The phrases “car guy” and “financial advisor” don’t normally go together. The average American owns 13 cars in his or her lifetime at a current average cost of $30,000 per car. If your goal is… Read More
Prioritizing Paying Down Debt versus Savings
Things are going well. Your income is up, expenses are steady and you’ve got money left over at the end of every month. You’re not planning on spending the excess cash, so you face a… Read More
How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
If you read the last blog post I wrote on insurance, you understand why term life insurance is usually a better option than whole life insurance. As I covered in that post, we typically use… Read More
A Few Thoughts on Debt and Financial Planning
In 21st century America, the list of things that are more common than debt is depressingly small. From mortgages to student loans to credit cards, the types of debt and the terms of that debt… Read More
Roth IRA or Traditional IRA – What Works Best for You?
One of the questions clients ask most often is whether they should invest in a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA. There is no one right answer – as with most issues in financial planning, it… Read More
Retirement Planning: Keep a Pension or Cash it In
Not so many years ago, financial advisors viewed retirement planning as a 3-legged stool. The first leg was a pension, the second social security and the third being the retiree-to-be’s savings. In the intervening years,… Read More
What We Can All Learn from Financial Planning for Teachers
When my aunt founded Minerva nearly 30 years ago, one of the first groups for whom she did a good deal of work were teachers. At the time, the State was looking for assistance with… Read More
Choosing Between Whole Life and Term Life Insurance
One of the most frequent questions clients ask us about life insurance is what type of insurance they should purchase, whole life or term life insurance. Whole life policies are still popular among some agents,… Read More
Money Issues: Couples Combining Finances
Many couples encounter money issues at some point, so if you and your significant other approach money the same way, consider yourself fortunate. After 15 years of working as an advisor, I’ve found that most… Read More
Investing Outside the Public Markets – Things to Consider
When you have money to invest, everyone will have investing ideas. Some of those ideas might strike you as attractive, particularly if the market has been in the doldrums and your “traditional” portfolio of equities… Read More