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…
“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…
If you look back on my past blogs, I explain the different types of bonds with a fun example. To summarize, bonds come in different maturity dates and different credit qualities. The longer the maturity date, the better the interest you are paid, but the more risk to the bond price if interest rates go…
There must be some physical component in the human brain that relentlessly drives us to compare our lives to that of our friends, enemies, co-workers, or ex-boyfriends. We do it with the cars we drive, the age we marry, our children’s’ SAT scores, and the granite on our countertops. As a financial planner, I often…
One of the perils of working in financial planning is that you speak in this weird language that you think others understand, but they don’t. This is where I rely on my friends to let me know when I am writing in financial-babble. So, this blog goes out to my good, honest friend Dana Lynch. …
First, let me be clear: I am NOT a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst. There are such people out there and I highly recommend you visit one before starting divorce proceedings. This is just a quick list of things I wish people would do BEFORE they slam out of the house and start sleeping with their…
The retirement plan maximum increased in 2015 to $18,000/year with a $6,000/year catch up contribution for those aged 50 and over. If you are fortunate enough to be adding the maximum each year to your retirement plan, make sure your contribution percentage is up to date with the new limits. If you are thinking “No…
Here’s a little secret that most investment salespeople will not tell you: The actual investments you choose aren’t really that important. Buying Whole Foods or Walmart or Kroger stock is the least important financial decision you will make. What? How can that be, you say? My adviser is an expert at picking money making investments. …
Bottom-up Investing: No, this is not a reference to Kim Kardashian breaking the internet. Bottom-up mutual fund managers research companies individually and without regard to the current economic cycle, geography, or other big picture considerations. Asset Allocation: I’ll spend more time on this later. For now, know that Asset Allocation is the combination of different…
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