My Comments: Social Security is a complicated issue for almost everyone in the retirement planning process. There are so many variables it’s hard to get your arms around what is in your best interest. Many people just say to hell with it and sign up at age 62. And that can be a huge mistake. …
Continue reading When to Take Social Security: The Complete Guide
My Comments: Instant gratification, or the desire for it, is the norm in 21st Century America. It may be OK when you discover you’re hungry and have no need to go into the woods and shoot something, or instead of waiting days for the mail to arrive, you simply go to your phone and look …
My Comments: As a financial planner, I’ve described the three primary phases most of us travel through in life: childhood, adulthood, and retirement. As a child, we’re dependent on others to maintain our lives; as adults we’re dependent on our ability to fend for ourselves and typically work for money; in retirement we’re dependent largely …
Continue reading 4 Financial Life Stages and How to Plan for Them
My Comments: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of "189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." They recognize that market crashes happen from time to time, and …
Continue reading Listen to the IMF’s new warning, economist says, and cut your exposure to US stocks
My Comments: For millions of us, Social Security has become a critical source of income if we expect to continue our current standard of living into the future. For those of you not yet claiming benefits, these four items are critical to your future retirement success. Christy Bieber \ Oct 7, 2018 Social Security benefits …
Continue reading 4 Signs You’re Thinking About Social Security Benefits the Wrong Way
My Comments: Apart from my concern that many of us will wake up one day soon and discover much of our money has disappeared, it is helpful to understand where all the gains have come from since the last significant crash in 2008. By Nicolas Rapp and Clifton Leaf September 25, 2018 Who's responsible for …
Continue reading This Data Visualization Shows What’s Really Responsible For Our Current Bull Market
My Comments: A dilemma for many people is they find the language used by those of us in the world of finance and economics very hard to understand. It goes in one ear and comes out the other. I’m about to launch an internet course that will help solve this problem. I call it Successful …
My Comments: By first choosing to opt out of participating in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and then inviting a trade war with China, the US has effectively ceded global economic supremacy to China. The expressed logic behind these moves was in the guise of ‘Make America Great Again”. Hah! In turn, China is attempting …
Continue reading We’re underestimating China’s economic power. Here’s why
My Comments: Despite the appeal of retirement, no one is ready to admit that the transition from “working for money” to “money working for you” will be easy. The cost of health care as you get older has the potential to cause your retirement plans to come unglued. To keep that from happening, Medicare is …
Continue reading Here’s what you need to know about Medicare if you’re still working
Tony’s Friday Blog = Random Thoughts: This advice from Kaitlin Menza applies not only to millenials but to baby boomers and earlier (of which I am one). But especially to those of you with many years to live. Inertia is an insidious problem for many of us. We have money in a ‘safe’ place and …
Helping Define Your Financial Future 