by Christopher Rhim, CFP®, CDFA™ | Feb 22, 2017 | Personal Income Taxes
In your mailbox soon and new this year, Form 1098, which contains your mortgage interest paid for the previous tax year, now reports new information which may trigger an IRS audit. This form now reports: * Outstanding principal balance as of the beginning of the tax...
by Christopher Rhim, CFP®, CDFA™ | Feb 20, 2017 | Financial Advice
Remember that first job, working 9 to 5 and a real salary? Quickly, your thoughts moved to what you were going to purchase: a new car, a new wardrobe, maybe a vacation to a foreign land? With the job came real responsibilities along with future plans that were...
by Christopher Rhim, CFP®, CDFA™ | Feb 13, 2017 | Financial Advice
This past week about 360 of 500 companies in the S&P 500 have reported 4th quarter corporate earnings about 5% higher than the year earlier period. This exceeded analysts estimates of 3.2% as predicted at the end of 2016. Stocks, entering the 8th year of a bull...
by Christopher Rhim, CFP®, CDFA™ | Feb 9, 2017 | Financial Advice
A few weeks ago, The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the oldest most widely known stock index in the US, broke 20,000 for the first time ever. While this may seem impressive, the Dow’s relevance today is actually quite small given: 1) The DJIA includes 30 of the...
by Christopher Rhim, CFP®, CDFA™ | Feb 8, 2017 | Mortgage
One of the first things I ask a new client considering a refinance or any kind of debt is, do you know your credit score? Your FICO score is the most important number that the banks and other lenders use to identify what type of credit risk you are. FICO scores run...