Blog

In my opinion, it is impossible to predict future stock market returns. Investment models can produce hypothetical returns but they can’t account for future events. So, in my opinion, investors who manage their investments based on market performance or what they perceive as opportunities for better returns have very little control over the outcome.

Although whole life insurance, in its present form, has been around for over a century, it remains somewhat of an enigma for people who want to buy permanent protection, especially as new forms of life insurance have sprung up around it over the last several decades.

With home values finally recovering from their steep declines of the last half decade, and interest rates still hovering around their historic lows, homeowners are, once again, looking to their home equity for financing.

When you change jobs, everything you need to take with you can usually be packed neatly into a couple boxes for your move - everything except your employer-sponsored retirement plan. Of course, you will likely enroll in your new employer’s retirement plan, but the decision as to what to do with your existing 401k plan may not be all that clear.

It should not take the filing of a tax return or a death in the family to finally create order out of paper chaos so you are not forced to scramble in those critical circumstances. The chances of making costly errors are too great not to take some very simple, albeit essential, measures to get and stay organized all year long.

Some, stockbrokers, stock analysts, investment gurus and individual investors will have you believe that investing is an art, requiring nuanced skill and timing based on information that only they possess. So, it’s not surprising they are very quick to attribute any successes they have to their individual abilities.

Unquestionably, the Internet has changed everything, making our lives easier and more productive as we cruise at digital speed down the information highway. No other activity better exemplifies the transformation in our daily lives as does online banking which give us instant, and, with smart phone technology, around the clock access to most any service we require of our banks.

Everyone can learn some valuable lessons from Warren Buffet, arguably the most successful investor of all time. Buffet has two strict rules about investing that anyone would find, well, frustratingly simplistic.

The saving versus paying off debt is an age-old quandary that has plagued people since the advent of consumer debt. Pose this question to a group of financial planners and the responses will be split, roughly down the middle. While there might be as many advocates for savings as there would be for paying down debt, the broad consensus will likely be that it really depends on the situation.

This isn’t our parents’ or grandparents’ retirement anymore. Just a few decades ago, many retirees enjoyed the full benefits of the “three-legged stool” of retirement provide by guaranteed pension payments, savings, and Social Security.