Financial planning is important, but life planning is better. A financial plan is a finite service, a one-time event. Life planning takes financial planning to a higher level. It's enduring, vibrant, and active. It's proactive. It's forever, and forever is a long time!
I've run several marathons...
Timing is everything.
Arcangelo won the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes with a winning time of two minutes and 29 seconds. If he raced Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont, he would've lost by 5 seconds, a wide margin.
Carl Lewis set the world record for the 100-meter dash in 1991 with a time...
Zero sugar. Zero emissions. Zero fees. The number zero is popular these days as people pursue more with less, and investment giants like Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab continually shave basis points from their expense ratios to remain uber-competitive.
The Wall Street Journal recently published...
Is it time to buy bonds? The Federal Reserve interest rate hikes decimated bonds, wiping out years of gains, and if you own bonds, you feel the pain. Long-term government bonds lost money for five years, while stocks produced stellar profits. Over the past decade, the S&P 500 is up 221%, and bonds...
I don't like chaos. My anxiety, stress, and blood pressure all rise as it increases. Yet, I work in an industry that thrives on it as thousands of experts analyze millions of data points to try and answer a single question, like, will stocks rise today? Finding one answer is impossible because any...
Smokey the Bear is a firefighting hero. The US Forest Service and Ad Council created the campaign in 1944, and 96% of adults recognize Smokey Bear and his catchphrase, "Only YOU can prevent wildfires!"[1] According to the National Park Service, humans cause nearly 85% of wildfires in the United...
I like bonds, but I'm struggling with their long-term performance. Bonds are inversely related to the direction of interest rates; when rates rise, prices fall like a see-saw in a park, and since the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates in 2022, the one-month US Treasury Bill rate has...
Bill Buckner committed one of the worst errors in baseball history. During game six of the 1986 World Series, the Boston Red Sox led the New York Mets three games to two. In extra innings, a ground ball went through his legs, allowing the winning run to score. The Mets would go on to win the game...
College tuition keeps rising, with inflation rates averaging about 6% to 8% yearly. The average annual cost for a public university is $27,940, and for a private school, it is $57,750. It's not cheap!
What are your options for paying tuition or reducing your college costs? Let's review a few...
FICO scores range from 850 to 300 - exceptional to poor. Of course, if you tried to get a bank loan with a credit score of 300, you'd be laughed out of the lobby. So why is 300 a perfect credit score? Let's look at some data to answer this question.
The key inputs to your credit score include...
Comparison is a killer. Occasionally, someone will ask me how they financially compare to others in their field or demographic. They want to know if they're wealthier than their peers, and it's usually an attorney. At our firm, we say there are no good plans or bad plans, just your plan. Theodore...
Google News posted articles from CNN, Yahoo! Finance, The Motley Fool, and The Daily Wire about retirement woes.
CNN reported that individuals continue withdrawing from their 401(k) plans, and according to Yahoo! Finance, 41% of US employees cashed out a portion of their accounts, and 85% took...