This 9-year rise in the stock market has been called “the most hated stock rally ever.” Maybe people are so scarred by the Great Recession that they can’t believe good news will ever happen again in the stock market. Even though it’s been happening (at least in the U.S. with only minor hiccups) for 9…
Have you saved for 2016? April 15th looms and for those of you who haven’t saved for 2016, time is running out. As if that pressure isn’t enough, you have to decide what kind of retirement account to use. Roth IRA Roth IRAs allow you to put up to $5,500/year in ($6,500 if…
This blog is NOT meant to make you scared about your pension. I personally LOVE when clients have a pension and rarely suggest they take a lump sum payout if offered. However, it happens occasionally that people come to me with an offer from their former employer to buy out the pension obligation that is…
That’s right, it’s February and my theme of the month is love. “Why so obvious and cliché?” you ask. Well, you try writing 52 blogs a year. You’ll find yourself grasping for any holiday theme, too. What investors and financial advisers don’t typically love is when the stock market goes down. No one likes…
Well, maybe it wasn’t a burning question until you opened this blog. But, April 15th is coming up, so it’s time to start thinking about whether or not you will contribute to an IRA and if so, what type? I know it’s not popular in the press these days, but I am a fan…
I don’t like to feed into the media hysteria when it comes to stock market drops. As I say repeatedly to clients, friends, in this blog, and to my cat, stock market recessions are a normal part of the economy. They last on average 12-18 months, so the pain is temporary. Drops in the stock…
This last method of spending down different accounts is probably the most popular. Method #3 I’ll call the Pro-Rata System. Simply put, you take a proportionate percentage out of each type of account every year. For example, say you have 50% of assets in tax-deferred accounts, 25% in taxable accounts, and 25% in Roth accounts,…
A question that I am asked to address in many financial plans for pre-retirees is, “in what order should I take out my assets?” In other words, does it make sense to tap tax-deferred plans first or last? When should I start taking Roth money out? How about my taxable (non-retirement account) investments? First, the…
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)…
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…
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