There is much controversy about whether or not to make extra payments on your mortgage in order to pay it off early. As usual, I don’t have any hard and fast rules, but there are questions I’d like addressed before making this decision. First, is this the forever house or the 5-year house? If you…
Recently I’ve been telling you about the part of my business where I go to groups (employers, conferences) and meet with people for short one-on-one financial planning sessions. Here are a few success stories that I am proud of having achieved so far this year. A woman who would like to retire this year was…
I recently had friend ask me this question. The answer is “yes, you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” There are main reasons for this: Investments: 529 College Savings plans are generally invested in pre-packaged funds whose aggressiveness is based on the child’s age. The younger the child, the more stocks are in the portfolio. …
First, let’s talk about what a parent is NOT to do. Please do not stop saving for retirement, or worse, take money out of your retirement accounts to pay for your kids’ college expenses. You have only one shot at saving for retirement, but your kids have many ways to pay for college. Some examples:…
A couple of weeks ago, I introduced my education services for the first time in the blog. Just to let you know, the financial education provided by Sullivan Financial Planning goes beyond pre-retirement planning. Other engaging and helpful topics that you won’t be getting from your 401(k) plan provider include: Financial Tools for Kids: …
People must be feeling good about the economy because second home ownership is on the rise again. Vacation home sales increased over 10% in 2012 and 11% of home purchases were second home in that year.* Some folks find their second home is all they hoped for and more. More time with family in a…
Let’s take a moment of silence to remember the pension. We dearly miss that well-loved, but ultimately unstainable stream of lifetime income that employers used to supply loyal workers in retirement. Now what? Employers have punted the responsibility of lifetime income and medical care to their employees. They feel really good about providing a 401(k)…
Many people envision retiring to a beachy paradise. And, it’s true, warm states like Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina are seeing an influx of new faces, many of them retired. However, according to US census bureau data, only about 4% of Americans aged 65 and older move each year. What are some things to consider…
“The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They’re about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover.” – Al Franken And there you have it, folks! Trying to change your portfolio based on who is saying what in financial news is about as useless as…
In a recent post on Financial Advisor IQ, Sullivan Financial Planning’s Kristi Sullivan was quoted in the article, Peer-to-Peer Lending: A Fad or the Future? By Chris Latham. A copy of the article is below. Peer-to-Peer Lending: A Fad or the Future? By Chris Latham March 18, 2015 Peer-to-peer lending may serve advisors’ clients on two fronts, experts say.…
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