Taking Charge of Your Financial Life April 29, 2019 Delegating responsibilities to others may lead to problems down the road. When you are putting together a household, it isn’t unusual to delegate responsibilities. One spouse or partner may take on the laundry, while another takes on the shopping. You might also decide which one of you vacuums and which one of you dusts. This [...]
The A, B, C, & D of Medicare April 8, 2019 Breaking down the basics & what each part covers. Whether your 65th birthday is on the horizon or decades away, you should understand the parts of Medicare – what they cover and where they come from. Parts A & B: Original Medicare. There are two components. Part A is hospital insurance. It provides coverage for [...]
Certain Uncertainties in Retirement April 8, 2019 Two financial unknowns may erode our degree of confidence. The financial uncertainties we face in retirement may risk reducing our sense of confidence, potentially undermining our outlook during those years. Indeed, according to the 2018 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute, only 17% of pre-retirees said they are “very confident” about having [...]
Strategic vs. Tactical Investing March 18, 2019 How do these investment approaches differ? Ever heard the term “strategic investing”? How about “tactical investing”? At a glance, you might assume that both these phrases describe the same investment approach. While both approaches involve the periodic adjustment of a portfolio and holding portfolio assets in varied investment classes, they differ in one key respect. [...]
Bad Money Habits to Break March 8, 2019 Behaviors worth changing. Do bad money habits constrain your financial progress? Many people fall into the same financial behavior patterns, year after year. If you sometimes succumb to these financial tendencies, now is as good a time as any to alter your behavior. #1: Lending money to family & friends. You may know someone who [...]
Value vs. Growth Investing March 7, 2019 There are those who favor value and those who favor growth. You might be initially confused by these terms or even suspect they aren’t that different in terms of what each model offers you as an investor, but they are very distinct approaches, and it’s good to understand these two schools of thought as you [...]
Cash Flow Management October 4, 2018 An underappreciated fundamental in financial planning. You’ve probably heard the saying that “cash is king,” and that truth applies whether you own a business or not. Most discussions of business and personal “financial planning” involve tomorrow’s goals, but those goals may not be realized without attention to cash flow, today. Management of available cash flow [...]
Filling Out the FAFSA October 4, 2018 There is really no reason to wait. October is here – the ideal time for college students to apply for financial aid. October 1, in fact, marks the first day a current or future college student can submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, for the 2019-20 academic year. Since some states [...]
Getting Your Personal Finances in Shape for 2019 October 4, 2018 Fall is a good time to assess where you stand and where you could be. You need not wait for 2019 to plan improvements to your finances. You can begin now. The last few months of 2018 give you a prime time to examine critical areas of your budget, your credit, and your investments. You [...]
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Minimizing Probate When Setting Up Your Estate October 4, 2018 What can you do to lessen its impact for your heirs? Probate subtly reduces the value of many estates. It can take more than a year in some cases, and attorney’s fees, appraiser’s fees, and court costs may eat up as much as 5% of a decedent’s assets. Probating a “routine” estate valued at $400,000 [...]
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