Blog

As an Accounting student at the University of Alabama, I was excited to accept a summer internship with BCR and learn more about the finance industry. Going into the summer, I was eager to see how I could apply my accounting skills to my time at BCR. I was also excited to come home to Birmingham for the summer and learn more about financial planning.

Walking into my first internship I really had no idea what to expect. You hear all of the horror stories like; “all I ever did was fetch coffee”, “all I do is make copies”, “I have learned nothing and just been given busy work all summer”, which made me nervous more so than I already was.

Everyone who keeps a budget overspends once in a while.  Even the most disciplined spender occasionally makes a purchase that wasn’t in the budget at the beginning of the month.  Doing this once in a blue moon won’t completely wreck your financial future; however, if you habitually overspend, it can prevent you from reaching your financial goals or aspirations.

Should you buy or sell the dip?

You probably noticed that after a week of edging downward the market outright fell yesterday. To quantify it, the S&P 500 fell 2.98% yesterday and is down 5.83% over the past five days.

Actively managed mutual funds are built on the hypothesis that their managers’ investing abilities are greater than everyone else’s investing abilities so that you can make more money than others that invest in a similar asset class.  They typically ask for higher compensation to pay for their talent’s abilities.  Human nature wants us to believe that we can pick whi

How long you will live is a critical (pun intended) part of a successful financial plan.  After all, the most common goal our clients have relayed to us is never to risk outliving their assets.  Life expectancy has been on the rise throughout history particularly for those with means. 

One of the many doors that opens when you retire is the option to move.  Where you live is no longer dependent upon where you work.  If you want to stay in your current home, you can get the benefits of familiar surroundings and enjoy having the time to become more deeply engaged in your community. 

IRAs, or Individual Retirement Accounts, are an essential part of a sound financial plan for retirement.  There are two basic types of accounts: the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA. Chances are you’ve heard of both, but how do you know which one is right for you?

When people hear the word "budget," they tend to equate it with “restrictions” – how much they can afford to spend, what they’re allowed to spend it on, and capping overall spending so they can save more.  They think about recording every penny that goes out so they can see where they’ve gone over-budget and how they can make up for it.

Many students leave college with something more than a shiny new degree: they also leave with a handful of student loans.  Keeping up with multiple payments can be a huge hassle, and many people want to refinance their student loans to simplify the repayment process and save money.