The price of long term care insurance is really going up. If you are a baby boomer and you have kept your eye on it for a few years, chances are you have noticed much costlier premiums for LTC coverage today compared to several years ago. For example, in 2015 the American Association for Long-Term…
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Marrying again makes estate planning more involved. How do you provide for everyone you love? Should you provide for everyone you love? How do you arrange to transfer wealth in a way that won’t hurt the feelings of certain heirs? If you have not planned your estate yet, take inventory. Spend a half-hour and jot…
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As a recent Bankrate.com article noted, 43% of Americans have no life insurance. Some view it as optional; some have simply procrastinated when it comes to buying a policy. Others believe that they can’t afford it. In reality, life insurance is cheap today. If you just want term life coverage – essentially life insurance that…
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An IRA is a retirement savings account, right? Indeed it is. IRA stands for Individual Retirement Arrangement. Even with that definition, however, there is no prohibition on using an IRA to save for other purposes, such as funding a college education. Why would anyone choose an IRA as a college savings vehicle? At first glance…
Read More“I’m no good on what going on in markets. I have no idea what will happen tomorrow or next week. They get very volatile like this and other times they put you to sleep. But the important thing is where they’re going in five or ten years. And I’m confident they’ll be considerably higher in…
Read MoreAs a young investor, you have a powerful ally on your side: time. When you start saving and investing for retirement in your twenties or thirties, you can put it to work for you. The effect of compounding is huge. Most people underestimate it, so it is worth illustrating. We will use reasonable annual return…
Read MoreRegardless of the source of the money, logically, we know the value is the same, but somehow, a dollar we earn is “worth” more than the dollar we find. Research shows that those who won money in a radio contest were more likely to spend the money than those who earned it by working overtime…
Read MorePerhaps money can’t buy happiness after all. Minecraft creator and billionaire Markus “Notch” Persson revealed over the weekend that he is extremely depressed and dissatisified with his life. This may come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever struggled to make ends meet. In September 2014, Persson sold Minecraft for $2.5 billion.With his newly acquired sudden…
Read MoreNo one knows what will happen tomorrow on Wall Street. Even the most esteemed analysts can only make educated guesses. As the old saying goes: past performance is not indicative of future results. All that said, the market has had many more positive years than negative years. The history of the S&P 500 is worth…
Read MoreInvestors are routinely warned about allowing their emotions to influence their financial decisions. They are less routinely cautioned about letting their preconceptions and biases color their financial choices. In a battle between the facts & our preconceptions, our preconceptions may win. If we acknowledge this tendency, we may be able to avoid some unexamined choices…
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