Presidential Elections & The Stock Market: Is There a Correlation?
Does the upcoming election mean it's time to reassess your portfolio? A historical look at presidential elections & the stock market can help you decide.
How To Retire Early?
What if you're age 55 or older and you just don't want to wait until age 62 to retire? Many of you are stuck in that 50-58 age range where the thought of retirement can be a little scary. Let's look at some options.
Inflation Is The Silent Killer Of Your Retirement Plan
High Blood Pressure is often referred to as the silent killer of human beings. It has no obvious symptoms to indicate something is wrong. Many people don't even know they have it. It develops slowly over time and although it can't be cured but it can be managed. Your retirement plan has a similar killer...inflation.
Why "Beating The Market" Should Never Be Your Goal In Retirement
Yearly portfolio returns are literally meaningless in retirement and conversations about them put me into a deep REM type sleep. The only thing that matters in retirement is that you don't run out of money (also known as purchasing power). That's it! It turns out that "beating the market" or an imaginary benchmark in retirement doesn't really matter if you don't have two nickels to rub together and you're looking for a job when you could be hanging out with your grandkids.
Owning The Best Companies In The United States
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we’ve seen first hand how world events can affect the markets here in the United States. We’ve seen lots of market volatility since the beginning of the year. But guess what? The market is always volatile. And the reason for that is many investors make all their decisions based on emotion. And by doing this they blur the lines between volatility and risk. Risk and volatility are not the same thing. In fact, they aren’t even remotely related.
The Secret To Successful Investing
The secret to investing is complex. There is no silver bullet, there is no pill to take, there is no hot new stock, etc. Everyday we are bombarded by advertisers trying to sell us quick fixes to complex problems.
Are Annuities A Good Investment Option For Your Retirement?
If you are about to retire or already retired, chances are you've been approached or heard a pitch from an Annuity Salesman. (I'm referring to after market annuities in this blog. Not the annuity option available from your NRECA R&S Plan).
Try Something Different With Your Goals This Year
Happy New Year! It's that time of year when many of us resolve to change things for the coming year. We make a list of goals that we plan to stick to for the remainder of the following year. That’s great. What's not great is that the overwhelming majority of us don't stick to those goals. I can't actually prove why but my theory is that most of us have goals that create deprivation. Meaning our goal includes depriving ourselves of something we really like doing.
Investing For And During Retirement
Successful investing for retirement and in retirement is not that complicated. The planning process can be complicated, such as when to liquidate certain investments, how much cash to keep on hand, and sticking to your plan, but not the investing process isn’t hard at all.
Should I Be Investing In A Roth Account?
When reviewing the key differences between Roth accounts and Traditional accounts, it’s important to ask yourself: “When is the most advantageous time to pay tax on my income?”
Your Cooperative Annuity Payment Options Explained In English
You may be considering retirement from your cooperative this year. Most cooperatives that participate in the NRECA plan provide you with an annuity option, lump sum option or some variation of both options via your R&S pension plan. If you are not familiar with annuities and their payment options the choices can be a bit confusing. I'm going to list the options with plain definitions that are easy to understand in hopes that it can help you make an informed decision.
Football And Baseball Aren't The Same Game
Have you ever watched an NFL football game? While watching the game did you compare either team to your favorite baseball team? Probably not because they aren’t playing the same game. As a retirement income planner, I often get questions from clients and potential clients on outperforming the market or investment performance in general. Maybe they heard on the “financial news” that the market was up X percentage that day, month or even that year and they wonder why their retirement portfolio isn't up the same percentage. Well simply stated, I am not a day trader or short-term trader. I’m a long-term, goal focused, plan-driven investor. I’m not playing the same game as the so-called “experts” on TV and radio, etc. I’m not playing a day to day game. I’m not even playing a year to year game.
Volatility Isn't Risk And Temporary Decline Isn't Permanent Loss
It seems there are many people who can't distinguish between risk and volatility. Volatility isn't risk. They aren't the same thing at all.
What Should You Do If You Inherit An IRA?
If someone you love passes and leaves you as the beneficiary to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), what should you do? Like the answer to most personal finance questions, it depends.
Retirement Boils Down To One Simple Question
If you spent ten minutes this year reading economic forecasts, you've wasted ten minutes of your time that you'll never get back. By the way, time is your most valuable asset. Invest it wisely.
Three Types Of Financial Advisors And How They Get Paid
The three most common business structures that use the terms are Insurance Companies, Broker Dealers and Registered Investment Advisers. All three are very different in how they run their business and each will specialize in different areas.
