What to do about health care is one of the major decisions that everyone faces when getting close to retirement. A lot of people delay retirement until they reach age 65 because they don’t want to lose their employer-sponsored health plan. Even if they are financially able to retire, they will often continue to work […]
Category: Blog Posts
It’s No Secret: A Health Savings Account Can Make a Big Difference
A health savings account is the best type of investment account available that most people don’t know anything about. It can be better than a 401(k), an IRA, and even a Roth IRA. Those accounts are good, but this one is even better. Maybe it’s not well known because of its name? Maybe people think […]
Should I Pay Off My Mortgage?
Picture this: Through your hard work and discipline, you have accumulated a relatively significant amount of savings outside of your retirement accounts. You have more than enough cash set aside in your emergency fund, which is your safety net, and you are thinking about whether you should use some of your excess savings to pay […]
The Different Flavors of Risk
When we look at the performance of the investment markets so far in 2017, something seems to be missing. We know that it’s there. We can feel it. But we just haven’t seen it in a while. Our monthly and quarterly statements look pretty good, and most of the asset classes we own are doing […]
Medicare—Which Path Is Right for You?
Enrolling in Medicare is not a simple process. As you approach age 65, there are several decisions that need to be made. Making a wrong decision, based on your circumstances, can have a big impact on your finances and your health insurance coverage. In the first part of this series on Medicare (Medicare Enrollment—Not As […]
A Reversal on Reverses? Not Yet, But Getting Closer
I first learned about reverse mortgages approximately 20 years ago. I was working for a major Wall Street brokerage firm, and it was common practice for financial product wholesalers to visit our offices and pitch their product to us, hoping that we would introduce it to our clients. Reverse mortgages were a pretty new concept […]
Second Verse, Same as the First
If you have a little less hair now than you’ve had in the past, or if the hair you do have is some variation of the color of silver, you might recognize the title of this post. It’s a line from the Herman’s Hermits’ 1965 hit version of the song “I’m Henry the Eighth, I […]
Is Your Advisor a Fiduciary All of the Time?
You may have heard some news in the financial press about the so-called “Fiduciary Rule.” It is a new rule that is supposed to make sure that financial advisors always act in the best interest of their clients when providing financial advice. It might be surprising to you that we needed such a rule. I […]
Consider Yourself Warned: Stocks Will Go Lower … Sometime
When (and if) it finally happens, you won’t be able to say you weren’t warned. The media has certainly been warning you. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see a headline from a newspaper, a television show, or some website about the upcoming crash, correction, or bursting bubble that is coming […]
Work Hard, Save Your Money, and Don’t Forget to Stop and Smell the Roses
When I was a teenager, one of my favorite musicians was Mac Davis, a crossover country and pop star whose hits included “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” and “One Hell of a Woman.” I still remember one summer, when I was about 15 or 16 and working at the Ohio State Fair. He was […]