It wasn’t long ago that financial planning was thought of as a discipline that only applied to the very wealthy. Most people didn’t feel the need to plan, and, frankly, most financial advisors felt the same way. If you consider the fact that, just a few decades ago, the average life expectancy was just 70 years, few people were concerned with making their retirement income last a lifetime. And, back then, the majority of retirees...
Social Security was never intended to be an income source that could support you in retirement. Rather, its sole purpose was to provide a safety net for people who were unable to accumulate sufficient retirement savings. For more than seven decades, the majority of Americans never gave much thought to their Social Security benefits – it was nothing more than a box they checked when it was time to collect. Today, an increasing number of...
Parents with substantial investments and home equity generally find it harder to get financial aid for their college-bound children. But if you understand how assets are assessed on both the FAFSA and CSS Financial Aid PROFILE, you can improve your chances for getting the best financial aid package possible. Do you know how your investments might reduce their chances for financial aid? And what about the role that a family’s home equity may play in...
It has been argued that the best way to invest in the stock market is with a lump sum of capital that can be properly diversified across several asset classes. But, for many people with a desire to achieve long term growth, that is not possible because they’ve yet to accumulate a lump sum of capital. However, they may have the capacity to commit a portion of their monthly savings to growth investments. While they...
