Crucial questions & essential documents. The financial planning process is not merely a matter of numbers. When you meet with a financial advisor to map out a strategy for wealth accumulation or wealth preservation, you may find yourself intellectually and emotionally engaged on a level you...
The global economic consequences could be severe. In October, America may risk running out of cash. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew recently urged Congress to lift the federal debt limit before October 17. Secretary Lew claims that if nothing is done by that date, the Treasury will...
What raises eyebrows at the IRS? Are you one of those taxpayers worried about being audited? The fear may be overblown – according to Internal Revenue Service data, just 1.6 million taxpayers were audited in 2011. The agency reviewed about 1% of returns sent in by...
A study suggests the “conventional wisdom” may be flawed. If you move away from equities with age, are you making a mistake? For some time, financial professionals have encouraged investors to lessen their exposure to the stock market as they get older. After all, a 60-year-old...
What changes should we consider making for next year? 2014 is really not too far away. Fall is the time of year when the financially savvy start to look for ways to reduce their taxes and make year-end moves in pursuit of key financial objectives. What might...
Glitches, “flash crashes” & other disturbances are becoming too numerous. “Why is this happening?” Those words were undoubtedly spoken on Wall Street Thursday. Perhaps you uttered them, too. At 12:14pm EST, a glitch halted all trading on the NASDAQ for more than three hours. During that...
If implemented, privatization may have significant side effects. On Capitol Hill and elsewhere, voices are calling for a major shift in public pension plan management – a shift toward privatization. Underfunding of public pensions is all too common. The bankruptcies of Detroit, Stockton and San Bernardino have...
While the idea of retirement has changed, certain financial assumptions haven’t. We’ve all heard about the “new retirement”, the mix of work and play that many of us assume we will have in our lives one day. We do not expect “retirement” to be all leisure....
Are they threatening the recovery? Or is their effect overstated? Between early May and mid-July, the average interest rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose about 1%. Rates on 30-year FRMs have basically held steady since hitting a peak of 4.51% in Freddie Mac’s July 11...
How many retirees face the possibility of less recurring income? On July 18, Detroit became the largest American city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. What will happen to the pensions of its 20,000+ retired public employees? There is a possibility they could be reduced –...