Money Checkup With Anjali Jariwala

Joe Biden ran on a number of proposed tax law changes during the 2020 campaign. Several of these proposals temporarily took effect as part of the American Rescue Plan, and several others have been introduced in Congress. Note that, historically, major tax reforms seem to pass towards the end of the year, with changes applying to the following year. In this episode, I’ll summarize some of the proposed changes.  Also, Money Checkup will be taking a hiatus after this episode. This summer I’m focusing on renovating our home and working on a lifelong dream of mine: Publishing a children’s book. I’ll be blogging about our renovation all summer, so if you’re interested in following along, sign up for my newsletter here.

While playing professional football, Jedidiah Collins realized that he didn’t know how to manage money. Despite earning a high salary, he’d spend most of his paycheck right after he received it and didn’t know how to plan for the future. With encouragement from his family and mentor, he began to learn about personal finance, eventually studying for the CFP® exam during the offseasons. After a few years of working in wealth management, Jedidiah realized his passion was helping people who were just beginning their financial journeys.    "Rich is having a lot of money today," Jedidiah says. "Wealth is how many tomorrows I don't have to worry about money."  Today, Jedidiah runs Your Money Vehicle, an online certification course in financial literacy. His hope is that students will learn basic principles of personal finance and put them to use throughout their lives. https://fitadvisors.com/financial-literacy-jedidiah-collins

Physician contracts can be very complex, and often physicians turn to attorneys for help reviewing them during the negotiation process. Poonam Lakhani, an employment and business attorney with The Prinz Law Firm, works with physicians to do just that. She reviews contracts to understand compensation structures, non-compete clauses, termination clauses, whether there are specific steps that can lead a physician to become a partner, and more. “My goal is to make sure that as much is defined as possible, because when there’s vagueness in an agreement, that’s where disputes occur," she says. Poonam is based in the Chicago area and is a member of the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago. She has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star every year since 2016. https://fitadvisors.com/contract-review-for-physicians-with-poonam-lakhani

Dasarte Yarnway founded his own wealth management firm at age 24 out of a desire to help people create multi-generational wealth. At Berknell Financial Group, he encourages clients to think deeply about their relationship to and beliefs about money, then works alongside them to create a unique, holistic plan that reflects their values across all aspects of their financial life. Then, he helps clients use their wealth to invest in themselves, their families, and their communities.  “How do you create that better life when no one’s telling you what the rules are to this system?… If they had a compass, how could that change the trajectory of their financial life?”  The child of immigrants from Liberia, Dasarte is passionate about making financial planning more accessible to everyone. https://fitadvisors.com/episode-59-designing-your-wealth-with-dasarte-yarnway/

Tracey Bissett works with business owners to help them understand their financials, manage their cash flow, and set pricing in a way that ensures they earn a fair salary. Though Tracey believes it is essential for business owners to know their numbers, she doesn’t believe anyone should feel shame because they don’t — and she works with her clients to understand where those feelings come from and develop strategies for addressing them.  “I don’t see how you can actually hit your goals for your business without knowing your numbers.” Tracey operates her firm, Bissett Financial Fitness Inc., from Toronto. She is also a professor at Centennial College’s School of Business. https://fitadvisors.com/managing-your-business-cash-flow-with-tracey-bissett

In this episode, US Bank loan officer Christina Razzi (NMLS# 162739) walks us line by line through a loan estimate. She outlines what each number means, which ones vary from bank to bank or from state to state, and which are estimates that will change as you get closer to closing. Here is a sample loan estimate that you can use to follow along: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/owning-a-home/loan-estimate For more detail, visit: https://fitadvisors.com/how-to-read-a-loan-estimate

I recently had the opportunity to join former Money Checkup guest Brent Lacey on his podcast, The Scope of Practice. We talked in detail about tax planning for 2021 and beyond. I hope you enjoy this bonus episode!  For more details and to learn more about The Scope of Practice, visit: https://www.thescopeofpractice.com/podcast-episode-40-how-to-maximize-your-tax-savings-in-2021-anjali-jariwala-ceo-of-fit-advisors/

A few years ago, one of Mac Gardner’s clients approached him. She served on the board of a children-serving nonprofit, and she asked if Mac could create some financial literacy materials for the kids the organization served. Mac did — and he learned along the way that many kids have very little exposure to the basics of personal finance. He created The Four Money Bears to help instill in kids those basic principles. “There are really only four things you can do with money: Spend it, save it, invest it, and give it away. Those are the four building blocks of financial literacy.” Mac also runs a company, FinLit Tech, that focuses on building bridges between financial literacy and financial technology. He lives in Tampa with his family. 

Katrina Ubell, MD worked for a decade as a pediatrician. After years of big fluctuations in her weight, she lost 45 pounds in a year and has been able to keep it off since. With her physician husband’s encouragement, she left her practice to launch her own business, where she focuses on helping other physicians understand their food habits so they can make permanent changes to their lifestyles.  “Swapping out different actions will only help for so long, because you’ll still be thinking those thoughts and feeling those feelings that don’t support you.” More: https://fitadvisors.com/weight-loss-katrina-ubell

Less than 2% of global assets under management, across mutual funds, hedge funds and other asset classes, is managed by women and people of color, according to a 2019 Knight Foundation report. After a decades-long career in investing, University of Rochester Senior Investment Officer Rob Rahbari knew statistics like these. So in 2020, when the university’s president challenged every university department to recommit to diversity, equity and inclusion, Rob and his teammates developed an open-source list of funds owned and managed by women and people of color to share with other endowments and foundations. “It doesn’t mean anything until dollars start moving in the direction of these diverse firms. We haven’t seen a sea change there yet, and we’ll only be satisfied when that happens.”  Moving investment dollars is challenging and will likely be a slow process. Rob hopes his team’s list is just the first step. 

Financial planners are like pilots, Carl Richards says. We can create flight plans for our clients, showing them a map of the next few decades. But life and the markets both change in ways we don’t expect. Financial planners need to learn to communicate that uncertainty, and to establish themselves as guides who can adjust plans as clients’ lives and goals change. “You can have the best investment plan in the world, but if you don’t know why you have it, you’re not going to get where you want to go," he says. As the financial planning industry evolves, Carl hopes advisors will continue listening deeply to clients’ goals, finding productive ways to talk through their emotional responses, and creating plans that align with those goals. 

In the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the markets were incredibly volatile. But they stabilized fairly quickly, and now, it looks as if the stock market will end 2020 at or near record highs. In March, Trace Tisler reminded us that prudent investors don’t chase returns — that makes investing a game rather than a strategy. Diversification is key to weathering storms. He was largely correct. To prepare for the next crisis, listen to his advice: https://fitadvisors.com/episode-34-navigating-the-market-uncertainty-of-covid-19/

Events during 2020 — the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, economic uncertainty — upended our lives in many ways, straining our mental and emotional health. In May, psychologist Amee Dassani joined me on the show to provide insight on managing stress and practicing mindfulness. If you missed this episode in the spring, or if you could benefit from that advice again, it's here!  https://fitadvisors.com/episode-37-coping-with-stress-through-mindfulness

As 2020 draws to a close, it may be difficult to remember every event that affected your finances. In this episode, we'll cover Paycheck Protection Program loans, student loans, and mortgage refinancing. I'll also discuss a few things to keep in mind for your 2020 tax planning, including charitable contributions and retirement plan contributions.

Dr. Brent Lacey coaches physicians in all phases of their careers — whether it's to find the right institution for their goals, to assume leadership roles and advocate for change within those institutions, to launch their own practices, or to master their personal finances.  Though physicians typically work in silos, Brent says, COVID-19 has demonstrated how important it is for physicians to understand the inner workings of their hospitals or practices and to advocate for the changes they wish to see — and if the culture is too entrenched for those changes to occur, he encourages physicians to move on.  “The most effective way to bring about change is to participate in it," Brent says. It takes courage to ask questions of leaders and to have difficult questions with them, but those are hallmarks of leadership too. 

Kenji Asakura and Letizia Alto are experienced and passionate real estate investors. They share their knowledge with other physicians and high income earners through their business, Semi-Retired MD, which offers courses, coaching and more.  “Whenever you’re in a challenge, say, ‘how can I?’ Then figure out every possible solution and try them, and never give up and say ‘this is impossible.’ There’s always a possible solution — you’ve just got to figure it out and try to hit it from as many ways as you can and be very, very persistent," Leti says. Since their last appearance on Money Checkup about a year ago, Kenji and Leti have nearly doubled the size of their real estate portfolio and have begun transitioning out of clinical medicine to focus on their businesses. https://fitadvisors.com/real-estate-investing-semi-retired-md

You may already know Farnoosh Torabi. She’s a financial journalist and TV and podcast host who appears regularly on The Today Show, NextAdvisor, Bloomberg Opinion, CNBC and more. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is When She Makes More: 10 Rules for Breadwinning Women. In addition to running her own business, Farnoosh is a wife and mom to two kids. She and her family live in New Jersey.  https://fitadvisors.com/farnoosh-torabi-personal-finance-female-breadwinners

Geraldine Carter believes CPAs should do more than compliance. A great CPA, she believes, can act as a fractional CFO, offering cash flow forecasting and strategic support to business owners. She founded She Thinks Big Coaching and launched her podcast, Smart Strategy for CPAs, to do just that: Help CPAs establish themselves as key members of business owners’ teams, focusing on specific niches where they can develop expertise.   On the other side of the equation, Geraldine encourages business owners to find the right CPA or fractional CFO as soon as they can afford to do so. Business owners need to understand their financials, but there’s no substitute for expertise. https://fitadvisors.com/geraldine-carter-cpa-niche-business-owners-cfo

The tech industry can be challenging to navigate. Tech workers tend to change jobs often as startups launch or fail. Many are compensated not only with a traditional salary and benefits package, but with stock options — which, if a company succeeds, can result in “life-changing amounts of money” for employees. Chloé A. Moore, CFP® helps tech workers prepare for those incredible possibilities while protecting themselves and their financial security. https://fitadvisors.com/money-checkup-tech-compensation-chloe-moore

Lauryn Williams became a professional track and field athlete at age 20. Suddenly, she found herself earning six figures and, despite studying finance in college, she ended up working with two financial planners who took advantage of her inexperience. In this episode, Lauryn speaks candidly about her mistakes — especially buying more house than she could afford — and how she now tries to provide frank, accessible advice to her clients as the founder of her own financial planning firm, Worth Winning.  https://fitadvisors.com/lauryn-williams-worth-winning-unique-financial-path