My Comments: In days past, estate planning was associated with having lots of money. This was because the IRS had their fingers in your financial pie if you died owning what is today considered a modest estate, anything more than $550,000. Since that existential threat has largely diminished for almost all of us, estate planning …
Continue reading How To Talk to Your Family About Your Estate Plan
My Comments: This might put you to sleep. Or the next bear market might cause you to leap from a tall building. You choose. If you have money invested in the markets, and your time horizon for a full recovery is limited, you should read this to the end. by Eric Parnell, CFA, June …
My Comments: I’m not fond of debt. But over the years, I’ve certainly had my share. But that is personal debt which is very different from institutional debt. My dynamics are finite ( I will die some day ) and defined by micro-economic rules; institutional debt is not necessarily finite and if you are speaking …
My Comments: Is the glass half full, or is it half empty? That’s a classic question, to help determine if someone who answers is optimistic or pessimistic. Personally, my natural response is to suggest the glass is half full. For me the past is past; the only criteria becomes the present and the future. To …
My Comments: Next month I start a series of workshops about Social Security. I’m somewhat fearful since this past weekend, I had questions from a couple of folks and while I thought I knew the answer, I wasn’t sure. One solution is to have you become a free member of an organization called the American …
My Comments: Followers of this blog have seen the ideas expressed by Scott Minerd. I share them with you as I think they are important ideas, intended by me to help you better understand the role that money plays in your life. As I’ve expressed many times, we live in a society where having more …
Continue reading Sustainable Development: The Future of Investing
My Comments: Every choice when it comes to filing for Social Security benefits comes with trade-offs. Whether one works for you to a large extent is determined by how long you live, and for most of us, that’s the elephant in the room. But if you assume you and your spouse will live to a …
Continue reading A Social Security Claiming Strategy to Consider
My Comments: Our esteemed Governor, Rick Scott, has decreed that the phrase ‘climate change’ cannot be uttered by any state employee. OK. But it doesn’t change the reality that the planet is experiencing a warming trend that may or may not be influenced by advances in human activity. The reality is that for the foreseeable …
Continue reading Sinking Atlantic Coastline Meets Rapidly Rising Seas
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: This is the first of five “truths” that appear in a brochure published recently by Invesco, a global wealth management company with offices in over 20 countries, serving clients in more than 150 countries. As you consider your wealth, or lack of it, these ideas may serve to keep you grounded and making …
Continue reading Five Truths Every Investor Needs to Know: #1
Helping Define Your Financial Future 