What is your Risk Tolerance? Identifying and analyzing your preferred level of potential loss is essential in Financial Planning. Once you have saved toward any given goal, the idea is to leverage it so that you can gain more. Risk Management involves the trade off – how much you are willing to risk on the downside to potential gain on the upside.

The Federal Reserve has once again raised interest rates by 25 basis points, but is still maintaining their placid stance toward economic policy. This allowed equities last week to end a tumultuous week with a slight uptick. The expectation is that the Fed is going to continue to raise rates very slowly.

Anybody who was surprised that the Federal Reserve Board decided to raise its benchmark interest rate this week probably wasn't paying attention. The U.S. economy is humming along, the stock market is booming and the unemployment rate has fallen faster than anybody expected. The incoming administration has promised lower taxes and a stimulative $550 billion infrastructure investment. The question on the minds of most observers is: what were they waiting for?

Do you know the difference between a Traditional IRA & a Roth IRA??

IRA accounts, otherwise known as, Individual Retirement Accounts are a way for to save for retirement. A Traditional IRA can be funded with pre-tax contributions and can be a tax deductible (check with your tax advisor) and grow tax-deferred until age 70 ½ (when the IRS requires you to begin distributing the assets).When you retire and draw on the funds, the money would be taxable as ordinary income.Theoretically, you would be in a lower tax bracket during the withdrawal phase.It is important to note, that any distributions taken prior to 59 ½ are subject to both taxes and an early withdrawal penalty from the Fed of 10% and the State of 2.5%.