You have worked hard all your life. You love your heirs and want to provide for them after your death. You have good intentions. Yet most Americans make critical mistakes in their estate planning that eviscerate their wealth and leave their heirs scrambling to figure out what went wrong. Here are the biggest estate-planning mistakes [...]
Financial advice is unique. Most of it is dead wrong. The advice given by brokers (or “financial consultants,” as they like to be called) frequently has nothing at all to support it. If you ask most financial advisers about cash value life insurance, this is what you will hear: Buy term and invest the difference. [...]
Winters are long and cold where I live in the Northeast. When summer finally arrives, all you want to do is take advantage of the warmer weather-whether it’s riding a jet ski at the lake or taking a dip in the pool at home. These “toys” are what summer’s all about, but there’s always that [...]
The recession and market turbulence have made the dire financial situation facing some baby boomers much worse. Few were prepared for retirement before the financial crisis. Most are hopelessly behind in their retirement savings. Consider these statistics: By some estimates, almost 10 percent of retirees have children dependent on them for financial support. Almost 33 [...]
When I met Karen, she was earning $17,000 a year. Today, if you account for inflation, that would be about $45,000 a year. (See the nifty inflation calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) Karen set aside enough money to buy a rental condominium at Port Hueneme, California, and a vacant lot with a magnificent [...]
Bonds confuse most investors. The securities industry likes it that way. The more you believe investing is just too complex to figure out on your own, the likelier it is that you will need the services of a “financial consultant.” Going down that road is often the beginning of a frustrating journey (for you-the consultant [...]
You have no doubt been reading a lot about the volatility index lately. Before I tell you why I believe it is irrelevant, let me first tell you what it is. The Chicago Board Options Exchange established a volatility index (VIX). The VIX is not a measure of how volatile the markets have been. It [...]
No more school, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks! Remember when you looked forward eagerly to summer? When you were finally released in June, you flew out those schoolhouse doors and didn’t look back! You didn’t realize how much your parents dreaded those months, with you at loose ends while they had to [...]
There’s a lot of misinformation about annuities. That’s not surprising, since the term “annuity” is applied to a variety of dissimilar investments. These investments are also quite complex, which seems to suit the insurance industry. Complexity makes it more difficult for investors to separate good annuity investments from the bad. I divide annuities into three [...]
It’s great that you’re saving for retirement. You’re probably taking advantage of a 401(k) plan, a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or some combination of these retirement plans. However, you can undo all the good by making a single bad decision with these accounts, costing you dearly in taxes and penalties. Fortunately, it’s easy to [...]
