By Jason Alderman Back when people from my parents’ generation were first planning their lives together most married couples looked forward to working hard for a few decades, buying a house, raising a family, and then retiring together while they still had enough money and energy to travel and pursue favorite hobbies. Some couples do [...]

By Mark Foster When people think of retirement planning, there is one factor that is often overlooked – becoming debt free. But becoming debt free is one of the best things that you can do for your eventual retirement. The average monthly Social Security check is approximately $1,250. Imagine trying to live on that amount. [...]

By Carla Blair With the technological and medical advancements in the past few decades, life expectancies have become longer and longer. This poses a problem to those of retirement age: what if you outlive your savings? Here are some tips to help you make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that you will be financially [...]

By Gary Silverman Life can throw you smack dab between a rock and a hard place. It’s times like this when you think about borrowing from your retirement savings, even though you know it’s not the best idea. While I hope you never find yourself in this situation, given the number of readers and the [...]

By Jason Alderman Benjamin Franklin once declared, “Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Although I don’t have any updates on the former, where taxes are concerned I do have news: As it does every year, the Internal Revenue Service announced 2013 cost-of-living adjustments to many of the amounts you and [...]

By Gary Silverman People regularly ask me how to choose a financial advisor. After my stock answer of “choose me,” I begin by asking them why they want one. Financial advice means different things to different people. One such person told me that he had some stocks that he wanted to buy and wanted me [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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), [...]