The New Year offers an opportunity to take care of financial housekeeping and making slight adjustments can be necessary given IRS-driven changes. Here is a financial planning checklist to walk through at the beginning of… Read More
Retirement Income Planning
I’ve written about retirement income planning before, and at first glance it should be pretty simple. The idea of figuring out what expenses you’ll have and then lining up your sources of income and funds… Read More
What Investment Diversification Really Means
In my experience, nearly every investor knows that having a diversified portfolio is something they should do. Diversification, investors understand, helps reduce risk. But there is less knowledge around what diversification actually means. I’ve heard… Read More
What to Do About Rising Long Term Care Premiums
One of the more common questions I’ve gotten from clients over the past few years is whether or not they should maintain their long-term care coverage. The question isn’t surprising, both because carriers have increased… Read More
Thinking About Risk
When it comes to our own personal financial plans, we tend to think of risk as a bad thing. You avoid things that are risky, and the safer a plan is, the better. But risk… Read More
Holding the Line on Holiday Spending
One of the primary reasons I wanted to put a budget in place was for Christmas. After the fifth delivery on December 23rd, I realized we had a problem – or at least I had… Read More
Leaving Federal Service: Financial Issues to Consider When Taking a Job Outside the Government
One of the primary reasons clients begin working with us is job change. Beyond just a change in employer, there is usually a change in salary, benefits are different and you’ve got to decide what… Read More
Preparing for an Unexpected Death: Steps to Take Now
A lifelong friend of mine recently passed away, and it was a sudden and totally unexpected death. As a financial advisor, I deal with the possibility of death all the time. In the hundreds of… Read More
Federal Employees and the Impact on Retirement of No Raise
When President Trump announced several weeks ago that he was freezing pay for Federal employees, it had to feel like Groundhog Day. The top pay increase in the last 7 years came in 2010, and… Read More
How to Maximize Happiness: A Few Ways Money Can Make You Happy
We’ve all heard the adage that money can’t make you happy, but most of us realize that’s not quite true. If you don’t have enough to cover the necessities, more money will most certainly have… Read More