After the shock and joy immediately following the baby’s birth then all the other emotions set in as you mentally fast forward through the sudden expenses to be expected in the future...one of the biggest being the cost of education. Now, more than ever, a bachelor’s or a trade degree is essential for a future. As your baby grows and makes its way past Kindergarten graduation, to the awkward middle school years, high school sports...
An increasing number of people are starting to understand that their real risk exposure is not in the costs associated with repairing or replacing their car or home, rather it is in the far more costly liability risk. Yet, most people drastically underestimate their personal liability risks. In addition, the claims associated with personal injuries occurring on ones property can far exceed the repair and replacement claims made as a result of covered perils. The...
No one could have foreseen the convergence of two of the most consequential economic events in our history – the mass migration of the Baby Boom generation into their final life stage and the tectonic shift of a declining global economy. Unhinged stock market volatility, rising health care costs and historically low interest rates on savings have caused millions of pre-retirees to rethink their plans and their vision, especially as they consider the prospect of...
As the saying goes there are two things that are inevitable: death and taxes. And, out of those two sure things, you can only really plan for your taxes. It should be no surprise when tax season surely and steadily rolls around again, yet every year there are plenty of individuals who file for a tax extension (in 2014 there were approximately 12 million Americans who did so). Whether you’re one of the 36.8 percent...
Here’s a thought: retirement doesn’t mean the end. It doesn’t mean an end of self-importance or purpose, it just means a new chapter—a paradigm shift of what life is beyond long days and meetings and bosses. Unless you own your own business, and even then, you are not your business. You’re not solely defined by the question, “What do you do?” But, it doesn’t mean you should stop defining the answer for such an inquiry...
For as long as there has been stock markets, investors have intuitively known that expectations of returns come with commensurate expectations of risk; the higher return one expects the greater the risk one assumes in order to achieve it. But, it wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990’s that a series of research reports revealed just how important an understanding of risk is in constructing investment portfolios that could achieve above-average rates of return while reducing...
Although the stock prices are trading near their all-time highs, it hasn’t exactly been a joy ride for retirees who are counting on their retirement plans for a lifetime of income. The type of unruly market action that we have seen over the last few months always unleashes a flurry of “expert” commentary that seems to be directed at those who are most vulnerable to flash declines. Specifically, the pundits are talking to those investors...
Let’s state up front that you don’t need a credit monitoring service to stay on top of your credit status. For people who are diligent and deliberate in monitoring their own credit, they can do so by accessing a free credit report from each of the credit bureaus once per year. And, for the credit monitoring critics who will tell you that these services do little to actually prevent identity theft or credit fraud, let’s...
Amidst the more obvious lingering effects of a sluggish economy, such as slow job growth, decreasing incomes, low interest rates and shaky consumer confidence, there lurks a more insidious threat which, thus far, has largely been ignored. Inflation or the prospect of its resurgence has somehow remained under the radar; perhaps because the official measure, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), is still below historical averages, or perhaps because the government has done such a good...
You may be aware of some of the more prevalent fraudster activities, such as “phishing” which fraudsters use to trick you out of sensitive information. Now we are learning about a new and even more audacious ploy called “email spoofing” in which the fraudsters not only steal your information, they then send counterfeit emails that mimic your email account to your financial advisor requesting wire transfers. While we haven’t personally seen any incidents of email...
CEOs do it’ athletes do it; in fact, anyone who needs to be able to achieve a certain level of performance in order to achieve a specific goal constantly assesses where they are in relation to where they want to be. This is to ensure that available resources are being utilized optimally at all time. It may seem OK to overshoot the goal, but if resources are being utilized in the wrong way – too...
The quick answer is “it depends.” But, for the 33 percent of retirees who now rely more heavily on their Social Security benefits to sustain their lifestyle, the answer takes on even more significance. Generally, your income from Social Security is not taxable on its own; but when it’s combined with other sources of income for tax reporting purposes, a portion of your Social Security benefits, up to 85 percent, could be includable as taxable...
