More Good Economic News On Friday

New jobs surged in October and wages rose by the largest year-over-year amount in nearly a decade.

Here's a roundup up of the financial news you need to know.

Real disposable income— personal income after taxes, adjusted for inflation and divided by the number of people in U.S.— in the 12 months ended October 31, grew 2.8%. In the five-year economic boom preceding The Great Recession, real personal disposable personal income grew by 2.2%. In the last 12 months, RDPI grew 30% faster than in the last expansion.

Car sales shifted into high gear in October. After car sales in September spiked to 17.9 million, the expectation was that car sales would cool in October. Nope! They went to 18 million.

September housing starts came in at 1.2 million, well below the Council of Economic Advisers February 2018 projection in the "Economic Report of the President."

The Standard & Poor's 500 closed on Friday at 2723.06, just 7% off its all-time high, and the double-digit market correction of October halted in the last week. The correction could resume; no one can predict the next market turn, and past performance does not guarantee your future results. Meanwhile, the economy remains strong and shows no sign of falling into a recession and turning the October's correction into a bear market drop.

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This article was written by a veteran financial journalist based on data compiled and analyzed by independent economist, Fritz Meyer. While these are sources we believe to be reliable, the information is not intended to be used as financial or tax advice without consulting a professional about your personal situation. Tax laws are subject to change. Indices are unmanaged and not available for direct investment. Investments with higher return potential carry greater risk for loss. Past performance is not an indicator of your future results.

Sidestepping New Limits On Charitable Donations

If you think you're no longer allowed to deduct items like charitable donations on your income tax return, think again.

The new tax law doubled the standard deduction, slashing the number of Americans eligible to itemize deductions from 37 million to 16 million.

However, if you are among those who will lose your ability to deduct charitable donations, there is a simple strategy for managing the new limits on charitable giving, and it enables you to continue doing good while doing well for yourself by reducing your tax bill.

The strategy is simple: bunch a few years of donations into a single tax year instead of making them annually.

Rather than report charitable donations on your tax return every year, you bunch two or more years of contributions into a single tax year— enough to boost the charitable total above that year's standard deduction.

Say you're married and you give $10,000 in Year 1, $6,000 in Year 2 and $10,000 in Year 3. Your $26,000 total surmounts the $24,000 eligibility. If you deduct the total donations of $26,000 in Year 3, you can take the standard deduction in Years 1 and 2 and itemize in Year 3.

Instead of giving in dribs and drabs, you will need to plan your giving strategy, but this will allow you to give as much as you used to before the limits without losing the tax benefits.

And if you can plan to make the larger donations in a year when you expect higher income, bunching charitable donations can be even more effective in lowering your tax bill.

We'll be speaking with clients about this in the months ahead because this tactic does take some planning in advance.

If you have any questions about your personal situation, please do not hesitate to give us a call.