Category: Finances

  • Retirement Planning Basics: Investment Accounts

    Planning your investments to build a retirement fund can be a dizzying prospect. The various questions and options and details and accounts and amounts are enough to make anyone’s head spin. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a generic recipe for success? A nice neat list of step by step instructions on how to…

  • Equities in the Last 30 Years: A Retrospective

    Looking at a chart http://bit.ly/qSHuve covering the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the last century is a lot like looking at a chart of profitable business earnings at a cartoon enterprise meeting–it’s almost a caricature of itself, a steady upward slope punctuated by regular but far-between drops, always ending higher than it…

  • MyRA:Obama’s New Retirement Plan

    The new idea of the MyRA is similar to a Roth IRA, but with only one investment option, the US Government. There is obviously some diversification red flags that come up with these accounts as well as a few others. Here is more basic information on what a MyRA is from a article on Yahoo…

  • Retirement Destinations- Things to Consider

    Retirement brings about a lot of freedom for retirees. One of those freedoms that many people quickly take advantage of is the freedom of geography, the ability to relocate to wherever they’d like. Many people have dreamed of a certain destination for years, while others may still be searching for that perfect spot. Whether your…

  • Retirement Planning Microscope Moves to the 20’s

    As time moves onward, a lot of the retirement conversation has shifted. Many discussions no longer revolve around you Baby Boomers. Now, the eyes are on the younger investors, your children. They say hindsight is 20/20, and it seems that many of the twentysomethings have seen the retirement struggles of their parents’ generation all too…

  • Retirement & Your Budget: Debits and Credits

    Just like any major life event, retirement will bring about a lot of unexpected changes. Many of these changes will be in lifestyle, hobbies, or location, but the most worrisome for retirees are the unexpected changes with their financial situation. If you are like most of our clients, you have planned well for your retirement,…

  • 4 Tips for Deducting Charitable Donations from Your Taxes

    Even though the U.S. is steadily rebounding from the recession, times are still tough. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is still hovering around 7%. And the gap between the poverty line and the middle class continues to widen. It can be a stretch for households to donate to the less…

  • The Top 4 Free Budgeting Apps

    These days, people literally hold their finances in their hands. Whether it’s making purchases, accepting small business payments, or simply checking account balances, personal wealth has gone mobile. With the speed and ease of transferring money on the go, it’s increasingly difficult to keep tabs on your budget—much less your larger financial goals. Fortunately, the…

  • Market Timing Doesn’t Work

    This article is from the Wall Street Journal, which encourages market timing in almost all of their articles. But this article proves that market timing is detrimental to your portfolio performance. “Will investors ever stop underperforming their own investments? Consider Pimco Total Return, the giant bond mutual fund run by the renowned investor Bill Gross.…

  • Dan Solin- “The Best and Worst Investment Advice”

    This is one of the best articles I have seen on the financial industry. Dan Solin puts it in plain terms so we can all understand. “This is a busy time for financial journalists and advisers. The government shutdown and the looming prospect of an unprecedented default by the U.S. Treasury in meeting its obligations…