With the world battling COVID-19 and the stock markets in turmoil, many are wondering how to handle their investments and what they should do with their retirement portfolios. Luckily, Katherine Vessenes, JD, CFP®, RFC, and Josh Lantz, CRPC®, are here to guide you through this tumultuous time.

About Katherine Vessenes, JD, CFP®, RFC:

Katherine Vessenes works with over 300 physicians and dentists from Hawaii to Cape Cod. Her firm uses a team of experts to provide comprehensive financial planning to help doctors build their wealth and protect their wealth while reducing taxes now and in the future. Katherine is a longtime advocate for ethics in the financial services industry; and has written three books on the subject of investment strategies. She has received many honors and awards including: numerous tributes from Medical Economics as a top advisor for doctors, multiple 5-Star Advisor Awards, honored as a Top Woman in Finance, in addition to being selected to be on the CFP® Board of Ethics. Katherine can be reached at: Katherine@mdfinancialadvisors.com or 952-388-6317. Her website: www.mdfinancialadvisors.com.

About Josh Lantz, CRPC®:

Josh Lantz is a financial advisor at MD Financial a firm who helps physicians and dentists all across the country build and keep more of their wealth. Given their unique clientele, Josh has helped hundreds of doctors get out of debts, plan for their futures, and build and keep more of their hard earned wealth.

What you can do now to protect your financial future

Should I adjust my long term retirement accounts ?  No, stay the course.  Markets recover within a 3-4 year period and the risk of going in and out is greater than riding down the market and the missing the recovery.  

Dollar cost averaging strategies are typically done on a monthly basis and every month you go in with the same amount which takes out the risk of “timing the market.”  Anticipate that markets will be especially choppy over next few months until we learn more about how the corona virus will impact the US, thus go slow into investing if you have cash that you want to put in the market. When markets are down you can buy more with your money than any other time so now may be the right time to invest.  You will benefit when the market goes up as (1) you have more shares and (2) all those shares will increase in value. 

Consumer are still spending money, just differently.  People are purchasing on-line and opting for goods that can be delivered. 

Rebalancing - it may be a good time to “rebalance” which is altering your portfolio of stocks/bonds to be more conservative in unstable markets. 

Back Door Roth IRA - now is the time to do it!  The market is “on sale” and prices are low.  Put as much in the “Tax free” bucket now as the value is low so you are taxed on that current value but when market returns you will be making signifiacant tax free gains.  Also recall the taxes will not be due until April 2021 so you have time to prepare

Accelerate IRA contributions as you will be “buying more” into your 401k  - speaks to the low market prices

Accelerate the funding of your healthcare savings account (HSA). 

Refinance your mortgage.  Interest rates are low as we are seeing historical lows for 30 year fixed rates.  You could refinance and a lower rate which would give you a lower monthly payment.  We recommend that you then take the money saved and use this to invest.  It may be tempting to try for 15 or 20 year term but this is best when nearing retirement.  If you are young and/or in the first 10 years of your career keep it at that 30 year mortgage term to avoid the monthly payments from getting too big!  

Reach out with questions as MD Financial welcomes questions from all listeners.  If you work with MD Financial already they are ready to provide you with status reports if you have questions.  

Additional resources

Live Webinar Saturday, March 21, 8:30 am CT / 9:30 am ET / 6:30 am PT

 for

 The Doctor’s Guide to

Navigating the Stock Market and the Coronavirus

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYof-urrzsruGgiit0aNRdnTs7AeXACww