Fundamentals Flashcards
What is the Financial Planning Process?
- Understanding the Client’s Personal and Financial Circumstances
- Identifying and Selecting Goals
- Analyzing the Client’s Current Course of Action and Potential Alternative Course(s) of Action
- Developing the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Presenting the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Implementing the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Monitoring the Plan
Uber Is A Drunk Person’s Immediate Motor Vehicle
What is the life insurance benchmark?
10-16x gross pay
What is the emergency fund benchmark?
3-6 months
What is the emergency fund formula
Current Assets / Monthly Non-Discretionary Cash Flows
What is the education funding benchmark?
Save $3,000/$6,000/$9,000 per child per year for 18 years (in-state/mid-private/elite-private)
What is the disability benchmark?
60-70% of gross pay
What are the housing ratio benchmarks?
28% (housing debt) = PITI/GrossIncome
36% (total debt) = (PITI + Recurring Debt Payments) / GrossIncome
What is the homeowners insurance benchmark?
<= full replacement value on both dwelling and contents coverage
What is the auto insurance benchmark?
<= full FMV for comprehensive and collision
What is the liability insurance benchmark?
$1-3 million
What is the long-term care insurance benchmark?
benefit period >= 36-60 months
What is the benchmark for retirement savings at retirement?
16x pre-retirement income
What is the benchmark for annual retirement savings rate?
10-13%
What is the benchmark for expected retirement return and standard deviation?
8-10% and 8-14%
What is good debt?
- Interest rate low compared to expected inflation and investment returns
- Expected payback period is substantially less than the expected economic life of the asset
What is reasonable debt?
Payback period is longer or the returns on the debt are positive, but less certain
What is bad debt?
High interest rates or economic life of a purchase is shorter than the associated debt payback period
What estate planning documents are needed?
- Will
- Durable power of attorney for healthcare
- Advanced medical directive
Describe the shape of an elastic demand curve.
- Almost horizontal, sloping down and to the right.
* When there’s a small change in price, there’s a large change in quantity demanded.
Describe the shape of an inelastic demand curve.
- Almost vertical, sloping down and to the right.
- When there’s a small change in price, there’s very little change in quantity demanded.
- Remember the “I” in inelastic to remember the shape of the inelastic demand curve.
What is the order of the business life cycle?
Expansion
Peak
Contraction/Recession
Trough
Describe the expansion phase.
Characterized by increasing GDP, inflation and interest rates. Unemployment rate is decreasing.
Describe the peak phase.
Characterized by GDP being at its highest. Inflation and interest rates are peaking and unemployment rate is at its lowest levels.
Describe the contraction/recession phase.
Characterized by GDP slowing, inflation and interest rates beginning to decline and unemployment rate beginning to increase.
Describe the trough phase.
Characterized by GDP, inflation, and interest rates being at their lowest levels. Unemployment is at its highest.
What direction is inflation headed in each phase of the business life cycle?
Expansion: increasing
Peak: Highest
Recession: Decreasing
Trough: Lowest
What direction are interest rates headed in each phase of the business life cycle?
Expansion: increasing
Peak: Highest
Recession: Decreasing
Trough: Lowest
What direction is GDP headed in each phase of the business life cycle?
Expansion: increasing
Peak: Highest
Recession: Decreasing
Trough: Lowest
What direction is Unemployment headed in each phase of the business life cycle?
Expansion: decreasing
Peak: Lowest
Recession: Increasing
Trough: Highest
What are cyclical in nature and fluctuate directly with the business cycle?
Consumer durables and capital goods and investments, i.e. we may wait to buy a new car
Define recession
Six consecutive months (or two quarters) of declining GDP
Define depression
A recession becomes a depression if the recession lasts for 18 months or 6 consecutive quarters (3x as long as a recession)
Define deflation
- Opposite of inflation
- Prices are falling
- During periods of deflation, individuals prefer to hold cash because cash becomes more valuable as it can buy more goods and services and prices decrease.
Define disinflation
- A decline or slowdown in the rate of inflation.
- e.g. if annual inflation has been running at 4% each year for the past three years, then slows to 3-3.5% would be a slowdown in the rate of inflation.
What are the three main goals of the Federal Reserve?
- Maintain long-term economic growth.
- Maintain price levels supported by the economy.
- Maintain full employment.
What are the four tools used by the Federal Reserve to influence the money supply and interest rates?
- Reserve Requirement
- Discount Rate
- Open Market Operations
- Excess Reserves
Describe the Federal Reserve’s “Reserve Requirement”
- A percentage of deposits a bank must maintain in cash.
- As the reserve requirement increases, there’s less cash available to lend, therefore the money supply decreases and interest rates increase.
- As the reserve requirement decreases, there’s more cash available to lend, therefore the money supply increases and interest rates decrease.
Describe the Federal Reserve’s “Discount Rate”
- The overnight rate at which member banks can borrow from the Federal Reserve to meet their reserve requirements.
- As the discount rate increases, short-term interest rates increase as well.
- As the discount rate decreases, short-term interest rates decrease as well.
Describe the Federal Reserve’s “Open Market Operations”
As the Federal Reserve buys or sells government securities, the money supply is influenced and places pressure on interest rates.
- To increase interest rates, the fed will sell government securities.
- To decrease interest rates, the fed will buy government securities.
Describe the Federal Reserve’s “Excess Reserves”
- Monies that a bank holds at the Federal Reserve (or central bank) in excess of the required reserve amount.
- An increase in the excess reserves rate will cause more banks to hold excess reserves, which takes money out of the economy - this is contractionary.
- A decrease in the excess reserves rate will cause fewer banks to hold excess reserves, which means they will have more money to lend into the economy - this is expansionary.
FDIC Insurance
- Each depositor has a total of $250,000 of insurance per type of account ownership.
- Four types of ownership: (1) individual accounts, (2) joint accounts, (3) trust accounts, and (4) self-directed retirement accounts.
- Accounts at separate banks each receive $250,000 of insurance.
- Each person is deemed to own 50% of joint accounts.
List some examples of debts that are not discharged in bankruptcy.
Examples of debts that are not discharged through Chapter 7: (1) Student loans, (2) 3 years of back taxes, (3) alimony, and (4) child support.
List some examples of the assets that are exempt from creditors.
- Traditional and Roth IRAs are exempt, up to $1 million (as indexed) from creditors.
- Clearly identified rollover IRAs have an unlimited exemption if not combined with other IRA money or contributions.
Definition of Workers Compensation
- An absolute form of liability
- Regardless of fault if injured at work, the employee will collect benefits.
- Not taxable income
Characteristics of a Balance Sheet
- A listing of assets, liabilities and net worth.
- A snapshot of account balances at a “moment in time”.
- Proper dating is “As of December 31, 20xx.”
- Assets - Liabilities = Net Worth
Balance sheet presentation: Cash & Cash Equivalents
Cash, money market, CD <= 12 months
Balance sheet presentation: Invested Assets
IRA, Brokerage account, CD > 12 months
Balance sheet presentation: Personal Use Assets
Car, House, Jewelry, Furniture
Balance sheet presentation: Liabilities
Credit Cards, Mortgage, Auto Loan, Student Loan
Current Ratio
- A measure of a client’s ability to meet short-term obligations.
- Current assets = cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities such as certificates of deposit less than 12 months in maturity, money market, savings, cash and accounts receivable.
- Current liabilities = credit cards, short-term debts due in less than 12 months
- Current ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities.
- The higher the ratio, the better.
What are non-discretionary expenses?
- Only those expenses that do not go away if you lose your job: mortgage, utilities, food, car loan, property taxes and insurance premiums.
- Do not include: income taxes, payroll taxes and contributions to a retirement savings account.
What is an emergency fund?
- Clients need 3-6 months in non-discretionary expenses in an emergency fund.
- If two or more sources of income, then 3 months.
- If one source of income, then 6 months.
What is the benchmark for consumer debt ratios?
20% of NET income
What is the benchmark for the housing debt ratio?
<= 28% of GROSS income
What is the benchmark for the housing and all other debt ratio?
<= 36% of GROSS income
How do you calculate the Housing Debt ratio?
- Monthly Housing Costs (PITI) / Monthly Gross Income
- Where P = Principal, I = Interest, T = Taxes (Property), and I = Homeowners Insurance
- Do not subtract taxes or savings from gross income when calculating these ratios as they require gross income.
How do you calculate the Housing and All Other Debt Ratio?
- [Monthly Housing Costs (PITI) + All Other Recurring Debt Payments] / Monthly Gross Income
- All other recurring debt includes: Auto, Student Loans, Boat, Credit Card, and any other type of monthly debt.
What is the Savings Ratio?
- [Annual Savings = Employee + Employer Contributions] / Annual Gross Income
- A benchmark savings ratio target is 10-12% of gross income if the client starts saving before age 32.
- If a client waits to begin saving at 45 or 50, the rate may be 20-25% of gross income.
- It’s important to include employer contributions to 401(k), profit sharing plans, etc. as part of the savings ratio calculation.
Characteristics of a Federal Pell Grant
- Strictly “Need” based and dependent on the EFC amount
- The EFC determines a student’s eligibility and how much is awarded
- Only students that have not earned a bachelors or professional degree qualify
Characteristics of a Stafford Loan
- The primary type of financial aid provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
- Student loans
- Repayment begins after a six month grace period of leaving school or falling below part-time status (6 semester hours)
- There are two types of a Stafford Loan (subsidized versus unsubsidized)
- Inappropriate if the parents intend to repay the loan
Characteristics of a Subsidized Stafford Loan
- Subsidized = interest paid for by the federal government while the student is in school.
- Not available to graduate students.
- “Need” based
Characteristics of an Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
- Interest begins to accrue when the funds are disbursed
- not need based
- Available to graduate students
Characteristics of the PLUS loan
- A loan for parents to pay for their children’s education
- Not need based
- Depends on the parents’ credit score
- Not subsidized
- Appropriate for parents who can afford to maek a loan payment, but may not have saved anything for education
- TIP: Wealthy parents are a “PLUS”???
Characteristics of the Federal Perkins Loan Program
- For students with exceptionally low EFC amounts.
- “Need” based
- This program was allowed to expire in September 2017, but it could possibly still appear on the exam.
Characteristics of Prepaid Tuition
- considered an asset of the parent for financial aid purposes
- can be used to pay for an in state college credit at today’s cost
- Basically purchasing college credits today and using them when your child goes to college
Advantages of Prepaid Tuition
- Lock in tuition cost at today’s dollars.
Disadvantages of Prepaid Tuition
- Only earn a return equal to tuition inflation.
- The child may receive a scholarship and not use the tuition credits.
- Parents may return the tuition credits, but they only receive principal back, typically without interest.
- The state schools may have less than desirable curriculum in the student’s area of interest.
Characteristics of a Savings Plan or 529 Savings Plan
- considered an asset of the parent for financial aid purposes
- Typically for parents or grandparents but anyone can contribute to a savings plan that invests in a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds based upon your child’s age
- Any appreciation in the asset value is tax-free if used for qualified education expenses
- Contributions are recognized as being made proratably over a five year period.
- An individual can contribute up to $75,000 (5 x $15,000) in one year, without an gift tax consequences as it’s 5x the annual gift tax exclusion amount.
- A couple that elects gift splitting could contribute $150,000 (5 x 2 x $15,000) in one year.