Ideas to help preserve and grow your money
My Comments: A major determinant for when you should start taking your Social Security benefits comes down to when you plan to die. If you plan to die soon, then start the payments as early as possible; if you plan to live to be 100, and have enough money now, then delay the start of …
Continue reading Ready to retire? Don’t rush your Social Security start date
My Comments: For many of us, retirement once seemed like a glorious goal to achieve. Now that many of us are here, the light isn’t so bright. As a financial planner, both for myself and others, the landscape is very different from what it was as little as twenty-five years ago. The fundamentals are the …
Continue reading Why You’ll Need to Own More Stocks After You Retire
My Comments: Don’t expect interest rates to increase anytime soon. Decisions by the Fed will influence the prevailing level of interest rates but in the background is the everpresent supply and demand curve. This simply states that the price being paid (interest rate) is a function of how much there is available compared to the …
My Comments: Social Security is a complicated topic. If you are not yet 70 years old, and/or have not yet committed to how you will take your Social Security benefits, you should read this. With so many variables, the typical process for making a good decision is total confusion for most people, even financial planners. …
Continue reading Read This Before You Take Social Security Benefits
My Comments: Social security payments to my wife and I are a critical element of the life we live. It can be argued that without those payments, we’d have scaled back in terms of what we spend for food and housing. The fact remains that given expectations of a monthly income from that source, our …
My Comments: The monthly income my wife and I get from SSA is a significant part of our financial freedom. We paid into the system for 50 plus years and while I like to think I’m just getting my money back, it’s really much more than that. As a financial planner and investment advisor for …
Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Social Security
My Comments: Confused? Skeptical? A normal response. But as someone with 40 years of experience as a financial planner, a reverse mortgage can be a significant tool to promote financial freedom as we live out our retirement years. Nov 11, 2015, by Robert Powell Advisers have long looked down on reverse mortgages: Only the most …
Continue reading A Reverse Mortgage To Protect Your Retirement Income
My Comments: In all my years as a financial planner, the mantra has been to make sure the mortgage goes to zero at about the time you retire and quit working for money. The crash of 2008-2009 has made this very difficult for a lot of people. Another strategy, not referenced by Kiesnoski, is to …
Continue reading Should You Pay Off That Mortgage Before Retirement? Not Necessarily
My Comments: My monthly Social Security benefits, coupled with Medicare, are a critical element contributing to our peace of mind as the years roll by. I don’t care if others argue against us becoming a socialist society. To some degree, we’ve been one since 1776. Aug 14, 2015 | By Suzanne Woolley (Bloomberg Business) -- …
My Comments: People of my age are living a lot longer than before, and many of us are still distressed by what we now call the Great Recession. Whatever your financial circumstances, it’s proven once again that in our society, having more money is better than having less money. Many of us are increasingly frustrated …
Continue reading Does the Government Steal Your House When You Get a Reverse Mortgage?
Helping Define Your Financial Future 