I believe that life is about living well and dying well. Have you heard about the Conversation Project? I hadn’t until just recently when one of my favorite newspaper columnists, Ellen Goodman, resurfaced in a Google search about end-of-life issues. Many of you—in my age range—may be very familiar with Ellen, a Boston Globe and Pulitzer Prize winner whose columns chronicled social change and its impact on American life.

You may have heard the term Financial Wellness tossed around on the web over the past few years—especially since the onset of the pandemic. I have always believed in this concept and am happy to hear it has gained a lot of traction—if one doesn’t feel financially well it can lead to all sorts of stresses and impact one’s mental health.

For those not familiar with the phrase “aging in place,” simply put, it refers to choosing to stay in your home with family, friends, and neighbors around you as you grow older (instead of moving to a residential facility designed to support long-term care, such as an assisted-living facility)

We talk a lot around the office about work/life balance, and for some reason, while it has always been a concept that I support, the terminology has never seemed to resonate with me. Perhaps because I am not sure that there is ever truly a balance—which to me has meant equalization—in my family, my marriage, and my unmet goals.

Investors are often preoccupied with generating attractive returns and managing risk in their portfolios. However, one aspect that should not be overlooked is the tax efficiency of our investments. Diversified portfolios hold a wide range of investments with different asset classes/securities having different return and tax efficiency characteristics. Tax-efficient asset class placement can have a significant impact on long-term wealth accumulation and should be an integral part of any investor’s strategy. This is a strategy that we, at Meira, have regularly used over the years.

Some people like to take quizzes and if you’re one of those read on. The answers are at the end of the article, so don’t peek.

Our MEIRA clients are increasingly utilizing charitable giving by donating to charities through Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) from their IRA Investment accounts (if you’d like to learn more, please let us know). In some cases, we’ve had clients who wanted assistance in identifying a charitable organization, so I developed a bit of a how-to-guide below.

Winter of 2022…it was a regular working day, where in the evening I was to meet a friend for dinner. As I was leaving for dinner, my cellphone stopped working and said SOS—little did I know it wasn’t because I didn’t have a signal!

I was blessed to have been raised by a mother who believed in spending less than you make. Thankfully, that belief is ingrained in me and particularly came into play when my older child went off to a private college four years ago! I reexamined our monthly expenses and was determined to find ways to save money.