Regulation and centralized planning have caused financial instability and failing institutions. If this is the root cause, then many of the proposed solutions will only make matters worse.
One area where Brazil has excelled is making headway toward energy independence.
The essence of successful financial planning is using your money to meet your life’s goals. Curiously our minds tend to fall prey to the fallacy that behavioral finance calls “mental accounting”.
Tax rebate stimulus checks are a cheap and inefficient gimmick.
The subprime mortgage meltdown has cost the world 15% of its market capitalization, about $9 trillion. The primary culprit who caused all of this financial loss, pain and suffering is not the mortgage companies.
A $360,000 investment can remove over $2 million from their taxable estate, savings $900,706 in estate taxes.
Avoid debt and don’t burden your family with any expenses after you are gone.
Historically, income taxes have not been this low since 1931.
Scrooge’s riches did not make him happy. Fezziwig’s celebration did not make him poor.
Last week we listed the ways university student are enticed into using credit cards. This week we will examine the economical impact of those initially small and convenient monthly payments.
Although 60% of college student’s pay off their balance each month, that leaves 40% who do not.
Most people want to honor their debt. But many families have allowed their debt to spiral out of control, and they feel helpless, ashamed, and at a loss to know what to do. While bankruptcy isn’t anyone’s first choice, sometimes it is an important choice to consider.
If you don’t have the time or the interest, you may be the problem.
Financial planning is the process of aligning your financial choices with your life passions. Values transcend the cash and the numbers.
Although the lender almost always wins, a reverse mortgage does offer a Band-Aid solution to pending cash flow problems.
The party’s over for home owners who sought the lower initial payments of ARMs.
Canada is the one major country that is not included in the EAFE (Europe, Australia, and Far East) foreign index. Not only are they good neighbors but a good investment.
Community college for the first two years is the best deal to avoid the mountains of student debt and still graduate from a top-rate school.
Due to our progressive tax system, your taxes increase even if your buying power does not.
Between 40 and 60 you should increase your net worth by half your annual take home pay every year.
Do whatever it takes. Ask your mother-in-law to hold your credit cards while you are getting out of debt.
Credit bureaus charge to see your credit score. Save your money.
Beware of bogus credit companies claiming to offer free credit reports in order to gather your personal information.
Poor families with children will subsidize millionaire seniors.
Reunification of the country has put a drag on economic growth.
Hard work can’t always overcome Italian bureaucracy.
You can smooth your returns without any of hedge fund’s drawbacks.
As Hedge funds grow in popularity, beware of following the lemmings.
Many people are afraid of having their retirement progress assessed.
“April is the month,” one wit noted, “when the green returns to the lawn, the trees and the Internal Revenue Service.”
Keeping control of your finances means that you can have more fun with your money.
“Do I really want to spend my money in this way?”
The value of any asset category does not go in one direction forever. The housing prices boom shows signs of weakness, and that they may correct or at least under perform for the next few years.
If the S&P were a financial advisor it would say, “Let’s buy mostly large cap growth stocks in the industry that did well last year with a high price per earnings ratio.”
The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away. This is true even when running a federal deficit.
Voting for government entitlement programs is like being generous with your neighbor’s credit card.
Don’t put off the things that truly matter to you until you have more time. You will never have any more time than what you are given each day.
One of my favorite Christmas movies is the version of “A Christmas Carol” starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. I confess that I understand Scrooge’s character.
In addition to registering for a blender and picking floral arrangements, make sure that your marriage has the financial accounts and monetary habits necessary to meet your shared financial goals.
The current distorted tax system has resulted in a steady decline of dividend payouts over the past two decades and was a major contributing factor in the stock market bubble of 1999 and recent three-year bust.
The Stock Market will Drop Further.
When (not if) the Federal Reserve Board increases interest rates, this will bring the stock-market party to an end as higher interest will cause both stocks and bonds to fall in value.
Periodically, investors should review their portfolios with a view toward rebalancing the assets.
Big Government has become a vast machine to redistribute income from those who earn it to those who yearn for it.
In 1996, President Clinton said that “the era of big government is over?”