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Fiscal Cliff Commentary

At White House Financial we pride ourselves on being unique and different and hence we were going to attempt to NOT have any commentary on the “Fiscal Cliff”, however, prudence won out and we just wanted to make sure all of our friends and clients knew where we stand on this subject.   So here it is!!   Hot off the presses! For those of you who have been traveling far away from any type of “civilization” t he “F i sc al C li ff ” is a p a c k a g e of s i g ni f i c a n t tax h i k es a n d s p e n d i ng c uts sc h e d u l e d t o t a k e e ff e c t i n 2 0 1 3 . P r i or l e g i s l a t i v e c o m pr o m i s es o v er U . S . f i sc al p o l i c y h a v e s et t he s ta g e f or a u t o m at i c s p e n di n g c uts a n d tax h i k e s .   T he f i sc al c li f f re f e r s t o : 1.)     S un -s et t i n g o f B u sh- e r a t ax rat e s , 2.)    E x p i r a t i o n o f O b a m
  We have been advising many of our clients who are teachers in the Michigan Educational system on the proposed changes to their Retiree Healthcare and Pension options. The state wants to put more of the cost of retiree healthcare and pensions on the teachers themselves due to their fiscal issues. The most important advice we have for our clients is that they have to crunch the numbers or have someone crunch the numbers for them to see what the impact of their decision is on their total financial plan. Teachers should also consider how long they have worked as a teacher and how long they plan to continue working in the school system. Finally, consideration should be given to whether the teacher is comfortable with 100% of their healthcare and retirement future completely in the hands of the state of Michigan. The first change is in the retiree healthcare options where they have the option of selecting a Premium Subsidy or Personal Healthcare Fund. With the Premium Subsidy the empl
 October 22, 2012 Topic:  The ALMOST perfect client review meeting As a financial advisor and business owner my team and I are continuously trying to perfect our craft.  There are so many things we do for our clients, however, if I had to boil down everything we do to the two most important I would say they are: continuously and consistently communicating with our clients and meeting with our clients face- to- face to review their needs and goals and the strategy we are implementing to help them achieve them.  We are continuously honing our systems to deliver that perfect client review meeting, which today, I believe, we almost had! We met with long- time husband and wife clients today whom we will call, for the sake of confidentiality, Joe and Jane Doe.  I will get around to talking about the meeting itself, however, I should provide some background on this client relationship first, to set the stage.  We have worked with the Doe’s for around nine years.  Initially, we

Target Markets and Good Business Books for Entrepreneurs

I have decided to mainly use our blog as a journal to record my lessons learned and daily struggles, activities and successes as an entrepreneur trying to manage raising a happy family and building a world class business!   This weekend I spent a lot of time working on creating our Target Market strategy ( I also found time to get a buck deer hunting, go to our high school football game and watch the Tigers rock the Yankees with my wife).   I wholeheartedly believe that to be successful in business you need to be focused on some target market or niche and be the best or almost the best at serving that niche.   For nine years we excelled in working the niche of “Helping people going through a life changing event such as a physical injury, death of a loved one, divorce, etc.”    Due to various market circumstances and fatigue we have found it necessary to refocus and find another target market.   Therefore, I have spend a lot of time dissecting, sorting and analyzing our current cli