Tax planning can (and should) be done long before the official tax season. If you wait until the peak of the season, you will likely become stressed and miss crucial details that could otherwise save yourself or your business money. At Pange Financial Group, we strive to give you the financial freedom that empowers your livelihood, and timely tax planning is just one of the ways in which we can achieve this. In this article, we will break down the importance of tax planning early on, as well as our role in planning.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Plan For Taxes

Here are 3 reasons why it’s better to plan for taxes sooner rather than later.

Minimizing Tax Liability: When we effectively plan for the taxes, we can ensure you and/or your business take full advantage of any expenses or deductions.

Avoiding Penalties: Similarly, when you plan ahead, we can help make certain that you don’t miss any deadlines or fall short on your funds to meet your tax obligations.

Future Planning: With strategic tax planning, we can estimate your future tax liabilities. This will help significantly in your future financial decisions and budgeting. 

The Role of Pangea’s Financial Advisors in Tax Planning

Taxes play a significant role in how your financial plan is carried out. By working with our financial advisors–who serve clients in Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio–it will be much easier to build a customized financial plan that works for you.

We’ll Work With Your Accountant to Create a Custom Tax Plan

Taxes can be highly complex, so we recommend hiring a financial advisor in addition to your tax specialist. This way, we can collaborate closely to understand your finances and plan together.

Retirement Planning With Our Financial Advisors

The earlier you start saving for retirement, the better, and a sound retirement plan comes with its own tax matters. By working with a qualified financial advisor, we can maximize your retirement income and simultaneously minimize your tax burden as it relates to your retirement. 

Better Business Operations

If you own a business, then your company’s financial standing must be taken into account when working on a tax plan and preparing for the future. With efficient tax planning, we can help you reduce your business’s operating costs and boost its profitability.

Investment Management 

Your investment portfolio is essential to building wealth and safeguarding your future when you retire. These investments come with tax advantages, so working with tax professionals and financial advisors can help you build the right investment portfolio.

Turn to Pangea’s Financial Advisors For Efficient Tax Planning

Don’t wait until the official tax season to start tax planning. Instead, we recommend you take your time planning your taxes and work with qualified professionals to make tax season as seamless as possible. Please contact us if you’re ready to empower your livelihood and tackle tax season with ease. 

We are so proud to announce that Pangea Financial Group’s brand new website is officially LIVE! This has been a long process, but we are extremely pleased with how it turned out. With the launch of our new website, the rest of our digital marketing strategy is underway:

Honing in on Our Brand

We worked with INFINI Marketing, a Houston-based agency committed to expanding businesses so that business owners can impact the world. We began our partnership with a branding meeting in which we discussed our company, our purpose, and our vision. They were able to put into words the message we wanted to convey: everything we do, we do because we want to empower your livelihood through exceptional employee benefits planning and financial planning.

Houston Website Design and Content Writing For Our Employee Benefits & Financial Planning Company

The branding conversation would set the tone for our entire website design. We wanted to look professional and reliable, and to do so, we needed to find a way to simplify the navigation of our website and provide plenty of information for our prospective clients. 

Together with INFINI, we discussed how we could reorganize our website to be more user-intuitive and informative. Their web design and content teams did a wonderful job executing this for us.

SEO Strategy

Given that we are headquartered in both Texas and Florida, we wanted to dedicate some of our marketing efforts to building up our online presence in both states. To do this, we signed up for SEO to be handled entirely by INFINI. 

Our SEO strategy included using SEO-friendly terminology throughout our website and, going forward, will include branded blogs written and published by their team twice a month.

Local SEO

Implementing a local SEO strategy will help us get in front of the right leads organically. INFINI set us up with INFINI x Birdeye, a state-of-the-art tool for monitoring our SEO that is catered to localized areas we want to target.

Reputation Management

As a financial firm, we place a lot of emphasis on our online reputation, so it’s important for us to have access to a tool that allows us to monitor it. INFINI x Birdeye for reputation management is robust enough to allow us to showcase the best that our brand has to offer online.

Google Ads

Last but certainly not least, we wanted to invest in Google Ads to really hone in on our target audience and make our company known for companies seeking assistance with employee benefits packages and for individuals who would like our help with their financial planning needs.

Helping Empower More Livelihoods Than Ever

We look forward to our fruitful partnership with INFINI Marketing and watching how our digital marketing strategy performs so that we can empower more peoples’ livelihoods. Our goal at Pangea is simple: we strive to give you the financial freedom that empowers you to live your most enjoyable life. We look forward to working with you!

Money can be a point of contention for many couples. Between big expenses like taking vacations, buying a house, getting married or having children, relationships can be filled with tricky financial situations. Even trickier is if you and your partner have different views on financial matters—one of you is a spender and one is a saver. Here are some tips on navigating money management as a team.

Have Regular Check-Ins

The first step to managing your finances within a relationship is to talk about money on a regular basis. For some people, this may be easy. But money is a source of stress and anxiety for many people, so you might have to be a little more mindful about when and how you talk about it.

If talking about finances doesn’t come naturally to your relationship, try scheduling a time to talk on a regular basis. Once per month before most of your bills are due is a good interval to start with. If it’s a stressful conversation for one or both of you, try to set yourself up for success with your plans around the talk. Plan to have a fun date night immediately after your conversation as a reward. Or simply make sure you’re in a comfortable place when you talk to each other—be sure the room around you is clean and cozy, so you don’t add to your stress.

Agree on a Budget for Shared Expenses

If you’re at a point in your relationship where you’re ready to open a shared bank account, it’s important to agree on a budget for shared expenses. Especially if one of you tends to spend more money than the other, you should establish guidelines for you both to follow when using the shared bank account. You both have access to the account, so without guidelines, one partner may use the money sparingly while the other may spend the money liberally.

Think about the necessary living expenses you’ll use the shared account for like:

• Rent or mortgage payments
• Utilities
• Car payments, maintenance, and gas
• Internet and cable
• Groceries
• Phone bill
• Pet-related expenses
• House maintenance and supplies
• Toiletries
• Insurance
• Subscription services

Once you have a list of agreed-upon expenses, you can then develop a process for covering things that fall outside of those categories. For big purchases, it might mean having a discussion before deciding to buy something with money in the shared account. For smaller purchases, it might just be your partner giving you a heads up when they’re about to buy something. Regardless of how you choose to spend the money, guidelines and open communication are key to avoiding disagreements and tricky situations around your finances.

Keep Separate Accounts for Personal Expenses

If you do choose to open a shared bank account, it may be a good idea to keep separate accounts for your personal and incidental expenses. Especially if one of you tends to spend more money than the other, having control over separate accounts gives each of you the freedom to spend or save how much you’d like without worrying about what your partner thinks.

Having separate accounts can be beneficial for buying personal items, gifts for your partner or other things that you know your partner won’t use. For instance, you might want to save a little bit of money to spend on a gaming system, but your partner prefers to save money and invest it instead. With personal accounts, you can both manage a portion of your money however you’d like.

Use a Financial Professional as a Neutral Party

It’s a good idea to have a professional opinion when it comes to managing your money. For couples with different financial habits, it’s even more important to have a financial professional there as a neutral party. This person can help both of you manage your shared finances, figure out how to save and invest and plan for big life expenses together.

If you need help talking with your partner about money, you’re planning to open a joint bank account or you’re starting to think about a large expense, reach out to a financial professional for help.

 *This content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information. The information provided is not written or intended as tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for purposes of avoiding any Federal tax penalties. Individuals are encouraged to seek advice from their own tax or legal counsel. Individuals involved in the estate planning process should work with an estate planning team, including their own personal legal or tax counsel. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a representation by us of a specific investment or the purchase or sale of any securities. Asset allocation and diversification do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. This material was developed and produced by Advisor Websites to provide information on a topic that may be of interest. Copyright 2022 Advisor Websites.

Many older Americans rely on Medicare for their health care needs. But it’s not always easy to figure out what’s covered and how much it will cost. Medicare benefits change from year to year, and 2021 is bringing an increase in premiums for participants. The good news is, there are other ways to save on Medicare costs. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s changes in Medicare.

Changes to Part A

Medicare Part A generally covers hospital and nursing homestays. While most participants don’t pay a premium for this coverage, those who do will see an increase in their premiums. Here are the changes to be aware of:

• If you worked for 30 to 39 quarters during your life, your premium will increase $7 for a total of $259 per month
• If you worked fewer than 30 quarters during your life, your premium will increase $13 for a total of $471 per month

Deductibles for Medicare Part A will also increase this year. For each benefit period—60 days from your first day at the hospital or nursing home—the deductible will be $1,484, which is $76 more than in 2020. If your stay lasts longer than 60 days, you’ll be responsible for paying coinsurance—a percentage of your health care costs. For Medicare participants, this is a daily fee that will vary depending on whether you’re staying in a hospital or nursing home. You can find more information about specific coinsurance costs on the Medicare website.

Changes to Part B

If you have Medicare Part B, you’ll receive coverage for physician fees, outpatient services, medical equipment, as well as certain medications and home health services. Premiums are based on income, so everyone will pay a different amount for this coverage. Across the board, premiums rose in 2021 for Medicare Part B, but the increase is less than it was in 2020. Deductibles for Part B coverage also increased to $203 per year—$5 more than in 2020.

Changes to Parts C and D

Medicare Part C, also known as Medicare Advantage, is a combination of Parts A and B, while Medicare Part D covers prescription drugs. Both of these plans are optional and offered through private insurance companies, so plan costs vary by provider. Premium costs are adjusted based on your income. You can compare plans on the Medicare website.

Changes Due to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we think about health care in 2020. To meet the needs of Medicare participants, some changes were made to coverage last year that are still in place. Medicare coverage now includes:

• No-cost testing for COVID-19
• All medically-necessary hospitalizations related to COVID-19
• The COVID-19 vaccine (if you have coverage under Medicare Part D)
• An expansion of telehealth services
• Waiver of the 3-day hospital stay requirement to enter a nursing home

Access to health care and the costs associated with it are always changing. And with a new administration in office, we can expect more changes to Medicare coverage and costs. If you’re concerned about how Medicare coverage affects your finances or need more information on premium costs and coverages, talk to your financial professional.

*This content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information. The information provided is not written or intended as tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for purposes of avoiding any Federal tax penalties. Individuals are encouraged to seek advice from their own tax or legal counsel. Individuals involved in the estate planning process should work with an estate planning team, including their own personal legal or tax counsel. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a representation by us of a specific investment or the purchase or sale of any securities. Asset allocation and diversification do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. This material was developed and produced by Advisor Websites to provide information on a topic that may be of interest. Copyright 2022 Advisor Websites.