May 9th, 2012 By Jason Alderman On Mother’s Day, children of all ages thank their moms for the many sacrifices made during their childhoods — and well beyond, considering how many adult children still hit up their moms for a loan or free babysitting. Unfortunately, for many mothers those sacrifices extend well beyond sleepless nights and attending boring [...]
March 14th, 2012 By Gary Silverman, CFP® A major part of my career is to help people plan on achieving and maintaining a financially comfortable retirement. They pay me the same whether I put all of their money into stocks, or all of it into bonds so I have no incentivized bias toward one or the other. With [...]
March 2nd, 2012 By Jason Alderman By many measures, women’s lives have changed substantially in recent decades. According to a comprehensive government report called Women in America, although certain social and economic situations for women have improved, when it comes to personal finances, many women still face challenging hurdles. Key report findings include: Women live longer than men, [...]
February 3rd, 2012 By Jason Alderman For the first time since 2009 the IRS has increased the amount people can contribute to their 401(k) and other defined contribution plans. Effective Jan. 1, 2012 the maximum annual contribution grows by $500 to $17,000 thanks to an increase in the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U), [...]
October 31st, 2011 By Gary Silverman, CFP® Older Baby Boomers are starting to enter their retirement years. Generation X-ers (those born between 1965 and 1976) are in their prime earning years. Both generations have been studied to death. But now we are starting to get some indication of how Gen Ys (born between 1977 and 2001) are turning [...]
October 27th, 2011 Parents have any number of reasons for wanting an adult child to marry: They want you to have companionship. They want you to be settled. They want grandchildren. But a new survey suggests there’s also a financial argument for getting married. According to Charles Schwab, the investment management company, married people are more likely to [...]
September 7th, 2011 By Jason Alderman Senior Director, Global Financial Education, VISA One indicator that our economy is still hurting is that more and more people are postponing retirement. According to the Department of Labor, the number of people over 55 still working has increased steadily since the recession began – 28.9 million at last count – and [...]
July 18th, 2011 Many older Americans find themselves house rich and cash poor. They own their home, or at least have significant equity in it, yet struggle to make ends meet each month. They could sell their home, but are not inclined to move and leave their memories behind. A reverse mortgage may be the answer they seek. [...]
June 22nd, 2011 When planning ahead for retirement, it seems that Social Security has become more of a source of worry than comfort. A poll of 1,005 people conducted in March by ABC News/Washington Post revealed that 81% of people polled believe that the Social Security system is heading for a crisis if changes are not made. Starting [...]