Global Nominal GDP Growth, as Measured in Dollars, Is Projected to Decline My Comments: It has been argued that Wall Street is corrupt and greedy and doing its best to create further income inequality in this country and across the globe. And that as a result, we should hold Wall Street accountable, send people to …
Category: Retirement Planning
Ideas to help preserve and grow your money
Life Insurance and Retirement
My Comments: This is not an easy idea to talk about. The article came from someone critical of Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman, who argue that premiums for life insurance in retirement are an extravagance. Some of the assumptions made by the author can be questioned, but the overall theme is essentially correct. Personally, I’ve …
Why Invest in Real Estate?
My Comments: This is a topic about which I know relatively little. But it’s real, people do make money, sometimes lots of it, and over the few years since the crash that started in 2008, some folks have made tons of money. The dramatic opportunities are probably behind us for a while as after several …
5 Annuity Questions With Rational Answers
My Comments: Every year, many BILLIONs of dollars flow from the pockets of Americans into a financial contract called an "annuity”. Originally, the idea was to give an insurance company some of your money, and they would agree to send it back to you, with interest, over time. Over the years, the sophistication of these …
Medical Identity Theft Rising Fast
My Comments: If ever there was a 21st century crime, this is it. We’ve all read about what happened to Target Stores and others where customer information was stolen. What we don’t often think about in this context are our own medical records, scattered across the health care landscape which we inhabit. I’ve been aware …
7 Social Security Mistakes to Avoid
My Comments: Social Security payments are a critical financial component of many lives these days. When it began in 1935, there was much gnashing of teeth among the political parties since it represented a recognition by the government that some people needed help. This was in a world recovering from the Great Depression and watching …
Put Your Retirement Plan on Steroids
My Comments: First, this assumes you have a retirement plan and that you have tried to answer the question “How Much Is Enough?”. Second, your answer to this question is still open to debate. And three, you actually have earned income that needs to be reported. In a perfect world, we would have a way …
Military Retirement Faces Shake-up
My Comments: I did not serve in the military; I failed my draft physical way back in 1959. They gave me a 1-Y classification that said ‘only in case of national emergency’. I don’t think I was upset since by then I was a freshman at the University of Florida and VietNam was looming on …
Guess Who’s Back? The Middle Class
My Comments: There is lots of handwringing about last Tuesdays election results. And lots of people looking for someone to blame if it didn’t meet hopes and expectations. One of my long time concerns has been the growing inbalance between the haves and the have-nots. Statistically it’s very real with the middle class that evolved …
Markets Up or Down Next Five Years?
My Comments: Here’s another cautionary tale to put somewhere in a mental box to look at when you start thinking again about your financial reserves. That another crash will happen is almost certain. What is not certain is when it will happen, so all you can do is decide whether you want help to figure …
Helping Define Your Financial Future 