Let Open Enrollment Help You Minimize Taxes

September 13, 2013

With tax rates where they are today, and potentially going higher in the future due to the ever-increasing national debt and Congressional spending habits, I get asked a lot of questions about how to minimize taxes. That’s always an interesting conversation because taxation comes in many forms (taxes on income, capital gains, and interest, not to mention all of the consumption taxes we pay) and across many timelines. Are we looking at ways to minimize this year’s tax bite or our lifetime tax bite? Sometimes there are tradeoffs.  Continue reading “Let Open Enrollment Help You Minimize Taxes”

The Rise of Banking Alternatives

September 06, 2013

One of the trends that I’ve seen with people who don’t have a great credit score and who have experienced some financial setbacks is that banks don’t really want to do business with them and it’s hard for some people to open accounts at major financial institutions.  One of the beautiful things about capitalism is that when there is an unmet need, enterprising business people step in and create a service to meet that need. For this growing area, an unlikely business has stepped in to meet this need…pawn shops!  Yes, that’s right. Pawn shops! Continue reading “The Rise of Banking Alternatives”

Which States Are Really Tax-Friendly?

August 30, 2013

One of the more interesting conversations I get to have with people who are close to retirement is about where they plan to live. Often, inertia (or a paid off mortgage) leads people to stay exactly where they are today. People are often attached to their homes and moving is rarely if ever a smooth and easy process.  Continue reading “Which States Are Really Tax-Friendly?”

Don’t Limit Yourself

August 23, 2013

From the time I was ~6 years old until very recently, I have been competing in one sport or another. If there is a winner and a loser involved in something, I’ll either try it or watch it. Over the last decade or so, I’ve become very fond of the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). It’s a one-on-one sport combining boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu and other grappling styles. Because of the highly technical style of this sport, every single part of an athlete’s body needs to be operating at 100% capacity or defeat is nearly certain.  Continue reading “Don’t Limit Yourself”

4 Easy Ways to Pay Your Mortgage Off Early

August 16, 2013

One of the things that I’ve grown to believe in more and more as I talk to people who are nearing retirement and hitting the panic button about their ability to fund their retirement lifestyle is that retiring debt-free is the only way I want to retire.  I’ve always been debt-averse, but as I help people look at their financial lives and their ability to live the lives they want in retirement, the more clear the vision I have for myself is becoming.  I have seen people with near identical incomes, 401(k) balances, pensions, and Social Security estimates have completely different views on retirement.  The #1 reason for those views is their mortgage payment.  Continue reading “4 Easy Ways to Pay Your Mortgage Off Early”

How Committed Are You To Your Financial Goals?

August 09, 2013

As my friends, family and coworkers know, I am a bit of a news & politics junkie. Because of my interest in the area, I love to read look-backs about elections. Why did one candidate lose and another win?  Especially in close races, there are usually a few obvious things that help turn the election in favor of one candidate over the other. Continue reading “How Committed Are You To Your Financial Goals?”

Perception vs. Reality

August 02, 2013

I read this article about how we are working fewer hours now than prior generations and we have more “leisure time” than prior generations too. At first, I was thinking that the article was absolutely wrong. I know that I spend way more than the 33.7 average hours per week in this report.  Most of my friends do as well. With our smartphones receiving emails and text messages from coworkers, along with the other technological tethers that many of us live with, it seems like we work all the time.  Continue reading “Perception vs. Reality”

In All Things, Moderation

July 26, 2013

To borrow a line from Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” The title of A Tale Of Two Cities really hit me as I read this article about a couple who paid off their mortgage in less than 5 years.  They made a lot of changes/sacrifices in their financial life in order to pay off their mortgage and be totally debt free in a short period of time. They are being very frugal, looking for ways to trim their cost of living and putting off instant gratification and some “fun” right now in favor of getting totally out of debt and putting into place a lifestyle that would require only minimal incomes to sustain.  This is a family that is taking financial independence and financial security VERY seriously.  Continue reading “In All Things, Moderation”

Is There Hope or Doom on the Horizon?

July 19, 2013

For a long time now, I’ve talked to people who have found it relatively difficult to come up with a 20% down payment and banks have not been very flexible with the 20% down payment requirement. Things may be changing though.  This article talks about what may be an encouraging sign for borrowers. It looks like there is some relaxing of the 20% rule now, with the return of the mortgage with a 10% down payment being seen more widely.  Is this a sign of hope that banks are having money flow back into the economy?  Continue reading “Is There Hope or Doom on the Horizon?”

My Best and Worst Investments Ever

July 12, 2013

Some of the questions that come up a lot in conversations about personal finances deal with the subject of investing. What can I invest in now to make the most money over the next year? What should I invest in now?  What have been your best and worst investments ever?  While the questions about what to do today are not questions that I can answer, the best and worst investment decisions I’ve ever made are questions I could take in a lot of different directions. Continue reading “My Best and Worst Investments Ever”

We All Make Mistakes

July 05, 2013

My daughter and I took a trip together and I let her be our DJ and choose all of the music while we were in the car together. Well, almost all of the music. There are a few songs I had to ask to skip, I just couldn’t stand them!  Continue reading “We All Make Mistakes”

Actions Have Consequences

June 28, 2013

My daughter lives with her iPhone and if it isn’t working 100% correctly, I get a phone call pretty quickly. One day when she was in school, her phone fell off of her desk and the screen cracked. (Why it was on her desk at school is the subject of an entirely different kind of blog post…)  That aside, she is still walking around with her cracked screen and isn’t all that happy about it.  Continue reading “Actions Have Consequences”

And I Thought I Was Low Maintenance…

June 21, 2013

I try hard to live a very simple lifestyle and to be relatively frugal.  But my cost-conscious lifestyle gets totally blown out of the water by this guy. I’ve joked about my retirement lifestyle being one where I live in a van down by the river…BUT I’M JOKING!!!  Continue reading “And I Thought I Was Low Maintenance…”

Will Your Stock Be Gone in 18 Months?

May 31, 2013

I have always enjoyed reading about predictions. It happens a lot at the end of one year and the beginning of another. I usually print a few of them out, put them in a folder, forget about them for a long time and then look at them a year or so later as I’m printing out a new set. One of the articles from last year turned out to be relatively accurate. When I read this article, it took me back to last year’s article and the writers have a methodology that I’m sure will keep me reading their predictions each year. Continue reading “Will Your Stock Be Gone in 18 Months?”

A Major Decision

May 24, 2013

It seems that lately my personal life has been dominated by questions about “next year,” “next phase of life,” “what do you plan to do after….”  Actually, not so much my life, but my kids. All 3 are in the last year of their respective schools right now. Continue reading “A Major Decision”

Is Your Credit Score Hurting Your Job Prospects?

May 17, 2013

One of my friends sent me this article about credit scores impacting a job search to ask my opinion. And, he confided in me that this is probably a part of the reason that his wife has been unable to find work for nearly two years and has just about given up on her quest to find another job. This is a very troubling trend in the workplace and all too often good people are being denied the opportunity to work in this dreadful economy that just hasn’t produced robust job growth.     Continue reading “Is Your Credit Score Hurting Your Job Prospects?”

Rules That Are Meant to Be Broken

May 10, 2013

It looks like the FAA may relax the rules on what types of electronic devices you can use while the plane is zooming down the runway about to take off.   I’m not sure it would have helped Alec Baldwin continue to play Words With Friends a little bit longer and avoid that confrontation, but it might make a lot of people (including me) happy. I’m a big fan of reading and my favorite thing to do on flights is to read. And lately I’ve been reading more on my iPad, using the Kindle app and my local library’s e-reader checkout program.(Bonus tip:  For those of you who love to read, check out this link to Overdrive, which is the program I use to check books out of my local public library for free rather than buying the book via digital download. It’s a great money saver!)  Sometimes, there are rules that need to be updated in order to keep up with the changing world.  Here are a couple of rules with your financial life that you might want to consider updating. Continue reading “Rules That Are Meant to Be Broken”