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Annuities are a popular sales product of commissioned salespeople in the insurance and investment world.  Ask someone about an annuity they purchased and 9 out of 10 times they will say it was sold to them, not “I bought” or “I chose” an annuity.  Many offer promises of guaranteed rates of return, income for life and tax avoidance.  But those promises only

Now and then someone asks me how to decide if a car should be repaired or replaced. Of course, I also have had to face this decision. Here’s thoughts on possible considerations to take into account, and of course, the decision may rest on the specific facts and circumstances.

Most experts suggest carrying enough disability insurance to replace 60-65% of your gross earnings with non-taxable benefits.  The reasoning behind this suggestion is that the other 35% of income you're not replacing equals the estimated amount of taxes that are withdrawn from your paycheck, savings you needed to do while working and other expenses that would go away if you weren&rsquo

I recently received counterfeit bills in change from the grocery store.  Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to paste a “5” over the “1s” at the corners of the bill.  I thought it seemed like an awful lot of work and a lot of jail time to do (if you get caught) for only four dollars! Turns out, it’s actually common practice.

When people talk about retirement planning, they generally mean “planning” in the financial sense.  That kind of planning is a big job, and it’s not uncommon for couples to leave their focus there and neglect to plan for what they want day-to-day life to be like during retirement. 

It’s not uncommon for people to comment on my success and ask me to share some of the keys that have helped me achieve what I have accomplished.  This is always an incredibly hard question to answer because I know that part of what people are looking for are things they can do themselves.  I could give a myriad of answers about education, the family values that were instilled in

How long has it been since you accessed your smartphone? An hour? 15 minutes? Maybe you’re using it right now to read this blog post. With the advanced capabilities of our smartphones today, it’s no wonder we spend several hours a day using our mobile devices. We use it to count our steps, help us navigate, edit photos, deposit checks, among many other tasks.

People often ask financial advisors if we have any ideas on how they can save more for things like retirement or college or dream trips around the world.  The answer is always yes, but some of our suggestions are not always welcomed with open arms. 

Most people are familiar with the concept of having to pay capital gains tax on the profits from the sale of a house if the sale meets certain conditions.  If you aren’t familiar with them, the standard rules are that single people can exclude $250,000 of profit from the sale of house from taxes; married or unmarried people who jointly own can exclude $500,000.   

One of the hardest things for financial planners to help people accomplish is correcting financial decisions that weren't sufficiently thought through at the outset.  In failing to ask the right questions before making a decision, people frequently cheat themselves out of the ability to have more money and a more comfortable lifestyle in the future.  And they sometimes place thems