Written By: Van Nguyen

Are the schools teaching our children what they need to know to become financially responsible adults?  Should parents take a more active role in teaching their children to become financially literate?  Being able to understand personal finance and making good decisions should start at a young age.  Our children depend on us to teach them what they need to do to be financially sound when they grow up. 

Written By: Jen Pieson

Having a good or excellent credit score benefits you in two ways: it makes it easier for you to obtain a loan and it gives you access to better rates.  There are many ways to make sure that your credit is the best it can be, but even when you attain a good credit score, the work does not end there; maintaining good credit is an on-going process. 

Written By: Lisa DeStein

At JoycePayne Partners, we often work with clients whose previous investing experience has been at one or more full-service brokerage firms.  When the topic of fees arises, we find that clients were frequently unaware of many of the fees they were paying for advice and services under their brokerage arrangement.  Furthermore, once tallied up, these “hidden” fees often exceeded the cost they now pay under our Fee-Only platform.

Written By: Jamie Malone

There are a myriad of tax changes for 2013.  It is important to be aware of the changes that impact you. Then, use tax planning as a tool to help you reach your financial goals.

Written By: Doha Soliman

Most individuals understand what their financial advisors do: they buy stocks and sell them and try to generate positive returns for their client’s portfolio. What is important to understand however is the different asset classes which managers traffic in and how they add value to individual portfolios.

Written by: Candace Lee

When I was still young enough to get an allowance, my mom had one rule: give 10% first, save half and then you can keep half.  My 10% always went in the form of tithes to my church.   At my age, I didn’t like it much, nor did I understand its purpose.  Now that I’m older and work in the financial industry, I see that there are not only more advantages to charitable gifting but there are also smarter ways to gift.  I’d like to discuss some of the various ways one can donate to charity and some of the strategies used to make the most out of the donations that some are already making.

Written By: Tom Gates

Risk Management is not a static process. The risks that we face and the strategies that we use to protect ourselves change as our personal financial circumstances change.  Where we are in our financial lifecycle matters, too. 

Written By: Marilee Falco

When you die with retirement plan assets in your estate, those assets are subject to income taxes.  There are many ways to designate your IRA Beneficiary, from the simple to the complex, to protect your heirs from heavy taxes and create a lasting legacy.

Written By: Biff Pusey

The New York Times recently published a superb article on “How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers Away.” 

Our data is only as safe as the passwords we use to secure our information.  It can be ridiculously difficult to remember all the passwords we need, much less to invent passwords that will defeat hackers.  The determination of criminals to crack our codes and steal our identities, money and lives means that we must show equal resolve in making their jobs as difficult as possible.

Written By: Michael Joyce

What can we expect now that President Obama has been re-elected, a Republican majority has been retained in the House of Representatives and a Democratic majority has been maintained in the Senate?