Join us for a complimentary breakfast buffet and a lively Q&A session. Topics will include: financial planning for 2020, savings vehicles you didn't even know existed, new and ignored tax issues, and estate planning documents that you really do need. For our police and fire trustees, we will also discuss protecting your retirement in light of the new consolidation law. Pomegranate Restaurant - Aurora, IL Saturday, January 18th - 9:30-11:00 a.m.

Propel Financial Advisors, LLC invites you to join us for a complimentary lunch and Q&A with our advisors about timely financial planning concerns: Hearth Restaurant 4604 N. Prospect Road Peoria Heights, IL Thursday, January 16th, 2020 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

On December 6, 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a glowing jobs report, stating the US added 266,000 new jobs in November.* These numbers impress, as the forecast called for 187,000 new jobs. The BLS also made positive revisions to the September and October jobs numbers, adding 13,000 and 28,000 respectively. The report marks 11 consecutive years of economic expansion and the unemployment rate dropping to a fifty-year low of 3.5%. (In Ames, Iowa, the unemployment rate is just 1.3%!) But with impressive numbers, comes skepticism. Can these numbers be real in a political environment rich in falsehoods and half-truths? If the economy is so strong why is wage growth stagnant? A look under the hood helps elucidate some of these questions.

Clients and potential clients often admit to being uninformed and/or overwhelmed by the myriad of terms and ideas that are thrown around by investment professionals. Here at Propel, we strive to reduce some of that discomfort by answering questions and repeating ideas in different ways to give our clients a chance to understand how these concepts apply to them. As we approach the end of 2019, we are thrilled to have had a recent influx of new clients (lately they have come from Tennessee, Illinois and Florida) who are brand new to investing.

In our June 2019 newsletter, Danielle Woods wrote an informative article - The Savings Crisis: Why are American’s so Ill-Prepared? In that article, she listed several recommendations to help create a personal financial plan as well as tips to set attainable savings goals. To reiterate and expand upon the points in that article, here are some planning and financial tools to help you save money.

In late May 2019, the House passed the Secure (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) Act by a bipartisan majority (417-3). The bill currently awaits passage by the Senate. Many analysts expect it to pass substantially as-is, although there is some squabbling over revised rules for 529 plans (college savings plans). The impetus behind the bill is to help rectify the looming retirement crisis – the majority of Americans are not on track with their retirement savings. One goal of the act is to incentivize employers to put retirement plans in place.

When we first bring up the idea of a Health Savings Account, we’re often met with reluctance. The general assumption seems to be that HSAs have too many stipulations and are too complicated to set up and maintain. That may have been the case several years ago when Health Care Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts (similar with different rules to HSAs) were first used regularly. Nowadays, HSAs are relatively simple to administer and provide a nice tax advantage for those that qualify.

Financial Stability does not have a simple definition in terms of the American household. We polled friends, family and clients to see how they would define it. Most of our responses alluded to having enough money to cover your bills and being able to address emergencies. One response was very direct and simply stated, “Uncommon.” My favorite response was, “when your kids move out of the house.”

This is a common question because many people believe that all investment people are the same. After all, it’s the same financial market, and they all buy stocks. But is there a difference? Propel Financial Advisors, LLC, is a registered investment advisor, not a broker at all. Investment advisors and brokers are covered under separate sections of the law and are very different. The key difference is that investment advisors owe a “fiduciary duty” to their clients, and brokers do not.

Many of us have experienced that panicked moment at a new job when faced with filling out a tax withholding form (W-4). Oftentimes, we stick with the same number of allowances that seemed to “work” in the past, but we don’t really know why. We cross our fingers that we’ll get a refund instead of taking steps to ensure we are on track.