Rick Brooks
Rick Brooks's Latest Posts
Two Ways To Keep Your Charitable Deductions in 2018
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed a lot about living in California. While the Standard Deduction doubled, personal exemptions were eliminated and several prominent deductions were capped or eliminated, including: • Deductions for state and local taxes (income, property, sales and other) are capped at $10,000. • The cap on new mortgage […]
Are We Worrying About The Right Things?
As we close out 2017 and start looking into the new year, several themes have been pervasive in our public discourse. As an investor, it’s important to look not just at the market results (which have been spectacular), but also the challenges facing us in the years to come. One thing that has struck me […]
Skilled Care Guidance
Have you ever had a loved one in a skilled nursing rehabilitation facility? This often follows a significant stay in the hospital and allows a patient to heal and strengthen under skilled care before coming home. Medicare will pay for the first 100 days (or so) of care in such a facility, but after that […]
The Care and Feeding of Your Estate Plan
Most affluent Californians have some form of estate plan. While a will is a basic necessity, many people have invested in a comprehensive package including a will, trust, powers of attorney and advanced health care directive. As I’ve written before, your estate plan determines what happens to your assets once you’ve passed away or when […]
From Academic to Retirement – A Case Study
It’s been said that roughly 10,000 baby boomers retire every day. Even though so many people are doing it, there’s still a considerable amount of stress as you transition from working into retirement. The big financial transition is from drawing a paycheck to drawing down savings, but the emotional changes of purpose and identity can […]
Financial Planning for the Terminally Ill
Over the past few months, I’ve had an up-close and personal experience with this topic: my father recently passed away after a protracted illness. Financial planning is about making the best use of your available resources (money, time and skills) to do the things you want to do in life. Estate planning is most often […]
Should You Buy Rental Car Insurance?
It’s probably safe to say that most of us have been there before. That uncertain pause when the rental car clerk asks “Would you like to buy our accident waiver insurance?” You don’t want to be liable to the rental car company if you damage their car, but paying for all of that coverage can […]
Costly 401(k) Mistakes That Could Wipe Out Your Retirement Plan
We were recently asked to help someone who had a very unusual problem with her 401(k). While the combination of problems was unusual, the situation illustrated several common mistakes people make. In this case the combination of mistakes compounded into a nightmare. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll be able to avoid that result. Here’s […]
Five Simple Steps to Reduce Your Debt
According to the Federal Reserve, total consumer debt (mortgage, credit card, auto and other) totals $12.7 trillion, or roughly 99 percent of disposable personal income. Of this, revolving debt is just shy of $1 trillion, most of which is credit card debt. One more stat: for households that carry a balance on their credit cards, […]
Do Tax Cuts Really Stimulate the Economy?
There’s a very popular economic theory that suggests that if tax rates are at zero or 100 percen, the government will raise no revenue in either case. At 100 percent, all income goes to the government so there is no incentive for people to work, while a tax rate of zero percent obviously raises no […]
