Since 2007 money has topped the list of sources of stress for Americans, with almost two-thirds reporting that money caused them very significant or somewhat significant stress.

Money is also the leading cause of stress in relationships, with 70% of married couples arguing about money. According to research arguments about money are by far the top predictor of divorce, and fights around money take longer to recover from than any other type of argument.

Reading all of that might make everything seem hopeless. After all, don’t all married couples fight about money? No! My wife and I have been married for almost 20 years and we have never had a fight about money. We had a lot to learn about money together, but we have never fought about money.

In addition, I have been counseling individuals and couples about money for close to 20 years and have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work. Through personal experience, counseling experience, and research, I have discovered many things that financially healthy couples do with money.

Here are my top ten tips for couples:

1. Find a financial counselor that can help you walk through everything. A trained financial counselor understands the financial side of money and the emotional side of money. I strongly suggest couples work with an Accredited Financial Counselor, which can be found at http://afcpe.org/find-an-afc. If you are not married yet, see a Financial Counselor as part of your pre-marital counseling.

2. Meet as a couple on a regular basis and discuss (discuss – not fight) your budget, goals, dreams, and creative solutions to your financial challenges.

3. Each partner in the couple should take the online Money Habitudes assessment. This tool will help you understand your money habits and attitudes, and will give you important tools and knowledge to discuss with each other and your financial counselor. You can learn more here: https://online.moneyhabitudes.com/

4. Set financial goals together and work towards achieving those goals.

5. Make sure each partner has money they can spend on whatever they want.

6. Set some money aside for each partner to be able to grow and develop their talents. For example, if your spouse wants to learn to play tennis, they could sign up for lessons. If you want to learn how to cook healthy meals, you could take a class. Even better, see if there is a class you both would enjoy.

7. Spend money on experiences, not things.

8. Be sure there is absolutely NO financial infidelity in your marriage (financial lies). Few things will destroy trust in a marriage faster than lying about money.

9. Review both partners credit reports on a regular basis (at least once a year).

10. Learn about money together – listen to podcasts and read books together. A few suggestions for podcasts include Stacking Benjamins, You Need a Budget, The Ric Edelman Show, and Money Tree Investing. A few books I recommend are You Need a Budget, The Difference, and How Rich People Think.

What other tips do you have for making money work in your marriage or relationship? Please share in the comments below or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanHLawBlog/

Sources:

American Psychological Association (2017, November 1). APA Stress in America survey. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/11/lowest-point.aspx

Jacques, S. (2013, July 12). Researcher find correlation between financial arguments, decreased relationship satisfaction. Retrieved from https://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jul13/predictingdivorce71113.html

MagnifyMoney (2017, February 13). 21% of divorcees cite money as the cause of their divorce, MagnifyMoney survey shows. Retrieved from https://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/featured/money-causes-21-percent-divorces925885150/

Money (2014, June 1). Poll: How husbands and wives really feel about their finances. Retrieved from http://time.com/money/2800576/love-money-by-the-numbers/.

Vincent, S., (2015, February 4). Love and money: People say they save, partner spends, according to SunTrust survey. Retrieved from http://investors.suntrust.com/news/news-details/2015/Love-and-Money-People-Say-They-Save-Partner-Spends-According-to-SunTrust-Survey/default.aspx

You can now freeze your credit (which is the number one step you can take to protect your identity) for free.

A credit freeze is the single most important step you can take to protect yourself from identity theft. It literally locks your credit bureau files so NO ONE, including you, will be approved for new credit. A thief could have your information and they will apply rapidly for credit, all of which will be denied, which will make them move on.

After the massive Equifax data breach last year (https://ryanhlaw.com/equifax-data-breach/) a new federal law allows all consumers to freeze their credit for free.

Which makes sense, if you think about it. Equifax essentially said, “we’re sorry your data got stolen because we were negligent, you can protect yourself by putting a credit freeze on your report and paying us $5-$10.” Thankfully Congress didn’t like that, and they passed a law that made it free.

Let’s keep it simple – here are the websites:

• Equifax: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/
• Experian: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
• TransUnion: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze

You’ll need your Social Security number, two years of address history, and some other basic personal information. You will be asked some questions about information in your credit file.

Take ten minutes and freeze your credit right now. Freeze your spouse’s and children’s credit as well.

Good job, Congress, for doing the right thing and making this important service free.

I don’t know how they did it. The House passed a terrible tax bill. The Senate passed one that was almost as bad. To reconcile the two bills a House and Senate Conference Committee was created. I had extremely low expectations. What they came out with was the revised Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA), and it is, quite frankly, a great bill for almost everyone.

If you want to read the full bill, you can do so here: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/politics/text-read-tax-plan-republicans/index.html?iid=EL

Before I jump into the highlights, I want to make a few important points:

• As of this writing, it is not a law yet, so no changes have actually been made. It will likely become law before the end of the year, though, but current tax laws will be in place for your 2017 return that you will be working on in a few months.
• I am not a CPA or tax attorney, so nothing in this article should be construed as tax advice. This article is for informational purposes only. For information about your own taxes you should consult a tax professional.
• Page numbers refer to the page in the bill where you can find the information.

Let’s run through some highlights for individuals and families:

• Reduces all but two tax brackets (page 12):
  

  Current Law	10%	15%	25%	28%	33%	35%	39.6%
  TCJA	10%	12%	22%	24%	32%	35%	37%

• Increases the standard deduction to $12,000 for singles and $24,000 for married filing joint (MFJ) (page 17):
  • With the increase in the standard deduction, personal exemptions are going away. Under current law you get a personal exemption of $4,050 per individual (which would lower your taxable income).
• If you choose to itemize, you can still deduct sales, income and property taxes up to $10,000 (page 81).
• If you choose to itemize you can still deduct mortgage interest for home values up to $750,000 (page 78).
  • Deductions for the interest on a home equity lines of credit, however, will no longer be deductible.
• Increases the Child Tax Credit to $2,000 per child, with $1,400 of that being refundable for most taxpayers (page 43).
• College savings plans (529 plans) may now be used for elementary, secondary, homeschool and higher education (page 63).
• Qualified moving expenses are no longer deductible unless you are part of the Armed Forces (pages 102, 110).
• Alimony is no longer deductible to the payor (page 100).
• Eliminates most personal casualty and theft losses from itemized deductions (page 81).
• Because taxes will be easier to file for many (most will take the standard deduction) you can no longer deduct the cost of paying someone to prepare your taxes (page 99).
• Simplifies the rules for the Alternative Minimum Tax and essentially doubles the amount you can pass to your heirs income tax-free (Estate or Death Tax).
• If you have a pass-through business (S corp, LLC, Partnership, or Sole Proprietorship) all gains made in the business currently pass through to your individual tax form where you pay taxes on the gain as though it were income. Under the TCJA you can reduce the amount that flows through by 20% (1). For example, if you have a home-based business and you make $20,000, only $16,000 of that will flow through to your personal taxes. Because of this and other tax-friendly portions of the law, the National Federation of Independent Business, who initially opposed the House and Senate bills, is in full support of the revised bill and is encouraging both Chambers to pass the bill quickly (2).
• The tax rate for corporations is reduced from 35% to 21%.

There are several provisions which were in either the House or Senate bill that did not make it into the final bill. These include:

• Modification of the exclusion of the gain or sale of a principal residence (Sec 121 of the tax bill):
  • Currently if you live in your home for 2 out of the last 5 years you can exclude the gain up to $250K (single) or $500K (MFJ).
  • Both the House and Senate planned to increase this to 5 out of the last 8 years.
  • The joint bill contains no provision for this, so it will stay at 2 out of 5 years (page 109).
• Qualified tuition reduction for graduate students continues to be excluded from income (page 68).
• Up to $5,250 of employer provided education assistance continues to be excluded from income (page 70).
• The Adoption Assistance Credit is retained (page 112).
• Continues to allow taxpayers to deduct student loan interest and tuition and fees, and the American Opportunity Credit is retained.

It is important to note that all individual provisions expire after 2025. The plan is that the next President and Congress will extend these provisions for all individuals and families. It is a bit of a gamble, but it is the only way, under current rules, to pass the bill with a simple majority.

What you probably want to know is, what will this bill do to your taxes? People much smarter than me in taxation will figure that out, but in the meantime, there are several calculators you can use to estimate your tax burden. Again, this is an estimate, not a guarantee. I used two calculators to run several scenarios:

• To run scenarios under the current tax law: https://www.moneyhelpcenter.com/taxes/calculate/2017-federal-income-tax-calculator/#results
• To run scenarios under the TCJA: https://www.calcxml.com/calculators/trump-tax-reform-calculator?skn=#results

Here is what I found for five scenarios. I ran all with the standard deduction (3):

Scenario 1: Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) with four children; $85,000 in ordinary income.

• Current tax liability: $2,288
• TCJA tax liability: $0
• Savings of $2,288 under TCJA

Scenario 2: MFJ with 2 children; $75,000 in ordinary income; $200 in investment income.

• Current: $3,982
• TCJA: $1,739
• Savings: $2,243

Scenario 3: Single; $75,000 income; $200 investment income.

• Current: $11,889
• TCJA: $9,800
• Savings: $2,089

Scenario 4: Single, $55,000 ordinary income; $20,000 home-business income; $200 investment income.

• Current: $11,889
• TCJA: $8,920
• Savings: $2,969

Scenario 5: MFJ with 5 children, $100,000 ordinary income; $20,000 home-business income; $200 investment income.

• Current: $6,715
• TCJA: $2,119
• Savings: $4,596

As more information is released I will continue to update this article and post updates on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RyanHLawBlog/.

(1)  This provision is eliminated for higher-income individuals and certain service businesses.

(2) https://www.nfib.com/content/press-release/national/small-business-supports-conference-tax-bill/

(3) These calculators get updated as more information becomes available. If you run these same scenarios at a different times you might get slightly different results. If the numbers change dramatically I will update the article. The numbers are correct as on December 17, 2017.

DECEMBER 18, 2017 UPDATE: This bill, and therefore this article, are now irrelevant as the Senate also passed a bill, then a committee was formed to reconcile the two bills. For an analysis of the revised bill, read https://ryanhlaw.com/revised-tax-cuts-jobs-act/.

Important note: I am not a CPA or tax attorney and I don’t play one on TV. My explanations and descriptions of the proposed changes to the tax code are simplified (which is the goal of this blog). Nothing contained here should be construed as tax advice. I also want to note that I am a Conservative, and I am firmly against this bill.

In early November, 2017, the Republican party released their version of tax reform. You can find the full text of the tax code here: https://waysandmeansforms.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bill_text.pdf. Most people agree that the tax code needs some simplification and that some loopholes need to be closed. While there are a few positive aspects of the bill, the bill, as a whole, is a disaster and should not be passed.  Let’s start with the positive aspects of the proposed bill:

• Tax brackets are reduced from seven to four, which could lower taxes for some.
• The standard deduction is doubled, which will make taxes easier for many individuals and families.
• Repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).
• Repeal of the estate tax.
• An increase in the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1,600.
• Corporate tax rate lowered from 35% to 20%.

Now for the negatives:

• Removal of the personal exemption (currently $4,050 per person). You can find this removal on page 33 of the tax bill. The doubling of the standard deduction is supposed to make up for the removal of the personal exemption, which you get for each dependent and taxpayer on a return. In my family, with five children, we get seven personal exemptions. In 2016 the personal exemption was $4,050, which equates to $28,350. We would get this on top of the standard deduction, which was $12,600, for a total of $40,950. Our deduction under the new bill will be $24,000. This bill penalizes anyone with children, and certainly penalizes large families. Even with the increased child tax credit we still come out behind. I thought Republicans were in favor of families.

• Mortgage interest deduction would be capped on homes up to $500,000 (see page 100 of the tax bill). In many areas of the country $500,000 is an average home[i]. This only applies to new mortgages, so if you have a mortgage now and the value of your home is $1,000,000 or less, it won’t affect you. Republicans obviously don’t want you to buy a more expensive home.

• Under current laws, as long as you are using your home as your primary residency, you can move every two years and not pay capital gains taxes on the increase in value on your home. The new tax plan increases that to five years (see page 137). This will be devastating to the starter home market, and challenging for many others. For most individuals that tax will be 15% of the gain. For some reason, Republicans don’t want you to move very often.

• Graduate students often pay for their tuition by doing research and teaching undergraduate courses. In exchange, they are paid a wage (which average $20,000 – $30,000 a year) and receive a tuition waiver (which averages $12,000 – $50,000 a year). Under current law, the wages are taxed, while the tuition waiver is not. Under the proposed changes, both the wages and tuition waiver become taxable income (see page 98 in the tax bill). This will dis-incentivize students from going to graduate school, and raising their tax bill by a large amount, especially for those that go to more expensive schools.[ii] An analysis by Forbes shows that an in-state University of Florida grad student pays about $1,424 a year in taxes currently, but under the new plan they will pay $4,052 a year, which is 17.6% of their income. A Princeton grad student pays $2,849 (8.8% of their income) now, while under the GOP plan they will pay $13,499 (41.9% of their income)[iii]. That is a heavy, and unacceptable, tax burden on those trying to get an education. For an excellent analysis of how this would affect students, click here.  Why do Republicans not want individuals to go to grad school?

• Elimination of state and local tax deduction (see page 105).

• If your employer offers adoption assistance that is not currently reported as income. This bill repeals that and it will now be reported as income. NOTE: This was included in the original bill (see page 142), but has since been removed.

• If your employer offers tuition assistance, it is currently not reported as income. That benefit will be repealed and it will now be reported as income (see page 96-98). Again, this will discourage individuals from going to school.

• If you work at an educational institution you or your children may get reduced or free tuition. Currently this is not reported as income. Under the new bill it will be (see page 96). For example, as an employee benefit my children get free tuition at Utah Valley University. Their tuition would be reported as income.

• The student loan interest deduction will be repealed (see page 96 – Section 221).

• The itemized deduction for medical expenses will be repealed (see page 113).

• The bill adds a “Chained CPI” to the tax code, which essentially means that Social Security income will grow at a slower rate than true inflation[iv].

This tax bill is terrible and should not be passed. However, remember that this bill is not a law yet! I encourage you to contact your elected officials and encourage them to scrap this bill entirely. You can find contact information here:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Call them, e-mail them, post on their social media pages. Let them know you don’t support this bill.

I conclude with two quotes:

“This is a Republican plan that targets people wanting to adopt children, homeowners, small businesses and people with high medical bills.” – Carol Markowitz[v]

“If the goal of the new tax plan is to shift the tax burden from wealthy, older Americans onto young, already-indebted students pursuing their higher education dreams, it’s poised to be a smashing success.” – Ethan Siegel[vi]

END NOTE: If you are looking for a comprehensive review of the GOP tax bill you can find that here: https://www.kitces.com/blog/tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-2018-house-gop-tax-reform-proposal/

[i] In Los Angeles county, for example, 23% of mortgages are over $500,000. In San Francisco that number jumps to 56.6%. http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-na-g-mortgage-interest-deduction-tax-calculator-20171106-htmlstory.html

[ii] https://www.wired.com/story/grad-students-are-freaking-out-about-the-gops-tax-plan-they-should-be/

[iii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/11/07/the-gop-tax-plan-will-destroy-graduate-education/#427787703d2f

[iv] https://newrepublic.com/article/145688/biggest-trojan-horse-republican-tax-plan

[v] http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/11/07/im-conservative-and-hate-republican-tax-plan.html

[vi] https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/11/07/the-gop-tax-plan-will-destroy-graduate-education/#7c929ce63d2f

Credit bureau TransUnion, in response to the Equifax data breach, is now offering all consumers TrueIdentity, which allows you to lock your credit for free. It essentially does the same thing as freezing your credit, but you can lock and unlock it through the TransUnion site, and it is free every time. You can also sign up to get a text every time someone applies for credit in your name.

If you have already frozen your TransUnion account, leave it frozen. Otherwise, head to https://www.transunion.com/product/trueidentity-free-identity-protection and sign up. I think this is a great service being offered to all consumers – I would like to see the other bureaus follow.

Each step you take protects you a little more from being a victim of identity theft.

Also, one quick update from last week’s post and Credit Karma. Sign up for Credit Karma BEFORE you freeze your credit. If you freeze it before you won’t be able to use their site. Read this article for more details: https://help.creditkarma.com/hc/en-us/articles/202041774-I-have-a-security-freeze-on-my-credit-reports-Can-I-still-use-Credit-Karma-

Following the news of the hurricanes, news of the Equifax security breach has been all over the news. Financial data of 143 million Americans has been stolen, and in many cases it means that the victims are at-risk of becoming victims of identity theft for the remainder of their lives. That’s right, you, and if you have them, your children, could be at risk for the rest of your life. The hackers got names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, credit card numbers, and some driver’s license numbers.

The breach ticks me off – this never should have happened. Clearly Equifax has some major vulnerability in their system which they should have known about and protected. A credit bureau should be utilizing the highest level of security at every level. Your information with them should be as secure as a vault. On top of that, to add insult to injury, three of Equifax’s executives (including the CFO) sold nearly $2 million worth of stock after the breach, but before they told the public about it. That’s right – here’s a timeline for you:

• Between mid-May and July, 2017 – breach happens
• July 29, 2017 – the hack was discovered
• Aug 1-2, 2017 – executives sell almost $2 million worth of stock
• Sept 7, 2017 – the public is informed of the breach (thank you, Equifax, for waiting more than a month before letting us know)
• Sept 8, 2017 – Equifax stock drops by double-digits

Equifax cliams that these executives had no knowledge of the hack when they sold their shares, but I don’t buy it. You’re telling me the CFO didn’t know about this? If he didn’t know, then who did? I’m sure that the timing of the sale will be part of any investigation.

The breach has happened, though, and you need to take specific steps to be sure you protect yourself. Let me warn you now, the few hours you spend on this are not going to be the most fun, but it is critical you take care of it now. It will be much, much worse if you wait and are a victim of identity theft.

I’ll try to make it as easy as possible for you with links and instructions.

• First, don’t sign up for the protection that Equifax is offering. It only lasts a year, and, unless you opt-out of it, means you can’t be part of suing Equifax later on. I also don’t trust the company that just had the biggest data breach in history to be able to protect my data. Pass. Due to the severity of the breach, they should offer identity theft protection for life.

• Sign up for Credit Karma (https://www.creditkarma.com/). You will get free credit scores and free monitoring of your credit reports. If anything unusual happens, they will contact you. It’s a free service and you should sign up for all adult members of your family.

• Place a credit freeze on all three of your credit bureau files. A credit freeze is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF. It literally locks your credit bureau files so NO ONE, including you, will be approved for new credit. A thief could have your information and they will apply rapidly for credit, all of which will be denied. They will eventually move on. Depending on the state you live in, there will be a $0-$15 fee to set this up, and you need to do this for each adult member of your family.Here are the links:
  https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
  https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze
  https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

  Because millions of people are setting these up the systems are not all working. I was able to set up Equifax and Experian, but not TransUnion. I will keep trying throughout the next day or so, and if it doesn’t work I will take care of it via mail.If you need to apply for credit later, you can un-freeze your reports for a limited period of time, after which it will re-freeze.

• Place a fraud alert on your accounts. This is simply an extra step that puts an alert on your credit report that you might be a victim of identity theft, and that creditors need to call you before any credit application can be approved. It only lasts 90 days, but you can put the alert on there repeatedly. I already have a note on my calendar 90 days from today to renew the alert. You only need to place the alert with one company then they will place the alert with the other two. I recommend you use TransUnions fraud alert system – I found it to be the easiest one: https://www.transunion.com/fraud-victim-resource/place-fraud-alert

• Sign up for Zander Insurance identity theft insurance. For $145 a year it protects your entire family, including your children. They have a 100% recovery success rate and protect you against all types of ID theft, including tax fraud, medical ID theft, and, of course, financial fraud. If your identity is stolen as a result of the Equifax, or any other breach or identity theft, they will take over and fix everything. It is well worth every penny. You can sign up for that here: https://www.zanderins.com/idtheft2

• Speaking of children, does it make sense to freeze their reports? The credit bureaus don’t want you to be able to do that, but some states have made it mandatory. All three bureaus are falling in line, but none will allow you to do it online. TransUnion will do a search, for free, to see if your children have credit reports. You can find that here: https://www.transunion.com/credit-disputes/child-identity-theft-inquiry-form.

• Utah is taking things one step further – they have set up a Child Identity Protection Program through the Attorney General’s office that registers your children’s Social Security numbers as a number belonging to a minor, which will help protect their data. You can find that program here: https://cip.utah.gov/cip/SessionInit.action. If you live in a different state encourage your attorney general to create a similar program. Because I live in Utah and have this option, along with the Zander protection, I don’t feel that I need to freeze their credit, but if I lived outside of Utah I would absolutely take that step.

• Because credit card numbers were stolen, I recommend calling the toll-free number on the back of each credit card you have and requesting a new number. It’s a pro-active step you can take to prevent unauthorized charges in the future.

Again, I realize this isn’t fun – it’s a lot of work to set these things up, but I wouldn’t delay. Take a couple of hours today and get all of this done. Taking these steps is like building a brick wall between you and identity thieves.

Think about all the financial paperwork you receive each month – either digitally or in the mail. In a typical month you might receive an investment statement, credit card bills, bank statements, and more. Some need to be checked for accuracy while others need to be filed for tax season.

If it is tax season you will get even more financial documents each month. In addition to new ones you are receiving you also have documents that you keep a copy such as previous year tax returns, real estate documents and your will.

While there are countless financial filing “systems” that individuals have created and discuss on their blog, two stand out that were developed by financial authors or planners – David Bach’s File Folder System and the HomeFile Financial Planning Organizer Kit.

David Bach’s File Folder System

Bach’s system consists of 14 hanging folders and approximately 50 file folders. Each hanging folder is labeled with a different category such as:

• Tax Returns
• Retirement Accounts
• Household
• Credit Card DEBT
• Insurance
• Savings and Checking Accounts

As documents are received they are placed in the corresponding folder.

Bach’s system is simple and, beyond the cost of the folders, is free. Bach discusses his system in more details at http://www.oprah.com/money/david-bachs-file-folder-system.

HomeFile Financial Planning Organizer Kit

HomeFile was developed by financial planners J. Michael Martin and Mary E. Martin. It contains 22 laminated cards that are pre-labeled and are similar, though more detailed than, Bach’s system. Some examples include:

• Autos
• Charities
• Credit
• Employment
• Personal
• Real Estate

Each card is labeled with what is filed there, what is not filed there and when you can remove the document. The system includes a quick-find index so you can locate a document easily and a 48-page handbook with instructions and forms.

The system is $29.95 for one kit. You can learn more at http://www.homefileorganizer.com/.

It is recommended that these types of files are kept in a file-proof locking box or safe. It may be advantageous to make it a portable box so it can be taken with you if needed.