Financial Education & Training to Improve Your Retirement
Harold Wilson, former British Prime Minister joked, “I am an optimist, but I’m an optimist who carries a raincoat.” You probably already have some cash stored away for the inevitable rainy day. Indeed, you should have savings for those one-time, non-recurring expenses that come up—a water heater replacement, a roof repair, the auto insurance deductible—but this savings should actually be …
“What I am about to share,” Dr. DuBois replied, “you would do well to write on your heart and place in your purse. Many a ruined man dates his downfall from the day he began buying what he did not need. If you are in debt, part of you belongs to your creditors. To whom you give your money, you …
One of my clients, a physician, when discussing insurance, said to me, “We’re all just one step away from the banana peel.” She would know better than most. While it’s not particularly pleasant to think about becoming sick or needing assistance, healthcare and long-term care costs pose very real risks to your retirement nest egg. Can you afford to chance …
No self-respecting Chief Financial Officer would dream of trying to run a company without a constantly updated set of financial statements. Neither should you. That is why the first step, in our Retirement Preparedness Checklist, is to create personal financial statements. The Purpose of Personal Financial Statements Personal financial statements serve several very important functions: 1) they tell you where …
Heavyweight champion and prolific pitchman, George Foreman, said, “The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.” Before you turn in the keys to your office for good, you need to make sure you are prepared financially for life without a paycheck. Use this handy Retirement Preparedness Checklist and correlating worksheets to make sure you …
In retirement, one of the scariest things, particularly when you are dependent on your investment portfolio for a large portion of your retirement income, is how to deal with the ups and downs of the stock market and the economy. You may believe that, in order to do that, you have to be able to get into the market as …
UPDATED 2019: This article, originally published in 2010, continues to be one of our most popular posts. Please keep in mind that it is possible some of the facts offered have changed throughout the years.However, our sentiments have not. Scott Burns and I agree on many things. We agree that you cannot beat the market by picking stocks. We agree …
I strongly recommend an excellent article to you, from the Psy-Fi blog, a regular on my daily reading list. The title of the article is B.F Skinner’s Stockmarket Slot Machines: Win Big, Win Rarely, Win Never. I often refer to B.F Skinner, intermittent variable reinforcement, and how the stock market creates superstitions much like those created in Skinner’s birds. This …
Can you believe it? 2009 is almost over! The older I get, the faster they go! I thought I would put together a quick note to remind you of some helpful, year-end tasks you may want to consider: 1. Rebalance investment accounts – this is something few people do but I highly recommend. This involves bringing your investment accounts back …
For well over a decade, my unrelenting focus has been understanding financial risk and developing practical strategies for managing the risk created by job loss, illness or disability, bear markets and funding thirty years of retirement. Since 1997, I have watched the job of managing those risks become increasingly complex. One reason understanding and managing financial risk is more difficult …
