sector and how we should allocate portfolios to that sector going forward.

If you’d like to learn more about our tactical or fundamental strategies, please contact our team at 800-268-9046 or info@polariswealth.com. And to all who celebrate, chag Pesach sameach, Ramadan Kareem and happy Easter!

Please note: This update was prepared on Friday, April 14, 2023, prior to the market’s close.

This material is distributed for informational purposes only. The investment ideas and opinions contained herein should not be viewed as recommendations or personal investment advice or considered an offer to buy or sell specific securities. Data and statistics contained in this report are obtained from what we believe to be reliable sources; however, their accuracy, completeness or reliability cannot be guaranteed.

Purchases and sales of securities listed above represent all securities bought and sold in each strategy during the period stated. Each strategy’s portfolio generally includes more holdings in addition to the transactions listed above and in some cases the securities listed above may only represent a small portion of the particular strategy’s complete portfolio. Further, the securities listed above are not selected for listing based on their investment performance; thus it should not be assumed that any of the securities listed above were profitable or will be profitable, nor should it be assumed that future recommendations will be profitable. Clients and prospective clients should only make judgments about a strategy’s performance after reviewing the strategy’s composite performance information. There is no assurance that each security listed above will remain in the strategy’s portfolio by the time you have received or read this email. Securities are listed for informational purposes and are not intended as recommendations. Existing investor accounts may not participate in all transactions listed above due to each account’s particular circumstances.

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