Over the weekend, a relative asked, “Are we in a bear market?” I answered his question with, “What do you think a bear market is?” He rattled off a few comments about the economy, and the market being down...
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Many people are ready to make the transition to retirement. They envision living a less stressful, carefree lifestyle. Where they can be adventurers, live next to the ocean, hear the waves crash. Enjoy the warm sunshine, swim in the...
How much can retirees withdraw from their nest egg each year? This is a question that many thought was answered by the 4% rule, first articulated by Bill Bengan in 1994. Bengan is a retired financial planner from Southern...
U.S. stocks are cresting to all-time highs, almost daily. These are the times when investors look forward to opening their monthly statement. The anticipation is high, you open the envelope (or electronic statement) and wow, is that right? Shouldn’t...
It sure seems like we’ve had our fair share of investment volatility of this century. There have been two major market disruptions; The Dotcom bubble in 2000, where the Nasdaq composite lost 78% of its value, followed by the...
Inflation since 2008 has been very low. The average since 2008 is a paltry 1.48%. The numbers annually are as follows: Year Rate of inflation 2008 .1% 2009 2.7% 2010 1.5% 2011 3.0% 2012 1.7% 2013 1.5% 2014 .8%...
One of the greatest worry’s for anyone who is retired, is running out of money. Of course, if we knew how long we would live it would make the process much less stressful. We could simply spend down our...
Perhaps the single most important factor in reducing financial stress is managing cash flow. In their book The Millionaire Next Door, Dr. Thomas Stanley and William Danko explained this financial principal as “I make plenty of money but there...
A client expresses concern over his growing debt. The fact that the wealthy individual even has debt is puzzling. Despite holding several million dollars in stocks and bonds, as well as rental properties, the client’s income is limited. In...
It is important to understand your cash flow; you want to know where your money is going. For the purposes of financial planning, categorize expenses into boxes A, B, and C. This process serves as a tool to help...