A Tale of Two Vacations

September 01, 2010

Recently my family and I went on vacation.  Well, actually it was two vacations; one right after the other.  The first was a working vacation—I worked while my family vacationed.  I travel quite a bit in my line of work so whenever the kids are out of school and I’m going to be away for a few days I like to bring the family along with me.  It gives them something to do, and to be honest with you I really enjoy the company.  It also saves us money.  I have to get a hotel when I travel, and I have to get to and from the hotel, so at least part of the travel expense is covered.  It also gives my children an appreciation of what their dad does for a living, and after a long day of work I enjoy hearing about the fun things they did that day.  And who doesn’t enjoy sitting in a hot tub with their significant other watching the kids jump into the hotel pool? Continue reading “A Tale of Two Vacations”

How We Can Learn a Valuable Lesson from Wesley Snipes

August 27, 2010

Wesley Snipes was recently sentenced to three years in prison for failing to pay over $15,000,000 in taxes.  It could have been worse for him; the sentence was considered light because “jurors accepted his argument that he was innocently duped by errant tax advisers.”

That makes me ask a few questions: Wesley, what exactly were you thinking? You hired tax advisors who told you it was acceptable to NOT FILE TAX RETURNS???  Did that not sound suspicious? Continue reading “How We Can Learn a Valuable Lesson from Wesley Snipes”

Why Pay for Education?

August 25, 2010

As some of you may know, I used to be a financial advisor with the brokerage affiliate of a national bank.  As a financial advisor, I made a living by providing advice and selling investment products and services.  Since the only way I would make money is if I sold investment products or services, it did not make much sense for me to spend time helping bank customers that did not have assets to invest or a need for my services.  That, however, did not stop many of the bankers from referring their customers to me when they needed financial help.  Whether it was helping someone to get out of debt, or to simply create a budget, the bankers figured that since I was a financial planner it was my job to help their customers with these issues.  The truth is I loved to help, but the reality was I could not afford to help as much as I wanted to. Continue reading “Why Pay for Education?”

Playing it Safe

August 18, 2010

With talk about a possible “double-dip” recession looming, investors had better take precaution.  I’m not here to say that I think another recession will occur, but at the same time I don’t think the best approach is to bury your head in the sand and hope that everything turns out okay.

There are several things investors can do to prepare for the possibility of another economic downturn: Continue reading “Playing it Safe”

What Does RICH Mean?

August 13, 2010

I saw an interesting article about mortgage delinquencies in the U.S. and there were some interesting tidbits of information in the report.  Overall, 1 in 12 people in the U.S. are at least 30 days past due on their mortgage.  Even more surprising was hearing that 1 in 7 mortgages of greater than $1,000,000 are past due.  This means that mortgages of more than $1 million are far more delinquent than mortgages under $1 million.  The media tells us that “the rich” are bigger defaulters than “the rest of us.”

My first thought was that the facts in the article had to be wrong.  I mean, are “the rich” (they are called that in the article’s headline) really not able to pay their mortgage.  After, they ARE rich, aren’t they?   That’s when one of my pet peeves (the use of the word rich in an improper context) reared its’ ugly head.  In the media and in politics, we often hear about “the rich” and that made me do a little thinking…………What does RICH really mean? Continue reading “What Does RICH Mean?”

At What Age Should I Start to Teach about Money?

August 04, 2010

They call me “the Rebel” but I really am just a regular guy.  In other words, I am no James Dean – no leather jacket and no motorcycle.  I am just a family man with 4 young children and a beautiful wife who is a stay at home Mom.  I guess you could actually call me a “rebel with a cause.”

My family is my cause – what I work for.  I do love to help kids and educate them.  So as you can imagine, I am often asked questions about kids and money.  Some of the questions I get are: Continue reading “At What Age Should I Start to Teach about Money?”

Missing A Step

August 02, 2010

A caller to our financial helpline told me last week, “ I am terrible at money management.”  Well, after talking to her for a few minutes, I realized that she really wasn’t.   She confessed that she was always on the watch for when her bills were due and she paid them on time watching for the big ones so she didn’t miss them.  In other words, her rent and her car payment were always paid on time.  Does that sound like she is terrible at money management? Continue reading “Missing A Step”

Training Calls from Hades

July 30, 2010

To understand the types of calls we receive on the financial helpline, new-to-the-firm CFP’s (not the same as new CFP’s – every planner here at Financial Finesse has at least a decade of experience in financial planning) listen to a lot of recorded conversations with our partner firms.  Some of the biggest names in the S&P are our clients, or partners.  Their employees call our team of financial planners on topics ranging from consideration of bankruptcy & mortgage foreclosure through how to handle the tax treatment of a sophisticated international investment or deal with how to reduce taxes on a very large estate.  When the phone rings, we don’t know if you are teetering on the brink of financial disaster or if you are dealing with complex tax issues.  Every call is unique.  There is no “typical” caller.  I think that it’s good to be a little schizophrenic to work on our helpline, but that may just be the voices in my head talking ….

Continue reading “Training Calls from Hades”

My Personal Journey into Becoming a Financial Educator

July 23, 2010

Have you ever wandered into a new coffee shop or off the beaten path restaurant only to discover, “Hey, this place is incredible!” and have that place become your all time favorite?  That’s a bit like my path to Financial Finesse.

My first job after college was as a “financial consultant” at Merrill Lynch and I use quotation marks because really, in my early 20’s, could I have really been a consultant to anyone regarding financial matters?  I mean, I had never bought a house, raised a family, worked full time and my “life experience” was a bit thin at that point.  I did, though, have a budding interest in the financial world.  I paid my way through college with a combination of work and loans, and when I thought I was not going to be able to get a loan for a big chunk of my last year of school expenses, I worked 3 jobs over the summer and earned enough to pay for the whole year.  When the student loan request was approved and a check showed up in my mailbox, I decided to take my interest in the financial markets and use that check to buy my first stock.  I did a lot of research and eventually bought a stock.  It performed very well and I was able to sell it later at a profit and bought my 1st new car with the proceeds.  (Not the best decision ever, but I was young & the car was new!)

Continue reading “My Personal Journey into Becoming a Financial Educator”

Emotions vs. Numbers

July 16, 2010

One of the questions that I have fielded more often than other questions in my career as a financial planner is about paying off a mortgage vs. keeping it for those who have the ability to write a check & pay it off all at once.  I have had a lot of discussions with my friends about this topic.  (Yeah, I just might need to get a hobby.) These friends are CPA’s, MBA’s, CFP’s, math geeks, as well as friends who have no financial background but who have always shown an ability to use common sense.  After years of debate and discussion (So….my friends need hobbies too!), we have found that there is no true consensus around this topic.  But, we have come up with what we believe to be the most important points to consider.

Continue reading “Emotions vs. Numbers”