CategoriesLife Insurance, Retirement Income, Risk by

Life Insurance Is an Investment!

What’s the best way to invest in your future?

Life insurance is an investment…in more ways than one.

 

For all its benefits, only 54% of Americans have some form of life insurance, which means there’s a pretty good chance that you’re one of the millions of adults without this vital form of coverage.

Perhaps you think you can’t afford it. Or you’re overwhelmed by all the options in the marketplace. Maybe you simply don’t like thinking about your own mortality.

However, I think more people should review life insurance as part of their overall retirement and family planning. Read More

How to Stay Retired
CategoriesRetirement, Retirement Income by

How to Stay Retired

Retirement should last the rest of your life.

Here are some tips on how to stay retired.

 

If you were to ask soon-to-be-retired Americans what they plan to do during their retirement, you’d probably get a huge range of answers: see the grandkids, travel, start a new hobby.

But if you were to ask those same people how long they would like retirement to last, you would likely get the same answer over and over again: “The rest of my life, of course!”

These are the Golden Years, and you want to spend them doing the things you enjoy at your own pace. After all, no one wants to retire and travel the world for 10 years…only to have to go back to work at the ripe old age of 75.

In short, you don’t just want to be retired, you want to stay retired! Read More

CategoriesInvestor Education, Life Insurance, Retirement, Retirement Income, Roth IRA, Traditional IRA by

8 Tax Free Investments You Should Know About

“Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin was certainly right about a lot of things over his lifetime. And it absolutely feels like taxes are unavoidable, but are they really? Well, no! There are certain investment types that are completely tax-free.

While you probably shouldn’t be too concerned with dropping the amount of taxes you pay each year down to zero, understanding how your investments can impact your taxes and using that to your advantage is a great way to maximize your money. Read More

CategoriesFinancial Planning, Income Tax Planning, Real Estate Investing, Retirement by

Should I Pay Off My Mortgage?

All the financial experts say debt is bad.

Should I pay off my mortgage as early as I can?

Sooner or later, every homeowner begins to dream about the day when they own their home free and clear. No more mortgage payments…extra money each month to invest…what’s not to love?

Even financial experts like Dave Ramsey are known for singing the praises of ridding yourself of any and all debt—including your mortgage.

Whether this is a realistic goal or not, it leaves many homeowners wondering, “Should I pay off my mortgage early?”

Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple yes or no answer, but I can (hopefully) put your mind at ease about getting out of debt. Read More

CategoriesFinancial Planning, Investor Behavior, Investor Education by

Everyone Has Their Own Investment Playbook

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that Tom Brady has made it to the Super Bowl a few times. Ten, to be exact.

You may also know that he didn’t win all of those. In fact, he lost three of them. Even the GOAT of football had a strategy that didn’t work every single time. So what does that mean for your investment strategy? Read More

CategoriesFinancial Planning, Income Tax Planning by

How Charitable Contributions Affect Your Finances

When you donate money to charity, it not only can make a big difference in someone’s life, it can also reduce your tax liability by lowering your taxable income. Contributions are tax deductible only if made to a qualified organization.

Are you wondering how charitable contributions can affect your finances? Keep reading to find out how giving to charity can benefit your funds. Read More

How Do I Maximize My Social Security Benefits?
CategoriesFinancial Planning, Financial QB TV Videos, Retirement Income, Social Security by

How Do I Maximize My Social Security Benefits?

If you’ve worked for any portion of your life, you’re probably looking forward to the day when you can retire and collect your social security benefits. But you’ve also probably spent some time worrying if social security will be enough to cover your expenses.

Luckily, there are ways to maximize those benefits. Read More

What Is a Money Market Account?
CategoriesAsset Allocation, Fixed Income by

What Is a Money Market Account?

A brand new year is starting and if you learned anything from 2020, it’s that you need to be prepared for those “what-if” scenarios.

Having adequate emergency reserves is important and consider making it part of your 2021 saving goals. You should always strive to have at the very least six months’ worth of your monthly expenses set aside in your emergency reserves.

There are several options that you can choose from if you want to start saving money for emergencies. One of the best and easiest options is using a money market account.

A money market account is a type of interest-earning savings account, and is intended to offer investors high liquidity with a very low level of risk. They are also insured by the FDIC.

Are you trying to open a money market account? Let’s go through how and why to start using a money market account successfully. Read More

Investing vs. Speculating
CategoriesInvestor Behavior, The Stock Market by

Investing vs Speculating

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Gamestop/Reddit saga on Wall Street. Since there’s a Netflix movie coming about the topic, I won’t go deep into detail, but the short version is this:

A group of retail investors (individuals who manage their own investments), noticed and attacked a trend in the stock market. Some people felt that an opportunity arose to play against the large hedge funds and the war was on. It made national news and a ton of money changed hands over the course of a few crazy weeks.

In the end, there were still more losers than winners and life goes on, but what is the real takeaway here? Were all of those people investing or speculating? What is speculating, exactly, anyway? Read More