I don’t normally make predictions because the future is un-knowable and why try to predict something with low probability of success? However, I decided to take a swipe at making guesses in the personal finance arena this year and divide them into Low and High probability categories for fun. Here we go. Low Probability Predictions … Read more
It’s the time of the year when I look back at how far we’ve come since January a year ago. Here are seven economic trends that helped shaped personal finances for 2021. Pandemic persists. A year-ago, we were hoping for wide-spread distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and we got that. Remarkable! We also hoped for herd … Read more
Someone who is close to retirement may be un-aware of a major challenge they’ll face when they no longer have regular earned income. The trap looming in the shadows is how to evolve an investment strategy from a growth mode to an income mode. Let me illustrate this pitfall with an example of a couple … Read more
Inflation has been front page news the last few months. Normal inflation is okay and necessary for a growing economy. However, rapidly rising inflation is a problem when it starts to raise the price of many items faster than wages increase. And that’s what’s happening now. Inflation is higher than it’s been in over 30 … Read more
According to a recent survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, 57% of workers plan to work after they retire. Reasons cited for working after retirement include: To be active Wanting the income Keeping brain alert Have a sense of purpose Concern that Social Security will be less than expected Can’t afford to retire … Read more
When you’re thinking about retirement, there are numerical and quality of life factors you will consider. Quality of life issues include where you live, what you do and who you do things with. Speaking of where you might live in retirement, according to U.S. News and World Report, the 10 best places to retire in … Read more
This is a true story that is happening to one of my long-time clients. This client, we’ll call her Betty, had worked hard in her career, and planned for her retirement carefully. She knew her retirement numbers including her income floors, when she would take Social Security and what she could comfortably spend in retirement … Read more
Last week a client said he knows we pay attention to the climate and not the weather, but he still wanted our take on what he should do with his investment portfolio right now. It’s a great line “pay attention to the climate and not the weather.” And it’s true. We don’t much care if … Read more
We often received questions about why housing costs are so high. This issue comes from people in different situations; first-time home buyers, people wanting to move up and people looking to sell and realizing it’s hard to find a new home. Let’s look at home prices and see if we can shed some light on … Read more
Someone asked me this question recently while I was attending a community event. Some people ask questions like this when they find out what I do for a living. It’s always difficult to find an answer for a question like this. On the one hand, the person may be genuinely curious about how their retirement … Read more