Interest rates are coming down? At Tuesday’s Fed meeting, the Board of Governors voted to lower interest rates by 25 basis points, and will now be targeting a range of 4.00% – 4.25%. They also hinted, in typical Fed speak, that additional modest rate cuts would be expected later this year. While this outcome was largely anticipated by financial markets, it is still a positive economic indicator. Generally speaking, when interest rates fall: Mortgage rates […]
The world of wealth management is filled with stories of inherited wealth ruining people. There’s something infantilizing about not having to figure out how to earn a living. Earning a living is a hard nut to crack: what can you do that people will pay money for? Money sufficient to get an apartment, food, and health insurance, in addition to a car, cellphone, vacations… It’s a huge rite of passage to conquer this quest. It’s […]
Congratulations, you’ve done the work to figure out when to start claiming Social Security and realized it’s sometime in the next four months. WHEN to claim is a separate issue from how to sign up. It depends on whether you’re claiming under your spouse’s earnings, whether you’re widowed, whether you’re likely to live past 77, whether you’re still contributing to a Health Savings Account, how much you’re earning this year, and whether you’ll starve […]
{I recently had the opportunity to meet with some people in their late teens to answer their questions. This is the letter I wrote them afterward.} The thing with being an adult is that you generally have to hear the same information from a couple of different directions before it starts to gel. So the stuff I talked with you about last night is once, and this email can be a second, and then when […]
Traditional IRAs and most workplace retirement plans, like 401(k)s, for example, are tax-deferred. That sounds great when you’re adding money to them: no taxes now, deferred growth, wuhoo! But tax-deferred is NOT tax-avoided. The tax bill always comes due. The world of IRAs is super-complex, as is the world of income-tax brackets. They come together in a perfect storm of complexity. HOWEVER, there are some easier pieces to explain. Without getting into every scenario and […]
This is a book you can write after a lifetime of forming connections, reading deeply, and gaining the wisdom to integrate it all. I cannot think of a single thing I’d change in this book if I were writing it. It combines clear writing with up-to-date accurate information. I’ve read entire books on subjects she covered in a chapter and feel like she nailed it concisely. Annuities? Life Insurance? Becoming a landlord? When to start […]
A friend mentioned that I ought to read something by Bogle so I trotted down to the library to fetch one the other day. Our library didn’t have any in stock so I ordered it through inter-library loan, but in the meantime I picked up a few books from the same section of the library shelves. So I just finished reading “The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed: the only personal finance system for people […]
A client asked me if I had any financial literacy suggestions for teenagers. It kicked off a reading festival! Here are my notes. Years ago I read Suze Orman’s Young Fabulous and Broke and I was underwhelmed. She seems to think that everyone is as clueless as she was and needs to have a come-to-Jesus moment and she’ll tell you how. Most people I know just want to know some facts and they’ll integrate them into their […]
