The first two weeks of 2016 have been horrible for the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 8.25% from 1/1 through 1/15. That is a bad year and it only took 2 weeks! Continue reading “Worried About the Stock Market Decline?”
As I type this, the Powerball lottery jackpot stands at $1.1 billion. Yes…that’s BILLION with a B: 1,000,000,000 – nine zeroes. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) professional, I can attest to the fact that that’s a whole bunch of money! It’s fun to listen to the radio and hear what people would do with that kind of windfall. As with almost everything, there is both good and bad to what could be viewed by most people as an all good scenario. Continue reading “What If You Won the Powerball Lottery?”
I love stories about things that don’t always go together. Sometimes it creates a wonderful combination. That’s why when I read this story about a Siberian tiger that isn’t eating the goat it was fed (and is actually becoming a good buddy of the goat), it brought a smile to my face. Continue reading “Are You Financially Fearless?”
We at Financial Finesse hope your 2015 was a memorable year. Here’s one thought for a New Year’s Resolution: Make 2016 your Financial Independence Year!
Financial Finesse wishes you, your family and your friends a very Merry Christmas!
For some reason that I can’t quite figure out, I’ve been getting a bit contemplative about my future lately. Maybe it’s because my daughter is about to turn 20 and she’s been reminding me that I’m very old and falling apart so I should think about my future while I am still lucid. Letting my mind wander a bit to what my life could look like when my youngest goes away to college and I’m officially an empty-nester (unless they move back in!), I realized that I have a lot of options on the table. For my job, all I really need is a telephone, a good Wi-Fi signal and an airport. Those three things are available virtually anywhere on the planet. Continue reading “Nomads Don’t Have To Be Hobos”
As I write this, I have clothing in the dryer and when it’s done, I’m throwing some of it in a bag and hitting the road. The university where I played rugby is playing in the college national championships this weekend. Some of my old teammates are the coaches and I’m still involved with the team in various capacities. I will probably be watching game tape of our Saturday opponent in the round of four and if we win (yes, I still say “we” when talking about a group of college kids playing rugby), I’ll spend part of Saturday night breaking down tape with the coaches for our Sunday opponent in the National Championship game. I’m pretty excited and can’t wait to hit the road to see the boys play with the prospect of a national championship trophy in reach. Continue reading “Financial Lessons From a Rugby Field”
During our preparation of Thanksgiving dinner, my kids and I had a conversation about our family. There have been a lot of changes in the family over the last year or so. There have been several deaths, several births, several weddings and a few events that I’m probably forgetting as I write this. Continue reading “One Of The Most Important Financial Steps You Can Take”
I have to admit that I’m not actually a fan of this day. I think it encourages blatant consumerism and I’ve talked to too many people who overspend on Black Friday and have credit card bills for the rest of the year. It’s easy to go overboard and spend more than your budget would allow since the sale prices, commercials, and constant chatter about shopping are impossible to escape. Continue reading “Why I’m Not a Fan of Black Friday”
As I was whining about not having a topic to write about, I got this email in my inbox:
I’ve got a co-worker who wanted to consolidate his credit card debt into one manageable loan with a lower interest rate.When he started looking though, he continued to find either consolidation loans with higher interest rates than his credit cards or he’d find what he calls “scam artists” that claim to try to find consolidation loans that he would be eligible for but then would say that he wasn’t eligible for them or they were for a “3rd party investor loan.” (Don’t really know what he meant by that.) I said I’d help him find reputable companies and I did. BUT that’s hard to do with all of the information – good and bad – on the Internet.
Boom! That’s a real life blog topic…. Continue reading “Consolidating Isn’t Always Easy”
One of the things that I have heard people say in conversations regarding money is “every dollar counts” and…I agree with that. To that end, there is some money that a lot of employees leave on the table on a fairly regular basis. With just a few slight tweaks, they could recover some out-of-pocket expenses that far too often are being put on a credit card and creating a gradual increase in debt level. The best part is that these are all 100% above board and employer-sanctioned. We all work hard, and in the course of doing that work, you should be able to recover some of the expenses of working. Continue reading “Are You Leaving Money On The Table?”
I was talking with one of my fellow financial planners, Cynthia Meyer, about a wide range of topics recently. During our conversation, I laughed that I was feeling too lazy to walk the two blocks from where I live to the grocery store. That’s when she told me this story of when she decided to walk EVERYWHERE…. Continue reading “Can You Walk Your Way Out of Debt?”
Within the last several months, I’ve been contemplating the purchase of a home and my sons are a big part of that contemplation. My ex-wife and I split up about 8-9 years ago and I have lived in a few places since the separation/divorce. I’m currently about 15 minutes from my old house (that she still owns) and it’s a quick, easy drive but with two teen boys with active social lives, it seems like that 15 minutes is resulting in 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes on the Beltway (our version of a highway) on a regular basis. Continue reading “Don’t Let An Old Rule Drive You Broke”
I was talking with one of my friends about a recent experience she had while watching a movie that is a twist on an old Disney fairy tale. It made her question some of the “financial fairy tales” that she believed, based on her life experience. Here’s her story: Continue reading “Do You Still Believe These Financial Fairy Tales?”
In one of my recent conversations with an employee preparing for retirement, we covered a lot of territory over a number of sessions. In running his retirement projections, he was WAY ahead of the curve. He had his estate plan prepared by an excellent attorney. Continue reading “What Are Your Funds Really Costing You?”
It seems like almost every week I’m reading about another company getting hacked and customer data being breached. Within the last month, I’ve read about at least five major security breaches. So far, I have been fortunate enough to escape being one of the impacted customers of these hacked companies. Continue reading “How To Protect Your Credit From Data Hackers”
As a financial planner at Financial Finesse, I do a lot more than just financial planning. I write blog posts here, contribute to Forbes, participate in our Think Tank, am involved in recruiting and interviewing, and lots of other things. Our plates are always full. Continue reading “Why I Came To Financial Finesse”
I was talking with a young man today who was facing a rather large debt load and was looking for a way to effectively manage that debt so that it doesn’t ruin his life or at least make it difficult to feel anything other than trapped by his debt. He bought a relatively inexpensive ($20,000) car, has around $8,000 in credit card debt and about $80,000 of undergraduate and graduate school loans. His salary today basically allows him to pay rent, his debts and a little bit of discretionary money for entertainment. He said that his life was not very much fun right now and he feels like he is suffocating. He sounded very frustrated and he joked that at this stage, he’d be willing to sell an organ to raise cash to pay off some of the debt. Continue reading “Here’s Your Next Superhero!”
Answering calls to our Financial Helpline, I’ve heard some myths or assumptions about retirement and I always enjoy hearing the buzz out there from people contemplating retirement. My thought is – if I’m hearing this from a few people, there are potentially thousands or millions who have the same thought. So, for those who believe some of these things, I’ll share some of the myths/assumptions I’ve heard recently and then give you my $.02. Continue reading “Four Retirement Myths I’m Hearing”
I was looking at some photos recently and one that made me smile was a big group photo taken on a snorkeling trip. Along with the laughter, stories and bonding time with friends, the thing I remember the most about that particular day is swimming next to two incredibly large sea turtles. These things were HUGE. I’m sure they wondered why some doofus was swimming behind them for a rather long time, but they were gracious hosts. They were remarkable beautiful creatures and it looked like they owned the sea while they were swimming. Continue reading “Sea Turtles Are Excellent Role Models”
