Posts by ssolares

Do you know the quickest way to silence the chattiest neighbor on a plane?  Tell him you sell life insurance. You’re guaranteed to be left alone for the rest of the flight. Is it fair that life insurance salespeople have such a bad reputation? Sure, there are a lot of bad apples that have tainted…

What is disability insurance? While our homes may be the greatest financial asset on our balance sheet, until we become financially independent, our ability to produce an income is a much greater financial asset. Once we have enough asset-producing income, our ability to produce earned income becomes less important. Until you become financially independent and…

What is health insurance? Health insurance provides coverage for medicine, visits to the doctor or emergency room, hospital stays, and other medical expenses, if you are injured or sick. There are several different types of health insurance plans, but the most common are the following three: 1) HMO – HMOs provide a wide variety of…

A homeowner’s policy covers your residence, but you already knew that. What you might not know is that not all homeowner’s policies are created equal. The biggest challenge with homeowner’s (and auto) policies is that the policies are familiar—everyone already has one and thinks they know everything they need to know about it already. Yet,…

You probably think you have a pretty good idea about auto insurance, but little-known tips and tricks can have a dramatic impact on your financial plan.  Most auto policies automatically provide both property liability and bodily injury liability for accidents where you are legally responsible. Auto policies also offer medical payments, collision, comprehensive, uninsured/underinsured coverage,…

The best financial plans can go up in smoke (sometimes literally) in a matter of seconds. Insurance provides the best defense for situations that are impossible to predict, control, and prevent. But what insurance do you need? And how much should you have? The next few sections will show you how to survive when and…

In a typical cross-country flight, the plane is on autopilot 98% of the time. Does this mean the pilots are unnecessary? I don’t know about you, but I want an experienced pilot in the cockpit to fly the remaining 2% of time and to immediately take over if there’s a problem. Managing your finances is…

It’s Time to Invest! Now that you’ve created separate investment accounts for each of your major goals, identified the best Investment Strategy based on your Investment Personality, and classified your goals based on their timeframe, it’s time to get down to business. It’s time to invest! To help you reach your goals as quickly and…

You’ve heard the saying, “Time is money,” right? When it comes to investing, it’s absolutely true! The more time you have to reach your goal, the more your investments can help you. But before you can create an asset allocation and start buying mutual funds, you need to determine the initial timeframe for each goal.…

Each Investment Personality requires a specific Investment Strategy. If you have a Hands-Off Investment Personality, you aren’t going to want to read the Wall Street Journal every morning, track the Federal Reserve’s decisions, and perform regular research on your investments. Likewise, if you have a Consumed Investment Personality, there’s no way you’re going to be…