Expat CFO Blog Entries
Expat Living in Costa Rica: Welcome to Jaco Beach!
Visitors to Jaco Beach, Costa Rica may find a few things different than in the States. This is a letter to my children, who will be visiting our new condo without me. I wanted them to understand a few things.
Expat Tax: New IRS FATCA Rule is ANOTHER Way to Penalize You $10,000
IRS Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) is designed to uncover U.S. financial and investments interests abroad. Do not be fooled, these and other disclosure requirements are punctuated with the most draconian penalties assessed by the IRS.
Expat Tax: 10 Symptoms You Have Chicken Little Syndrome, 3 Steps for Curing It
Americans are suffering under a floating fear about the future of the American economy. This type of fear clouds judgment, often resulting in hasty decisions that destroy financial goals. Avoid this dangerous trap; work with a trusted financial advisor.
Expat Taxes: Play 20 Questions When Purchasing Foreign Real Estate
It’s easier to get INTO purchasing foreign real estate than to get out of it. Avoid HUGE tax and legal issues by working with trusted tax and legal advisors. Make sure you cover these 20 questions with them.
A New Look at Social Security and Medicare Taxes
Social Security and Medicare benefits are some of the most misunderstood, maligned, and VALUABLE benefits available to the U.S. citizen.
Establishing State Residency: 36 Ways to Make it Real
Changing your state residency is something that you need to do with some foresight, planning, and time. Establishing a strong history of activity and ownership over time can provide you a history that helps protect your future.
Expat Q & A: 56 Questions You Need to Answer BEFORE You Move Abroad
Protect your expat experience with comprehensive tax and asset protection planning before you go abroad. Discussing these questions with a tax professional experienced in expat tax matters can help you make smart decisions about your hard-earned money.
Expat Taxes: 14 Questions You Need to Ask Your Tax Advisor
Avoid unnecessary headaches, taxes, and penalties by working with a tax professional experienced in U.S. expat taxes. This list of questions can help you make an informed decision about whom to work with as you go abroad.
American Expat Tax Confessions: 7 Reasons I Did Not File A U.S. Tax Return
The most common and costly mistake American expats make is NOT filing a U.S. tax return while abroad. Make sure you receive all the tax benefits associated with living and working overseas; file your tax return.
3 Misperceptions that Threaten Your Investing Future
While the Media, Wall Street, and multiple Advisors can bring you extensive information, they cannot provide you with the unique perspective you need for your financial future. Every investor needs an experienced, independent financial advocate working on their behalf.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Using Your Tax Preparer as Your Wealth Manager
You trust your tax preparer to see all the moving parts of your financial world. This is good. However, the good turns bad, and even ugly, when they cannot help you implement the investment advice that is right for you.
4 Things Do-It-Yourself Investors Want
Do-it-yourself (DIY) investors are always searching for that one planner that provides financial advice that goes beyond what they can learn in books and the media. DIY investors have four key criteria they are looking for in a financial advisor.
3 Things EVERY Investor Needs to Know about Their Wealth Manager
In response to the current demand by investors for holistic financial services, many sectors of the investment industry are presenting themselves as Wealth Managers. Spot the limitations of the three main types of wealth managers represented in the market today.
Mythbusters: 4 Truths NO ONE is Telling the DIY Investor (Part 2)
Do It Yourself (DIY) investors operate from great values of frugality and self-reliance. However, there are myths and assumptions DIY investors MUST address to avoid costly mistakes with their hard-earned money. Trade in DIY myths for self-directed truths today.
Mythbusters: 4 Truths NO ONE is Telling the DIY Investor (Part 1)
Do It Yourself (DIY) investors operate from great values of frugality and self-reliance. However, there are myths and assumptions DIY investors MUST address to avoid costly mistakes with their hard-earned money. Exchange your DIY myths for self-directed truths today.
Looming Tax Hikes Largest in History
2011 is shaping up to be the most tax-intensive year we have seen in a decade. Tax-hikes, fewer tax deductions, and the expiration of current tax legislation will cause more taxes for everyone. The antidote: regular tax planning through 2011.
Expat Taxes: How the Death of Swiss Bank Secrecy Laws Impacts U.S. Expatriates
The IRS is aggressively searching the international banking and investing world for hidden US assets. In response to rapidly changing regulations, US Expatriates need to review and revise how they manage their financial world.
Expat Finances: 3 Secrets to Keeping Your Expat Finances in Order
American Expatriate families living and working abroad need to make sure that they are working with a qualified advisor that can help them manage the complexities of taxes, insurance, and legal protection.
Expat Tax Tips: 8 Secrets to Managing Your Financial World Across Two Continents
Gone are the days when all your information could be conveniently and securely stored in a safe-deposit box at your local bank. Your global lifestyle requires a new solution, one that focuses and organizes your entire financial world.
Expat Finances: Three Key Strategies for Building a U.S. Expat's Financial World
American Expatriates can earn huge wages overseas. For young couples just starting out, it is important to have key building blocks in place so that future financial goals and dreams can be achieved.
Expat Tax Tips: The Death of Foreign Earned Income Exclusions?
President Obama is looking to add billions of dollars to U.S. Tax coffers by removing the Foreign Earned Income Exemption. Stay abreast of the latest information that develops about the foreign earned income exclusion.
25 Questions U.S. Expatriates MUST Ask to Choose the RIGHT Professional to Manage Expat Taxes
25 questions to help any expat choose a tax and financial professional you can trust.
Expat Tax Lesson Learned From the Gorillas of Rwanda
The lesson I learned on my summer vacation was that the true value of a guide cannot be measured during the easy times. Rather, the true measure of our guide really only manifested itself during the difficult times.
How U.S. Expatriates Can Avoid the 13 Most Common Expat Tax Traps
Make sure you avoid these common tax mistakes all expats are tempted to make when they try to navigate their expat experience without a professional to properly guide them.
7 Tips to Protect Your Parents from Unscrupulous Advisors
We live in a time of great technology and great fraud. Let’s lean on our adult children to harness this new technology to keep us safe, but keep our dignity to remain independent for as long as we can.
9 Top Retirement Risks to Avoid
Retirement planning is one of the most important endeavors we will ever undertake. Retirees are living longer, more active lives in a changing economic environment. It is more important than ever to have a clear understanding of the financial risks involved and a working plan to manage those risks. Working closely with a financial professional is imperative to facilitating this process.
7 Life-Changing Financial Decisions U.S. ExPats Must Consider to Protect Their Assets and Investments
The many moving parts of an U.S. Expatriate’s financial world must be brought together under one qualified tax and financial advisor. So much more hinges upon the proper application of the additional tax regulations associated with earning income abroad.
The Costliest Retirement Funds Mistake You Should Avoid
Avoid becoming the tax victim of incorrect implementation of your investment decisions by working with a tax professional that offers financial planning services.
4 Fundamental Reasons Do-it-Yourself Investing Fails Miserably
DIY investors constantly hurt themselves with four investment mistakes, which easily snowball into a failure that jeopardizes or eliminates their future financial security. For many, the only recovery is to work with an experienced financial professional.
Mid-Year Personal Review
July is the perfect time for a mid-year review of your personal finances and tax outlook. By spending some time now, reviewing these seven key areas of your financial world, you can save money later.
How Does Updating Our Family Trust Affect Our Existing Assets?
Based on working with thousands of tax clients over many years that have (correctly and incorrectly) handled their estate issues with a living trust, this article helps identify key family trust issues every Trustee should know.
Recession Busting 101: Change Your Consumer Fear to Consumer Confidence
In tough economic times, tough people survive and even thrive. In this open letter to his clients, Nick Hodges reminds us that as Americans, we have the character and the background to emerge stronger from these tough economic times.
Nine Top Retirement Risks
Retirement planning is one of the most important endeavors we will ever undertake. Retirees are living longer, more active lives in a changing economic environment. It is more important than ever to have a clear understanding of the financial risks involved and a working plan to manage those risks. Working closely with a financial professional is imperative to facilitating this process.
13 Questions to Ask to Improve Your Personal Economy
This open letter identifies 13 key questions that each individual should be answering and doing now to help improve their personal economy.
The Employee Free Choice Act: An Economic Catastrophe for U.S. Small Business
Union favoritism as expressed in “The Employee Free Choice Act” will force more jobs overseas, positioning American labor to be even less competitive in a difficult global market. Anything that makes American labor less efficient is almost always a bad idea.
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