Recently a prospective client sent an e-mail with some questions he wanted answered before engaging a financial adviser. I thought others might share these same questions, maybe about me or even other advisers they have. Here, with permission and a few edits, is a copy of our correspondence. Q: I wanted to learn more…
Eating my third breakfast of the day at I-don’t-know-what-o’clock, I had a frightening realization: Is this pandemic quarantine what my retirement will be like? Clearly, I’m not the only one thinking about it. From memes all over Facebook to this article by Alessandra Malito in MarketWatch (Is quarantine like early retirement? These people think…
Many people are looking at a drop or loss of income due to the coronavirus shutting down 25% of the economy. I’ve been reading about hardships for everyone from optometrists to restaurant workers to minor league baseball players. If your business shuts down, there is no income whether you are butcher, baker, or candlestick maker.…
After the usual partisan haggling, Washington has presented citizens with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, cleverly known as CARES.* What does it mean for you? Here, as usual, are the very broad strokes of the Act that affect most people, along with my snarky comments. For more technical information, please read this…
If this pandemic has taught us anything it is that everyone has questions, problems, goals, victories, losses, fears, gains, excitement, despair, greed, generosity, and insecurity about money. You don’t have to be poor to worry about money or rich to deserve financial help. That’s right, everyone can use a financial adviser, and you don’t…
In case you are wondering what goes through the mind of financial advisers during brutal stock market downturns, here is a peek behind the curtain. Obviously, just me, I can’t speak for all my adviser friends. Feeling #1: Discouraged. People in the money business invest in the same stock and bond markets as their…
Over the past 15 months, I have been in a LOT of family therapy. And the one thing I have learned is that when a person is feeling strong emotions (fear, anger, insecurity), the rational part of their brain (the pre-frontal cortex) literally is not working. It physically gets no energy and just shuts off.…
So, you’ve seen all the newsletters advising you not to panic and sell as the stock market loses 20% in a week. You may even hear investment folks encouraging you to buy stocks if you have any cash. But, as you watch your accounts drop each day, you can’t help feeling like buying more and…
The first quarter rite of passage for financial advisers seems to be attending economic forecasts. Yes, it is absolutely as fun as it sounds. Zzzzzz. I try to avoid these meetings because market forecasts are almost never right and not one is ever called to account for their not-rightness. Like weather forecasting. Also, I…
An alert reader asked me to elaborate a bit on the SECURE Act in relation to the effect on inheriting IRAs. This has received a lot of press, so I guess a lot of people are worried about it. Is it possible all the press the SECURE Act has received is making people worry? Hmmmm.…
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