Killing the American economy has proven quite difficult for the liberals, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying. And trying some more! Now it appears that their moronic policies are even threatening what I have described before as “the best place to store money.” This week Reuters ran an article about the dangers of Operation (Continued)
Note: This is an excerpt from an email that I sent to my clients in September 2008. I post it now as a blog for the simple reason that periodic checks on where you store your money is a prudent thing to do. This post is NOT intended to scare you or entice a run (Continued)
I hear a lot of financial advisors recommending to their clients to get out of debt. In years past, though it has been a while, I heard another set of advisors heartily recommending the strategic use of leverage. Apparently the “debt” word had become so distasteful to the general public that the pundits had to (Continued)
What if you lived to ripe old age of 107? Would your retirement accounts hold up? Consider the interesting case of Leonard McCracken who has done just that. Retired for 41 years, he has managed to live on his personal savings, a lifetime annuity and social security. So what can we learn from Leonard? Well (Continued)
Occasionally I come across something in my industry that can only be the portent of bad things to come. Consider this excerpt from an email I received from my brokerage house: As you may know, brokerage firms will be required to report to the IRS detailed cost basis, gain and loss, holding period and other (Continued)
Let me say from the front end that I am not going to fully explain that cryptic title in this article. For the full explanation of it you will have to agree to two things: First, to read a book that I will provide to you, and second, to sit down with me and allow (Continued)
Recently in a piece written for Morningstar.com, Christine Benz had this to say about “When It Pays to Hire A Financial Professional”: Paying a financial planner an ongoing fee to handle every aspect of your financial plan can make sense if you’re extremely time-pressed or if your finances are particularly complicated. Ditto if you’re very (Continued)
Some years ago I read a pamphlet entitled The Pension Idea (Amazon says it is out of print, but you can find it by searching elsewhere) wherein the author pointed out the dubious origins, purposes and sustainability of pensions. I acknowledged the wisdom of his assessment, but didn’t think it had much practical applicability to (Continued)
I know this may sound strange coming from an investment professional, but I have come to HATE rate of return discussions. The way that most companies present investment “rate of return” to their prospective clients is generally so over-simplified and remote in time as to border on the ridiculous, if not in fact fraudulent. These (Continued)
What does financial planning mean to you? For most it is a periodic visit from a pushy life insurance salesman who never knows when to leave or an occasional visit from a relative, friend or classmate who seems to get out of the business as quickly as he got in. How has that worked out (Continued)