Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.¹Shannon L. AlderThe desire to leave a legacy may be the height of altruism for it is a gift to the future, the benefit of which you may never witness, nor ever feel […]
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‘Investing Insight’ Category
Over half of Americans do not own any stocks, or stock-related investments, such as mutual funds, according to Bankrate’s Money Pulse survey.¹ Individuals may cite different reasons for not investing, but with important long-term financial goals, such as retirement, in the balance, the reasons may not be good enough. Why Invest? Make Money on Your […]
What’s the value of a financial advisor? Two studies found that working with a financial professional can result in higher returns and potentially lower personal stress. Lower Stress Seventy-six percent of people within 15 years of retirement are stressed when thinking about retirement savings and investments.¹ Working with a financial advisor to develop a written […]
You may have read that Facebook founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to gift substantially all of his Facebook stock to a philanthropic entity called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, named after himself and his wife Priscilla Chan. The gift would be worth $45 billion, instantly becoming one of the largest philanthropic pools […]
Filling out your tax return is like compiling the index of a book — the book is complete, but you have to rummage (sometimes painfully) through your work again, assuring accuracy and factual content, in order to make the book easier for someone else to read. If you’re a mutual fund investor trying to determine […]
Create a financial plan that can help you make the best of any circumstance. Here’s a checklist for financial preparedness. Lay a secure foundation Consider disability insurance to replace income that you may no longer receive if you become disabled by illness or injury. Some employers offer free or discounted disability insurance policies to their […]
Wow! There’s no diplomatic way to say this: the global stock markets are in panic mode right now. In two weeks of trading, the U.S. S&P 500 index is down 8% on the year, which brings us close to correction territory (a 10% decline), and has some predicting a bear market (a 20% decline). On […]
Installment debt, in itself, is not a bad thing. It enables us to make major purchases that would be nearly impossible to finance up-front. The problem is, in this consumer society, we’re bombarded with advertisements for literally thousands of “must-have” products. The result is that while our parents tended to pay with cash and buy […]
Have your long-term financial goals changed in the last three days? Are American companies less valuable because investors in China are panicking? Is there any reason to think that because Chinese investors are panicking, that Chinese companies are less valuable today than they were a few days ago? These are the kinds of questions to […]
Retirement Assets in the Event of a Divorce Federal law requires that participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans designate their spouse as their beneficiary unless the spouse waives this right in writing. Assuming that you and your spouse adhered to this practice, a document known as a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), which is part of […]