Golfing is my favorite way to pass time and destress. But it is also one of the more expensive sports you can play as a casual weekend hobby. Golf clubs, golf balls, driving range practice, green fees, cart fees...then, to see progress in your game, you will probably need to take lessons. At the very least, you will need to spend a lot of time and money playing and practicing to see any improvement at all. The list of items you can spend money on when it comes to playing golf is endless.

Join us this #GivingTuesday, November 27th, in supporting the Institute for Field Research’s (IFR) Need Based Scholarship and breaking down financial barriers to education. The IFR is a nonprofit organization that provides academically rigorous field schools worldwide in Archaeology and Environmental Studies, delivering top quality of both research and teaching. The academic opportunity that IFR programs provide should be accessible to all students, regardless of income level. Donate to the IFR to enable students from diverse backgrounds and economic capabilities to engage in life-changing, educational experiences. Support students like Breann Hall, and help make a difference, one person at a time.

According to Forbes, there are over 44 million Americans with student loan debt totaling a staggering $1.5 trillion. The only other debt larger than student loans is mortgage debt. Student loan debt creates a drag on the economy by reducing the amount of take-home pay young adults have to spend on housing, retirement, household formation, and general living expenses. This money-squeeze is especially acute for the Millennial generation because they possess the greatest amount of student loan debt. In an effort to accelerate student loan repayment and also encourage borrowers to start contributing towards their retirement, one unknown company applied for and received an IRS Private Letter Ruling (PLR) on August 17, 2018 allowing that company to match employee student loan payments, similar to what most companies do with 401k plans.

This is a great question because there is a misconception among homeowners that if you refinance your existing home mortgage, you will be subject to the new mortgage rules and not be able to deduct as much as you could before. This is incorrect. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) which was passed in December 2017 did reduce the amount of mortgage interest a homeowner could deduct on their taxes to $750,000, down from $1 million (plus $100,000 of interest on a home equity line of credit), but that only affects new mortgages made after December 2017. The TCJA initially eliminated the deductibility of home equity line interest, but the IRS issued clarification on (February 21, 2018) stating that homeowners can still continue to deduct home equity loans as long as the loan is used to “buy, build or substantially improve the taxpayer’s main home and second home.” If you had a mortgage prior to the passage of TCJA, you are grandfathered into the old rules and can still deduct mortgage interest up to the old limit of $1 million, even if you refinance your loan.

Cannabis stocks are the hottest stocks of 2018. Every year a new investment becomes the next best thing and all of a sudden everyone wants to invest in it. This cycle happens all the time. Last year, everyone wanted to buy cryptocurrencies. As a result, Bitcoin (the most notable cryptocurrency) skyrocketed to over $20,000 and then plunged over 50 percent (Bitcoin is currently trading at $6,300). Not long before that, investors were enamored with gold. The first page of nearly every consumer investment related website (i.e. CNBC, Yahoo Finance, et.) talked about how gold would hit $2,000 an oz because the assumption was that the U.S. dollar was losing value and would no longer be the currency of choice. Since then the U.S. dollar has strengthened against almost every single currency (hard and soft) and gold has lost its luster. Gold is now trading at $1,185 per oz, down 35 percent from its peak. The Wall Street Journal occasionally publishes a quiz to test the reader’s knowledge of such manias, and there are plenty of examples. Bottom line is that it’s ok to get caught up in the excitement and buy these types of investments, but as with any investment, you must be diversified.

In short, the PSLF program allows borrowers to have their federal student loans entirely forgiven if they make 120 qualifying (not consecutive) payments while they work in a non-profit/government sector job. The PSLF program was created in 2007 and the first cohort of individuals with 120 qualifying payments became eligible last year for the generous loan forgiveness program. Some people are concerned whether the PSLF program will get cut under Donald Trump’s presidency. Others have heard that some borrowers were denied relief even if they met the 120 qualified payments. There have been no official announcements from the Department of Education or the White House on changes to the PSLF program. The media has inaccurately reported that the Tax Cuts and Job Act (TCJA) defunded the PSLF program, but that is not true; there is no mention of the PSLF program in the text of the passed TCJA bill. While the 2019 federal budget proposed by President Trump does eliminate the PSLF program, the budget proposes an alternative more “streamline[d]” solution to borrowers: the streamlined version would “cap a borrower’s monthly payment at 12.5 percent of their discretionary income” and the debt would be forgiven after 15 years. Graduate debt would be forgiven after 30 years. More importantly, this would only affect “loans originating on or after July 1, 2019,” hence, current borrowers would be grandfathered in.

Ara was a guest on the Money Savage podcast with George Grombacher, where he discussed the unique financial needs and challenges facing professionals in the healthcare industry.

We recently celebrated my daughter’s 4th birthday and I think she is finally at the age where she can begin to understand the concept of money, and what it should (and shouldn’t) be used for. For her birthday, while her grandparents got her the toys she REALLY wanted, I went the practical route and got her these “piggy” banks and a couple of children’s books on being smart with your money.

Deciding when to terminate an employee is often the hardest decision for an employer to make. If employees in California are truly “at will,” then why can’t employers terminate whenever they want? There is no such thing as a simple termination. Join ACap’s Ara Oghoorian and Renee Noy of WorkWise Law, LP us for a free business service webinar.

I am fanatical about protecting my credit score because one minor error can cost me thousands. This is exactly what happened to one of our newest clients. Liam was in escrow to buy his first dream house. He had his down payment ready to go, was prequalified through his lender and had an excellent interest rate since his credit score was over 750; the table was set and everything was going great, until a late credit report filing.