Have you ever wondered how to merge savings into your budget? What if there was a way to save efficiently without putting you in a panic about having enough money on hand to pay monthly expenses or for discretionary spending? Think about your spending habits for a second. Most of the time, we don’t even think twice about swiping a card or dishing out cash for smaller purchases and monthly expenses. If you live in an apartment, you pay rent. You might also have a car payment, utilities, or a

In October 2019 Echo Wealth Management moved to a new office suite at ATRIA Corporate Center in Plymouth, MN. Our Open House Celebration that was held on October 25th featured Fresh Sushi and Thai Food from Lucky Street, Virtual Reality Car Racing from Aventures with VR and the wonderful company and conversation of our clients, colleagues, family, and friends.

Independence Day is one of America’s favorite summer holidays. What is one of your favorite traditions on Independence Day: fireworks, hotdogs, parades? In this blog, I want to talk about another kind of Independence Day, your Financial Independence Day.

If money and time were not an issue, what kind of activities would you be doing over the next twelve months? The day when work becomes optional—when you can choose to stop working and start doing those activities that you enjoy while

Nobody likes thinking about the end, or picking a guardian to raise your children, or having to pick which of your children would best at managing your money in your absence. But the thing about estate planning is, if you don’t do it, you lose your say in how things are handled when you pass away or if you are incapacitated and unable to speak on your own behalf. Without a will, your estate may end up in court, divvied up based on a judge’s decision—not your own.

When you're investing in the future, you may come up against the choice of Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA. Both are smart retirement investment options, but for different reasons. Recently, Echo Huang sat down with Marriage, Kids, and Money podcast to discuss which might be the better fit for you. 

Echo Huang recently sat down with the Brave by Design podcast to share her personal story and discuss financial planning for retirement. 

Echo Huang recently sat down with DPL's Tim Rembowski for their podcast series: Advisor Relations Podcast. 

Echo recently sat down with Lori Anne Rising and "Uncle Mark" Olmstead on the Rise 'n Shine podcast to discuss owning your future and rebuilding your wealth after COVID-19. 

Financial professionals will tell you that every retirement plan is different when it comes to retirement planning because every retiree is unique. However, that isn’t exactly true since many married couples create and depend on just one retirement plan for both of them. Though this might seem like common sense at first glance, couples should be sure that their shared retirement plan represents their very different retirement needs and realities.

Unfortunately, even in these modern times

Once upon a time, if you inherited a Roth IRA, you would be able to stretch the inherited Roth IRA withdrawals out over your lifetime, letting the money grow over the years. Now though, the rules have changed. With the SECURE Act, which was signed into law in December of 2019, planning for an inherited IRA requires a little bit more effort and intention.

This is because the act imposes a new rule on inherited IRAs for any account whose owner died after December 31, 2019, requiring that

A traditional IRA is a fantastic retirement savings tool because you can minimize your current tax burden and pay taxes on your contributions later. There are some instances, though, when you may want to take care of what you owe the government now so that you can avoid subsequent taxes down the road. To accomplish this goal, you’ll want to convert some of your traditional IRA balance to a Roth as Roth IRA distributions in the future including all the gains will be income tax-free.

When might

Last month, one of my new clients and I called the administrator of her old 401(k) plan to rollover the balance to her IRA account at TD Ameritrade.  To her surprise, she had $36,000 in after-tax contributions (not the same as a Roth) with earnings of $70,000 from the after-tax contributions she made many years ago in addition to $700,000 pre-tax contributions and earnings.  She was able to request two checks - one for the $36,000 to a new Roth IRA account (a Roth conversion that is

Sometimes, the unknown can be a bit scary. Previously, I’ve shared several financial tips that will allow you to plan for your financial independence and to own your future. Today, I want to ask you to give me a few somber minutes of your time.

I am asking you to turn off your emotions and turn on your intellect only. This way, you will be protected from your emotions entering in and shutting you off from discussing a tough but important topic: Long-Term Care. Come out from under the blanket

Have you begun to save for retirement? It is never too early to start planning for your retirement, and in a perfect world, we would all start saving for retirement at age 25 and life would never throw any curveballs to send us off track. Of course, this is far from a perfect world, and that's why so many Americans find themselves playing catch-up and carrying anxiety about never achieving their retirement savings goals.

Today, I want to offer you some powerful techniques you can use to

It takes years to accumulate and grow your nest egg with disciplined saving and investing to an amount where you finally feel comfortable hanging up your spurs and starting the next phase of your life, Retirement.  Now you are about to start ticking off the items on your bucket list; perhaps traveling with family to amazing destinations, pursuing your passion in music or the arts or volunteering with some non-profit organizations. Your portfolio, on the other hand, must continue to work

If you’ve been thinking about retirement planning, you’ve undoubtedly considered how much investment risk is appropriate for your financial goals – and your comfort level.

Every investment has risks.  The usual pattern is that when the stock market goes up, the bond market goes down (usually due to the Federal Reserve Bank increasing interest rates), but market cycles can be very strange indeed.  In 2018, both the stock and bond markets lost money.  This is precisely why

On paper, retiring at the same time as your spouse sounds like a no-brainer! If you both retire together, then you would be free to travel the world, take up some new hobbies, and spend more quality time together as a couple. Chances are that you’ve not been able to enjoy these luxuries much over the past 20, 30, or more years. This is because, by the time we are nearing retirement, we have only recently said our goodbyes to our youngest child, and spouses have seen little of each other as

One of the biggest decisions many of our clients face is what to do with their 401(k) plan when they leave their employer. There is no clear cut answer as to whether you should roll over your 401(k) plan to an IRA, another employer’s 401(k) plan, or simply to leave it where it is, because it involves several different factors, including long term investment costs and the availability of investment options within the plans. Both can impact the long term performance of your retirement plan

As human beings, we are hard-wired to be reluctant to change. We prefer the familiar, the predictable, the strategy that gives us the long view. Sometimes, though, we begin to feel the overwhelming urge to make a career change. Many people ignore the nagging feeling because it’s easier to maintain the status quo than embark on a transition that may be overwhelming or stressful. For those who choose to pursue a career pivot bravely, there can be opportunity and fulfillment waiting on the other

In the year 2017, the US Bonds’ return was just 3.54%, much lower than stock market returns. Globally, stock market returns were great in 2017: US Stocks (measured by S&P 500 Index) 21.83%, International Stocks (measured by MSCI EAFE Index) 25.03% and Emerging Market Stocks (measured by MSCI Emerging Markets) 37.28%. Bonds, they say, are a pretty boring asset class. The stock market is far more exciting. That’s where the biggest returns are found and it’s also the segment that the financial