Due to life expectancies increasing, some are choosing to continue to work longer. These two changes brought by the SECURE Act could be beneficial to those people. The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act has been one of the largest overhauls of the retirement system in the U.S. in decades. Before the SECURE Act, savers were not allowed to make contributions to their Traditional IRA once they turned 70 ½. For those who retired before 70 ½, this rule might not have been as restrictive because they were no longer earning income.
The Secure Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was passed in December 2019. It includes reforms to increase access to plans in the workplace and expand retirement savings. This legislation includes changes that can affect defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans, individual retirement accounts and 529 plans. The Secure Act went in to effect on January 1, 2020. It changed the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) requirements for inherited accounts and increased the age that you are required to start taking your RMD.
Tonight I hosted the 6th official call. We had 8 students on the line so we got right into the economic data. On Wednesday, the FOMC announced it’s monetary policy and they kept the Federal Funds rate steady @ 2.25-2.50%. Their dovish comments sent bond yields diving.
Tonight I hosted the 5th official call on our series of conference calls. We had 7 students on the line tonight. From our previous call, I asked them to research an “internet of thing” stock. We decided to buy Google stock. From that call until today, one of the students texted me several ideas on cyber security stocks that appeared very compelling.
Tonight I hosted the 4th official call. We had 8 students on the line and I jumped right into a market update. In addition to our usual indices update, I covered some important news from the week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an underwhelming 20,000 new jobs for the February non-farm payroll report.
Tonight we had an important GDP number to review for the 4th quarter of 2018:
The US economy grew @ 2.6%, which beat the consensus estimate of 2.4%. Most importantly and contrary to many, the US economy was still in Quad 1 in the 4th quarter of this year. We had expected the data to confirm our QUAD 4 call. None of the students questioned the headline number. In my opinion, since the GDP number is subject to revisions, I expected the next report to show a number closer to 2.4%.
Weaver Consulting Group is delighted to announce that our managing partner, Jason Weaver, has been recognized in the Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors List for 2019.
Tonight I hosted our 2nd official call and 8 out of the 10 students are on the line. We had a lot to cover so I jumped right into the market update. We went over the typical 5 data points: S&P 500 Index, Oil
Interest Rates, Dollar Index, and VIX.
Our 1st official call happens tonight. 9 out of the 10 students make the call tonight. So, that is encouraging. Tonight we struggled to get the students on the line. The homework I gave them was confusing. I asked them to listen to a replay of a recent investment call that my firm hosted. They had to dial in to a replay conference call number and were confusing that phone number with this one. We started late, but the students start texting each other to help get on the line.
As an investment advisor, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to start introducing investing to them. We started discussing stocks and they have been investing for the past 5 years. I didn’t want them to be discouraged early on, so I covered all of their losses. Soon enough, as they saw their account grow, I started to see the wheels turning.