I have recently been seeing a lot of questions in the press and hearing from client’s questions about life insurance. Since it is life insurance awareness month, I thought I would devote several blog entries to the topic of life insurance since it is a subject that is often misunderstood and overlooked.
Our industry spends a lot of time producing spreadsheets and other numerical financial reports that are presented in a very somber manner. It is almost as if the numbers are some sort of religious text filled with great meaning. I understand the numbers are important, but the spreadsheet approach to producing them ignores the real world. The next time someone in financial services presents you with a spreadsheet, listen to the words they use when showing you the numbers.
30 years ago, when I started out as a broker, I thought the key to financial security was investing well and getting a big rate of return. After all, I read many of the pundits telling me that I need to invest well. Growth Stocks, Commodities, Real Estate, etc. were the road to great wealth and financial security. Over the years, I have come to realize that Wall Street wants our focus there so that we won’t see what is really happening.
In my post from a few weeks ago, Should I stay or Should I Go?, I spoke about my research into how and why retirees were faced with this tough decision. Time and time again, I found that these folks had concentrated on getting their mortgage paid off as quickly as possible. They paid extra money on their mortgage or took out shorter term mortgages of 10 or 15 years. Because all of their “extra” money was going toward paying off their house, they delayed saving for retirement or their kids’ college until they finished. After all, their parents had told them debt was bad and they should pay it off as quickly as possible.
4 Critical Considerations For Every Mortgage Borrower Read More »
Summer is here and you are probably spending more time thinking about barbecues and vacations than retirement and paying for your kids college. Because of that, I understand if you don’t read this, but avoiding the signs on the wall could be harmful to your wealth.
How Would You Feel if Your Investments Lost 40%? Read More »
In one of the early scenes in “The Wolf of Wall Street” Matthew Mc Conaughey takes Leonardo Di Caprio out to lunch on his first day of work as a stock broker and goes into an explanation of what his job is going to be. “The name of the game is to move the money from your client’s pocket into yours” and DiCaprio replys, “If you can make money for your clients at the same time it’s advantageous for everyone, correct?” to which Mc Conaughey replies, “NO”. He goes on to explain how they get clients involved with blue chip stocks to start with and then move on to high commission high risk issues and trades them until nothing is left.
5 Lessons to be Learned from the “Wolf of Wall Street” Read More »
North Bay residents have embraced the concept of “going local” by purchasing goods and procuring services from locally owned, independently operated businesses. What they may not realize is that they can also apply that “local” mindset to the way they make investment and financial planning decisions.
This is one of the hardest decisions facing retired folks today. It is a discussion I have with my financial planning clients very early in our working together, regardless of their age. You see, the only correct answer is; “it depends”. I ask them if they can see themselves maintaining the property as they age.