Our company began in a high school lunchroom as our founder, Christina Winch, realized her fellow educators needed help understanding their retirement account options. In the nearly 40 years since, Winch Financial has grown exponentially and our commitment to education continues. Today, we offer seminars and classes, post weekly market commentaries and blogs, and recommend books and podcasts all with the understanding that education equals empowerment. We want our clients and their families to understand their accounts and how we manage them, and to feel confident in the choices we make. As the world evolves, we intend to progress with it; we strive to maintain an innovative and effective approach to wealth management. Transcending all that sophistication, though, are the relationships we build with our clients and we know some of the best advice, financial or otherwise, comes from the heart. So, in honor of Grandparent’s Day, we’re sharing a few tips we’ve received from our own grandparents and we want you to know our ears and our hearts are always open to hearing some sound, sensible advice from you and yours. Please enjoy the following advice from our grandparents: From Aaron Bauer: I remember when I was about six my grandfather took me on a walk to a black walnut tree he had noticed on a country road near our home. Along the way he gently recounted lessons from the Bible, including that of Methuselah, who lived longer than any other man, to the age of 969. Learning this was a relief to me because although I knew my grandfather was old, I was pretty sure he wasn’t even near 600, which meant that my primary source of LEGOs should be intact for at least a few hundred years. When we reached the tree, we selected a few nuts and placed them in a plastic bag. Grandpa warned me that dropping them could leave a dark stain on my… | Read More »
Month: September 2020
School in 2020 offers unique challenges and opportunities
Since our inception back in 1981, we at Winch Financial have been passionate proponents of education. We believe that access to a wide variety of excellent educational resources strengthens a community and provides an easier path forward to its members. Several of our staff members, including our founder Christina Winch, began their careers as teachers. School likely will look very different for everyone this year and we send our support and encouragement to all of the teachers, administrators, students and families who, we know, will rise to these historic challenges. We’re here to help in those efforts. If you have questions about using your 529 plan to pay for educational expenses for which you had not originally planned, please call us. In many cases, you can use your college savings funds to pay for private tuition or expenses related to homeschooling. Likewise, if your student has received a refund for college expenses paid for through their 529 plan and you are unsure how to use those funds without incurring a penalty, please check with us. Unless you use that refund for other approved educational expenses you will probably need to reinvest them in the 529 plan. If your college student has decided to take a gap year, you may be wondering about that 529 plan you set up. The good news is, those plans have no expiration date, so you can use the funds to pay tuition and related expenses when your student returns to school. If he or she decides not to return at all, you can always change the beneficiary on the account, or use the funds to pay for vocational school or approved training programs. With so many opportunities for online enrichment, you may even want to use the unused funds for your own continued education. As this global pandemic limits opportunities for travel and entertainment, you might consider using your extra free time to further your… | Read More »