The Gift of Investing Well

VISION: For God's glory, we strive to engage, educate, and equip our clients - and their families - with encouragement and wisdom to invest well, creating a ripple effect that blesses generations to come.

Since 2007, our mantra at Five Talents Wealth Management has been: "Investing well the time, talents, and treasures by which we have been blessed."  In 2021, we brought this principle to life through meaningful programs, creating educational opportunities that guide and equip individuals to understand and practice what it truly means to Invest Well.

• Adventures in Investing Well will be a children's book series that introduces foundational investing principles through engaging stories and lessons, each focused on one key idea.
• A Journey to Investing Well is a program for high school seniors, delivering monthly letters that engage, encourage, and equip students to learn foundational financial principles and take simple, practical next steps.
• The Quest to Investing Well is a series of courses designed to help individuals GROW by laying a strong financial foundation, building essential investing knowledge, identifying meaningful options to pursue, and responsibly managing and sharing wealth with others.

• Who is Susan?
  • I am a financial advisor, CFP Professional, and business owner.  I help manage people's retirement and non-retirement accounts offering a personal financial plan to clients with risk management solutions through FTWM.
    
• What does fee-based mean?
  • Fee-based is where advisory fees AND commissions can be assessed.  Advisory Fees are often on managed investment accounts and/or planning/consulting needs.  Commissions are often on some investment accounts and/or risk management solutions.
• What is the difference between Traditional IRA or Roth IRA?
  • A Traditional IRA is an individual retirement account that traditionally takes pre-tax contributions.  It grows tax-deferred where taxes will be assessed upon a distribution normally in retirement years.  A Roth IRA is an indiviudal retirement account that has after-tax contributions through regular contributions or Roth conversion dollars.  It grows tax-free.
• Should I do a Traditional IRA or a Roth IRA?
  • It depends - one can help with your current tax liability now and the other one has taxes paid on the contributions now but grows tax-free.
• What is Per Stirpes?
  • When naming a beneficiary on your account, the default option is "per capita".  This is where the percentage of a predeceased beneficiary is reallocated to the other named beneficiaries.  If "Per Stirpes" is marked, the percentage for the deceased named beneficiary will continue to their kids - continues the lineage line.
• How much should be in my emergency fund?
  • A good rule of thumb is 3 months of known monthly expenses when there are 2 incomes in different fields and at different companies.  For a 1 income household, 6 months of known monthly expenses is best.  Additionally, having this in a high yield savings account is best.