We believe that financial success will lead us to happiness. There’s the adage: “money can’t buy happiness” and broadly speaking, I agree with that. But, there’s no ignoring that financial stress is cited as the leading cause of divorce. Tragically, financial loss or instability has led people and families down destructive paths. While money may […]
The right financial advisor plays a vital role in keeping investors focused on what really matters.
Many view debt-free homeownership as an important step on the journey to financial freedom and, eventually, a successful retirement. As housing costs increase across the country, particularly in and around major cities, being able to live in your home while only paying tax and insurance can go a long way toward keeping monthly expenses manageable.
Incentives are one of the most powerful economic forces in the world. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re looking at, you can typically draw a straight line between the incentives offered to an individual and the way they go about performing their job.
Let’s talk about bonds for a minute. Occasionally, we get asked about what the future prospects are for bond investors. Sometimes with the implication being: “Should I be invested in bonds at all?” For the past decade, we’ve lived in a very low interest rate environment, relative to historical averages. (Click charts below to enlarge)
It’s been grizzly out there. Times like these give me a chance to share my absolute favorite quote about markets. From Bill Bernstein’s book, he recalls how investor Ralph Wagoner explained markets:
It’s Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) season (or Minimum Required Distribution – MRD, same thing). Beginning the year an individual turns 70 ½ mandatory distributions from certain tax-deferred retirement accounts must begin. Each year, the amount required to be distributed increases as a percentage of a retirement account’s balance. This percentage starts out small – about […]
The Wall Street Journal and Morningstar are fighting. On Wednesday, an in-depth piece ran in the Wall Street Journal that attacked Morningstar’s rating metrics as being misleading and causing individuals, advisors, pension funds, and endowments to make poor decisions about where to invest. Later that day, Morningstar issued an aggrieved response that claimed that the […]
Once again, the President and several officials placed in charge of revamping the US tax code have released an outline for what they hope tax reform will accomplish this year. And once again, it is short on crucial details that would let us know the exact ramifications of the policies they aim for. You may […]
By this point, it is news to no one that Equifax was hacked resulting in the personal and financial information of millions of people to fall into the wrong hands.