Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

Personal Financial Planning

  • Pricing
  • About
  • Blog
  • Legal & Disclaimer
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Zero Gravity Financial, LLC Copyright 2019 Legal

Retirement & Health Insurance for Freelancers

February 19, 2016 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

Retirement & Health Insurance Freelancers

Is it possible for a freelancer making $60,000 in New York City to save for retirement and have health insurance coverage? The biggest difference between W-2 employees and freelancers is that freelancers don’t have existing HR benefits and therefore do not enroll in health insurance or retirement plans. While W-2 workers have access to established employee benefits and group insurance plans, freelancers do everything themselves: sales, marketing, operations, techonology and bookkeeping. For a freelancer, there is no time leftover to setup retirement accounts, research and signup for insurance, and enroll in other tax advantaged benefits.

Let’s take a look at 2 different scenarios of a freelancer in New York City who made a net profit of $60,000 in 2015:

In the first example, the freelancer did not contribute to a retirement plan or have health insurance coverage. They ended up paying $21,000 in Federal, New York State and City Income Taxes, including a $900 penalty for being uninsured.

In the second example, the freelancer gets NY Silver Plan health insurance coverage for the entire year, and contributes $1,200 to a Traditional IRA. As a result, they paid $3,000 less in taxes, going from owing $21,000 to $18,000. Saving for retirement and having health insurance coverage would normally cost $475/mo. However, because these benefits provide a tax deduction, it lowered the cost to $225/month.

If you are a freelancer, make time in your calendar now to do these 3 things:

  1. Review your budget. What monthly expenses can be reduced or removed by $225, how can you increase your income, or a combination of the two to make up the difference?
  2. Review health insurance plans and sign up for coverage.
  3. Open a Traditional IRA account, and setup monthly transfers of $100 to your new account.
Retirement Planning for Freelancers
Retirement Planning for Freelancers

Filed Under: Employee Benefits, Health Insurance, Saving for Retirement

IATSE NBF Q1 2016 Health Insurance Elections are due before Dec 15, 2015

December 14, 2015 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

IATSENBF

A reminder to make your IATSE NBF Q1 2016 Health Insurance election today. If you are trying to choose between C-2 and C-3 coverage, take a look at the comparison below of In-Network expenses.

TLDR: C-3 wins when you are just comparing In-Network coverage

click on image to enlarge

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 22.23.16

Filed Under: Employee Benefits, Health Insurance

IATSE NBF Oct 2015 Update

October 27, 2015 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

Iatse

 

Highlights from the Oct 2015 letter:

 

  • No CAPP account charge increases for the next 9 months. The new CAPP account charges that went into effect for Q4, Oct-Dec 2015 will not increase in the next 2 quarters through the end of June 2016.
  • Use it or lose it. Don’t lose employer contributions for your health insurance coverage. If your CAPP account is inactive more than 24 months, the balance will be forfeited.
  • Time to get married or lose health insurance coverage. Domestic partner coverage is coming to an end. As of Jan 1 2016, you must be married to receive health insurance benefits.

 

Full letter is here.

Filed Under: Employee Benefits, Health Insurance

How to repay student loan debt

June 5, 2015 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

studentThe CFPB has a great online tool to help figure out how to repay student loan debt. First, make a list of all of your outstanding student loans. Not sure if you have all of your loans? Check these sites for help:

Federal Loans:  Go to Student Loan Data System, select “Financial Aid Review” and click each individual loan to get servicer information.

Private Loans: Check your credit report (Free annual report here).

When you have a list of your student loans, go to CFPB‘s online tool here:

Student Loan Debt Optimizer

The online tool is great at providing options and optimizing student loan payments based on your specific situation.

Filed Under: Financial Planning, Improve Your Credit Score

Money in Your 30’s

May 14, 2015 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

30s Financial Tips

Financial tips for 30-somethings covering tax planning, retirement, budgeting, investments, insurance, credit and savings.

Filed Under: Financial Planning

AMA: I want to be able to throw money at an investment account, and do better than I would in a savings account.

January 31, 2015 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

In today’s Ask Me Anything, there is a question about how to open an investment account and start saving money.

AMA:  I want to be able to throw money at an investment account, and do better than I would in a savings account. I don’t want to pay a bunch of fees. Is this reasonable? How do I choose an option? Do I need to go through a brokerage firm?

I am 22 and graduating in May 2015. I think I understand what I should do to save for retirement, and that I need an emergency fund in a savings account. But I’m not sure what to do with any money I can save beyond that. From reading blogs and articles, it sounds like that’s where you can invest in stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, money markets, etc. I want something that I don’t have to actively manage. Not really sure what to start researching. Thanks for doing what you guys do.

Here are a few options for you to choose from for investment and/or retirement accounts:

  • Easy Solution: Open an account at Vanguard and select investments that suit your risk tolerance and future goals. If you would rather have one fund that is diversified for your retirement in the future, select 2055 Target Fund VFFVX and allocate 100% of your money to it. Another option is to open an account at Charles Schwab with a new service called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios coming in Q1 2015. The Schwab Intelligent Portfolios offer automated trading and rebalancing and will not have advisory fees, commissions, or account service fees.
  • Even Easier Solution: You may prefer opening an account with one of the online advisors listed below. They have a fast, 5 minute account setup that includes your personal goal assessment, risk tolerance survey, tailored asset allocation, and they do all trading and rebalancing.

Betterment
Future Advisor
Wealthfront

Both solutions above provide a low fee solution for you to open an investment/retirement account. I would open a few tabs in a web browser or download their mobile apps and see which one you prefer. You have the right mindset and its great to see you thinking about saving money before you graduate college.

Filed Under: Financial Planning, Investing Your Money

How to Choose a Health Insurance Plan

December 18, 2014 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

Health Insurance Comparison

 

‘Tis the season for health insurance open enrollment. Here is a health insurance comparison infographic that compares 4 different plans and gives 3 examples of medical coverage for each one. This information is based on an individual using Freelancers Union Plans:

Filed Under: Health Insurance

Product Review: College Abacus Online College Cost Comparison

December 1, 2014 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

college abacus steps

Check out this great online college cost comparison- College Abacus. It is free and easy to go through the steps of comparing colleges’ cost. On the home page, you enter a few colleges and then go through the next steps:

There are over 4,000 colleges in College Abacus that allow parents and prospective students to compare the net price. The net price is the final cost of school to you, where scholarships & grants are subtracted from tuition, room & board.

Results

The comparison results above show just how powerful this comparison calculator is to understand college costs, estimate financial aid, and see the final net price for each college. It also provides SAT/ACT scores, loan defaults of graduates, and percentage of students that graduate in 4 years.

Filed Under: Financial Planning

Estate Planning Checklist

July 16, 2014 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

Estate Planning Checklist

 

The purpose of estate planning is to help you get started in making decisions about your life while you are physically and mentally healthy through to the end of your life. Get started today.

Filed Under: Financial Planning

Welcome to the new website!

May 8, 2014 by Zero Gravity Financial, LLC

smalldeskI am very excited to present our new website. You will find interesting and useful information for managing personal finances as well as making a strategy for your future.

We are here to answer your questions. We offer a free meeting to provide objective advice regarding insurance, investment management, or any product or service recommended by other professionals. If you have a life event or need the big picture on your financial goals, drop us a line.

Filed Under: Financial Planning

Categories

  • Employee Benefits
  • Entrepreneur
  • Financial Planning
  • Health Insurance
  • Improve Your Credit Score
  • Investing Your Money
  • Real Estate
  • Save Money
  • Saving for Retirement
  • Tax Tips