Financial Planning

For 2023, the Internal Revenue Service has increased the allowable maximum contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs). For HSAs, the new limit is $3,850 for single-individual plans and $7,750 for family plans. For FSAs, the new limit is $3,050 for healthcare plans, while the limit for dependent care plans remains unchanged at $5,000 per household. In addition to the new, higher limits for contributions, there are some points to consider for those using or considering the use of either an HSA or an FSA. Let’s take a look.

At Griffin Black, we spend a lot of time thinking about our clients’ accounts. After all, our clients expect us to guide their investment strategies in a way that enables them to build wealth. But the most important conversations we have with our clients often center on matters that don’t boil down to dollars and cents. In fact, we’ve written previously about the importance of integrating your financial planning with the core priorities in your life: your “why,” in Simon Sinek’s terms.

It’s an annual ritual in many American households: as the weather gradually begins to warm and the trees begin to bud, we open all the closets and dresser drawers, pulling out clothes and other items and sorting them into three piles—“keep,” “throw,” and “sell or give away.” It makes sense. Spring cleaning is one way that we make a periodic assessment, not just of our wardrobes, but also in our lives. It helps us get rid of what we don’t need so we can focus on what is most important. For many, it’s an emotional decluttering as much as a material one.

What is a parent’s role in raising smart, confident, and successful children? What matters? What doesn’t? Though author Margot Bisnow was the mother of two happy and driven entrepreneurial sons, these are questions she once never thought to ask. But then she interviewed 70 successful entrepreneurs – and their Moms – and found that many parents’ approach to ‘helping’ their children is counterproductive.

Over the past fifteen years I’ve had the pleasure of working with many smart and capable professional women. I’ve spoken with even more about their finances. Here are the biggest mistakes I’ve seen these smart women make with their money.

The past two years have subjected us all to unprecedented levels of stress and strain, both financial and otherwise. Over half of the respondents to a recent online survey of nearly 3,000 adults by NextAdvisor felt somewhat-to-very anxious about their finances. Curiously, these responses were given in spite of recent strong stock market performance and in the midst of one of the most robust hiring environments of the past decade.