My Comments: Next month I start a new job; teaching folks about Social Security. Actually, it’s a function of my need to keep busy and an apparent ability to share 40 years of experience as a financial planner with people who need to know about this very important financial element of their lives. This article, …
Continue reading 10 Things You Must Know About Social Security
1/5 of US adults live in or near poverty My Comments: Followers of my posts can recall numerous times over the past five years when I’ve talked about the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots. If not corrected, there’s going to be rioting in the streets before my five year old grandson reaches …
My Comments: This question has been asked every years for the almost 30 years that I’ve called myself a financial professional. Unfortunately, there is no best answer. Human nature, in the form of doubts, confidence, expectations, past experience, impatience, timing and fear, all conspire to force our hand when attempting to make intelligent decisions. Good …
Continue reading How Much Stock Should You Have in Your Retirement Accounts?
My Comments: This video appeared on http://www.worldbank.org. It reminded me of comments from several years ago by Thomas P.M. Barnett, an American military geostrategist and former Chief Analyst at Wikistrat. He argued that over the next few decades, the US would remain the pre-eminent global society because we alone, perhaps along with Canada, have the …
Continue reading High and Dry: Climate Change, Water, and the Economy
My Comments: I try hard to worry only about the present and the future. Here are seven things I took for granted today that will soon be gone. Trying to bring these back, even if they hold good memories for us, will not be possible. I tell myself to get used to it, but it’s …
My Comments: Did you see the recent study that suggested continued part time work had a very positive effect on your health? My impression is that if you retire without a manifest new purpose in life, you are essentially sitting around waiting to die. I am aggressively filling my time with activities that reflect my …
My Comments: My first house was in 1967 (I think). Since then I've had five more, all in the same town, with the current one a significant “downsizing” from #5. Of the first 5, only #2 was a good investment from a financial perspective. If your definition of “good” is wider, then all of them …
My Comments: from time to time my mind tends to wander. Some of you might argue it’s much of the time, but at least it wanders, and wonders. This may not sit well with some of my friends who believe there is an insurmountable gulf between their faith and the world around them but , …
Continue reading Radical New Hypothesis For Why Humans Exist
My Comments: After 43 years as a financial planner and investment company owner, I can say with certainty that the future outcome for your money is a combination of luck, discipline, timing and knowledge. I have no clue how we’ll do in 2016 but this is at least a start. By Jason Hall Published January …
Continue reading Starting to Invest in 2016? Here’s What You Need to Know
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 …
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