Personal liability umbrella policies can protect you from a disastrous lawsuit. Insurance agents love to sell these policies by citing our litigious society. But do you really need one? Like many issues in financial planning, it depends. Personal liability umbrella policies provide additional personal liability coverage on top of the coverage provided by your homeowners […]
You want to improve your credit score quickly but are unsure how to do so. In short, pay all your bills on time and use only one-third of your available credit each month. Doing these two things consistently will generate positive credit information that will raise your score. You can also lessen the impact of […]
Have you performed a financial integrity check? I was intrigued by how this life coaching technique pioneered by Martha Beck, the celebrated master life coach, could be applied to your finances. A recent article in BusinessWeek stoked my interest in an integrity check and a more in-depth integrity cleanse. In her life coaching experience, Beck describes […]
Creative use of a reverse mortgage line of credit can make your retirement more secure. Recent scholarship suggests that opening a reverse mortgage line of credit and not using it until it is necessary, if at all, creates the most downside protection if you run short of retirement savings. This strategy allows the line of […]
Helene, a soon to be single retiree, lamented the other day that she wished she had saved more. She didn’t have a pension and she was delaying claiming Social Security because she had longevity in her genes. She felt she was going to have to sell her condo (on which she still had about a […]
Graduates please pay attention to your finances. And parents heed this financial advice too if you haven’t been as vigilant as you could have been. Don’t avoid dealing with your finances because you don’t want to or don’t like math. If you avoid dealing with your finances now you will pay more in the long run […]
A client recently asked me to provide a second opinion on the investment advice he had been receiving about his brokerage (taxable) and retirement accounts. He felt the 1.0% fee was high and he didn’t know what questions to ask to determine if the portfolio’s performance justified the fee. I was happy to help. I […]
There seems to be a never-ending stream of evidence that high mutual fund fees depress fund performance and hurt investors’ return. The most recent article in the popular press explains why high mutual fees can hurt performance. Two interesting facts stick out. 1. Mutual fund fees make the difference between under- and over-performing a benchmark. With […]
Target date funds have become very popular as a simple way to save for your retirement. You pick the target date fund with the date closest to when you plan to retire (e.g., 2025, 2040, etc.). The fund gradually increases the proportion of bonds compared to stocks as the target date approaches. Asset allocation – […]
The Obama Administration recently finalized a rule to impose a fiduciary duty on financial advisors that offer retirement advice. This duty requires due care, loyalty, and utmost good faith when advising a client. This new rule puts investors’ retirement interests first and not the profit interest of the advisor selling a financial product. The rule […]
