What do you think about when you hear the words “financial advisor”?
High pressure sales techniques, obscure products with hidden fees, secret incentives to agents – the list is long and rather unflattering. How did we get here? And, more importantly, how can you choose the right professional to partner with if you don’t want to undertake managing your own money?
Read MoreBetween catastrophes, fake news and fear-mongering everywhere, it’s hard to know what we should worry about these days. Tornadoes and floods? Artificial Intelligence taking over the world? Iowa Hawkeyes winning the big game?
Read MoreIf you are thinking about a financial plan, start with some soul-searching.
Simple automated retirement calculators are everywhere these days. Just run a quick Internet search, and the tools might just convince you that financial planning is all about filling in the blanks.
Read MoreWhat is comprehensive financial planning, why you need it, and how it relates to your investments.
The subject of comprehensive financial planning tends to scare people away. Get ready to demystify it in the next 10 minutes!
Read MoreThe year 2017 ended with much anticipation and uncertainty because of the timing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Signed into law on December 22, 2017, this is the most comprehensive set of changes to the tax legislature in several decades. Any time you combine uncertainty and money, misunderstandings and confusion abound.
Our firm sent out a just-in-time email with the summary of the new tax law back in December in an effort to help you stay informed. This article is an opportunity to dive a little deeper into the new set of rules, as well as to address a few of the questions that you have been asking our team. If technical details of the tax law aren’t your cup of tea, feel free to skim that section and jump right into the FAQs (we know that for every client question we get, ten more clients are wondering about the same thing!)
Read MoreLooking at the active, vibrant and well-educated Boomer clients that I am honored to work with, I often wonder: do we need to re-define retirement?
After all, just a decade or two ago retirement meant sitting by a fireplace in the rocking chair and whiling the days away playing Bingo at a local senior center. My clients today seem to have a different set of ideas as they envision a future of travel, exciting new projects and, for some, even no retirement at all! Those new developments create a need for a very different set of conversations that go beyond “what would be your ideal retirement age?” and “what is your monthly budget in retirement?”
Read MoreWe associate retirement with constraints. However, it can be turned into a beautiful constraint by focusing on unique opportunities at the intersection of retirement and taxes.
See Part 1 of this mini-series.
Read MoreContrary to a common belief, Social Security benefits are not automatically tax-free. The idea of “100% tax free Social Security benefits” persists because things used to be that way in the original design of the Social Security plan. Nothing lasts forever, so 50% of Social Security benefits became subject to income tax in 1983. In 1993, the potentially taxable portion of your check expanded to the maximum of 85%.
Read MoreBeing in the financial industry, Ponzi schemes happen more often than I like to hear, but it’s especially concerning when it hits close to home. In this case, Jeremy Lundin of Mound, allegedly stole almost $1,000,000 from local investors and never invested a penny. Jeremy, the owner of Big Island Capital (named after a popular hangout on Lake Minnetonka), promised investors “exponential returns” with very little risk.
Read MoreIncomplete plans can be disastrous. A man named Carl McCunn learned this painful lesson amid the chilling landscape of Alaska. The wildlife photographer arranged for a bush pilot to fly him to an isolated region hundreds of miles north of Fairbanks. He carried enough provisions for his five-month excursion.
Read MoreIn September of 2012 astronauts were tasked with repairing a main switch on the International Space Station. When a bolt with damaged threads became stuck, the crew faced potential power loss. They would need to clean and lubricate the bolts to access the area. The solution? A simple electronic toothbrush. The hack worked, and the mission succeeded.[i] Sometimes alternative solutions are best.
Read Moren the late 18th century Austrians were amazed at a mechanical man who could play chess. He became known as the Mechanical Turk. The automaton, consisting of gears and levers, could engage any player in a game while exhibiting stunning skill for a machine. Of course, people eventually learned it was a hoax. A man hidden under the playing table operated the arms.
Read MoreIf you are a financial nerd like me you look forward to the Davos Economic Forum every year. It's an event held in Davos Switzerland where great economic minds and financial leaders get together and discuss the state of world from a financial persepctive. If you don't have time to watch hours of coverage you can take a look at our quick guide and see the key takeaways from this years meetings. Just click on the image below for a little lite reading this weekend!
Read MoreToday is another article from the Fee-Only Financial Advisor Blog Sharing Group. This group is made up of other like-minded financial advisors from around the country. The purpose of the group is to share useful content and spread the word about the virtues of Fee-Only financial advice.
Read MoreDespite a growing selection of funds investors have centralized around a passive, low-cost strategy. Major names in the financial world have long touted the benefits of a passive approach. Vanguard founder John Bogle has become the face of the movement when he launched the first S&P 500 index fund available to the public in 1975.
Read MoreIf we look at society and societal norms, a lot of weight is given to success when it comes to defining happiness. If we see a person who is successful, it is often assumed that they are happy. On an existential level we should consider what it all means. In reality, we actually have no idea whether or not that person is either happy or successful; for a couple of reasons: First of all, we can only measure someone else’s success or happiness by what we know about them.
Read MoreJohn and Sally have been married 5 years. The 35-year-old computer programmer works at a major software company, while Sally, 32, works part-time as a freelance photographer and full-time as the mother of a 3-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter.
Read MoreWe have another excellent blog post from the Financial Advisor Blog Sharing Group. As a reminder, this includes like-minded financial advisors from around the country. All the participating financial advisors are Fee-Only meaning the advice is objective and free from conflicts of interest. This article is from Dave Fernandez of Wealth Engineering. His article is all about RMDs.
Read More2015 was not the best show for the stock market. The S&P 500 ended the year up only a mere 3 percent. That may seem like a tiny return, especially when considering that not too long ago in 2013, the index surged 30 percent. This year has been similar (albeit slightly better) with the markets up but still only single digits.
Read MoreWith the holidays coming up, many people are already planning on how they want to make their charitable gifts before the end of the year. There is a a little known account called a Donor Advised Fund that offers an easy way to make your donation "early" and give the money away later.
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