Make Your Nest Egg Last as Long as You Do

October 20, 2011

Once you’ve saved and invested for financial independence, the final step will be figuring out how to turn that nest egg into an income stream that will last as long as you do. With people living longer and longer, this can be a challenge for all retirees but is especially difficult for anyone looking to retire early. There’s even a good chance you’ll live longer in retirement than you did working.
Continue reading “Make Your Nest Egg Last as Long as You Do”

GUEST BLOG POST: We’re All Human: Even Financial Planners Make Mistakes

September 29, 2011

You’ve no doubt heard of shoemaker’s children without shoes.  But have you ever heard of a financial planner not heeding their own advice?

We are all human and we all make mistakes.  Even when we don’t take the advice we give others.  So, I admit it.  I have been that same “shoeless” financial planner.  Continue reading “GUEST BLOG POST: We’re All Human: Even Financial Planners Make Mistakes”

What the Navy Seals can Teach Us about Executing a Plan

May 06, 2011

The biggest news story all over the world right now is the U.S. Navy Seals Team Six’s mission into Osama bin Laden’s home.  This event has created an incredible amount of emotion across the globe and as of this writing, a controversy over publishing photos.  While I won’t go into a political discussion here or a religious one either, there are things that we can all take from this event and apply to our own lives. Continue reading “What the Navy Seals can Teach Us about Executing a Plan”

How Can My Avatar Help My Retirement?

April 07, 2011

I love delving into different financial articles because, if nothing else, it provides me with new educational tools I can utilize in workshops and one-on-one conversations.  But the other thing it provides me is entertainment.  It is rare that an article can feed both.  I was lucky enough to find one that really grabbed me. Continue reading “How Can My Avatar Help My Retirement?”

Commercial Fishermen Teach Financial Planning Strategies

March 14, 2011

Earlier this week I flew home on Southwest airlines – got the A ticket so I had an aisle seat and my bag stowed and I was all settled in for my flight.  A young man in his early 30’s with a 9 month old baby was the last one to get on the plane.  There wasn’t much of a chance that he’d be able to find bin space for his bag and get situated with the baby so the young man next to me (named Steve) and I did the bag switch around, and seat switch to make it all happen so the dad could sit comfortably for the flight and not have to check his carry-on bag.  I ended up sitting between them. Rich (with the baby) was a talker and we three got to know each other on the flight home and surprisingly I learned something new about finances from these travelers. Continue reading “Commercial Fishermen Teach Financial Planning Strategies”

Retirement Preparedness: A Wake-Up Call for Generation X Investors

March 11, 2011

Talking with a group of pre-retirees, one of the people in the room (a born entertainer) used Styrofoam coffee cups as visual aids to illustrate his point.  We were talking about incomes and expenses during retirement, and he broke out into a comedy routine/illustration of his financial life.  He filled a big pitcher with water and filled the first cup, broke out a Sharpie and labeled it “Pension.”  He had been an employee of the phone company for 40 years and has a very solid pension income.  The next cup he labeled “Social Security” and he filled that cup about ¾ full.  The 3rd cup he put a few drops of water into and labeled it “Investments.”  He said the 401(k) plan arrived a little too late in his career and he had not participated until the last several years of his career, plus he had a number of children that all went to college which left his personal savings and investment balances rather low. Continue reading “Retirement Preparedness: A Wake-Up Call for Generation X Investors”

Cash Management: How to Manage the Extra Money in Your Pocket

February 23, 2011

Have you ever found yourself at the end of the week with a little extra cash lying around?  (I know, it doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, what exactly do you do with it?)  For many, they just simply find something to spend it on, and who wouldn’t.  I mean after all, you’ve worked hard all week to earn it, so why not enjoy it.  Well, I can’t argue with that, but there may be another reason why you’re not sure what to do with it: you lack financial goals. Continue reading “Cash Management: How to Manage the Extra Money in Your Pocket”

Car Buying: A Way to Save a Fortune

January 21, 2011

One of my neighbors was telling me about the car he was thinking about buying.  It’s not a flashy car, and he is very happy that he’s making a “frugal choice.”  Because it’s winter, he is concerned about driving in the snow and ice that is all too frequent in the Northeast, so he is buying a Subaru wagon with all wheel drive.  The car is a few years old and has roughly 50,000 miles on it.  The mega-store that has a no-haggling price structure is selling this particular car for ~$20,000. Continue reading “Car Buying: A Way to Save a Fortune”

3 Actions to Take in an Hour to Build Wealth

December 20, 2010

It’s very obvious to my friends and family that luck plays a dominant part in our fantasy football league.  Why?  Because I am tied for second place and will possibly make the play offs.  Everyone knows that I am not skilled enough to even determine if I am getting the wool put over my eyes on a basic trade and truthfully, I don’t know the difference between a wide receiver and a tight end.  Last year during my first season, my team finished dead last. Continue reading “3 Actions to Take in an Hour to Build Wealth”

Investing: Two Paths, One Goal

December 16, 2010

My wife and I recently took our last vacation for the year (boy did we need it). Because of the environment that we were in, it was easy to do some writing. This place – Cabo Pulmo — is off the beaten path, meaning no phones, no internet and no TV, so my wife and I got to spend some quality time bantering with my Dad and step-mom. When we were done with that we also took in some great hiking.

As we were hiking on one of the trails, I came across the inevitable “fork in the road.”  Now in hiking, invariably one trail is easier to take, less elevation gain, fewer obstacles, easier on the body, etc.  But it takes a longer time to reach the end of the hike. The other trail, more often than not, results in reaching the end quicker but you will climb higher faster and probably run into several obstacles that could also be more dangerous.

As I was hiking, I thought how this trail closely resembles the path(s) of the conservative and aggressive risk tolerance profiles.

The Conservative Investor: They will often have the bulk of their investable assets in cash or cash equivalents.  In order to reach a retirement goal, they may have to save a lot more which could take a bit longer, but they won’t have to deal with market fluctuations.

The Aggressive Investor: They may be able to reach their retirement goal sooner due to the potential higher return their investments could earn, BUT they will also have to deal with obstacles such as 2008.

The point here is that much like hiking, there isn’t one right way to reach your goal, just know which path is the right one for you.

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Target Fund: Glide To or Glide Through

November 22, 2010

I heard a statistic the other day that the average employee spends 30 minutes choosing their benefits at open enrollment.  I cringe to think how some people choose the funds in their 401(k) plans and I’ve seen the resulting disaster from people choosing the wrong funds especially funds they thought were safe and turned out to be much more aggressive than they thought.  Many of these were Target Funds. Continue reading “Target Fund: Glide To or Glide Through”

More is ALWAYS Better…(or is it?)

November 05, 2010

I saw the movie “Supersize Me” recently.  (Yeah, it’s been out a long time and I’m just now getting around to it!  But I HAVE seen every Disney and Pixar movie made in the last 10 years.)  One part of the message that I heard in the movie was that “We’re Americans! Bigger is better!!!”

The “bigger is better” mentality permeates our society, and excess is often rewarded.   Just look at any Red Carpet event and the attention heaped on celebrities for proof.  But, can this culture of excess be a bad thing financially?  I think so. Continue reading “More is ALWAYS Better…(or is it?)”

Are Target Date Funds a Good Idea?

July 20, 2010
Image courtesy of theilr/Flickr

There’s an awkward moment in virtually every conversation I have with HR executives about retirement plan education when they ask the question they’ve been waiting all meeting to ask:

“What do you think of target funds?”

(Translation: “We have target date funds in our plan, we used to think they were a great idea, but they’ve performed terribly and employees don’t seem to understand them. Now I’m wondering if we made a big mistake.”)

Continue reading “Are Target Date Funds a Good Idea?”

Why We Practice What We Preach

July 15, 2010

Picture a gorgeous sunny day sitting in the backyard relaxing on one of those (seemingly) rare days off. Feet up on the table, cold glass of (pick beverage of your choice) and an interesting magazine at the ready, when out of nowhere my wonderful wife states that it might be a good time to review our retirement. I pause a moment and think to myself, “Sure why not, it’s been about a year, we’re due,” and so I smile and say “Great idea! Let’s do it.” She smiles and breathes a contented sigh as she quietly states, “Good, because I REALLY want to retire in 5 years.” Continue reading “Why We Practice What We Preach”

Does Your Wellness Program Include a Wealth Factor?

July 13, 2010

I just got off the phone today with an employee who remembered a quote I had made during a recent Retirement Readiness workshop he had attended where I talked about the 3 ingredients to a secure retirement – Health, Wealth, and Happiness. I was so amazed he remembered it, but he said he had never thought about how his health could impact his retirement, and it had really struck a chord with him. Our health is very important, since all the money in the world can’t buy back our physical well-being. However, our finances DO have an impact: money problems are the number one cause of stress and stress-related illness.

Continue reading “Does Your Wellness Program Include a Wealth Factor?”