December, 2010
Getting Ready to Sell Your House
While most experts see little good news in 2011’s housing market, economic downturn is no reason to neglect maintenance on a home or lose sight of future plans to relocate.
December, 2010
Tax Planning for 2010 Down to the Wire
As a changing power base in Washington wrangles over tax policy in the waning days of Congress’ lame duck session, millions of families and investors are reluctantly awaiting the return of the estate tax and presumably much more stringent rules on gifting.
November, 2010
Ways to Control What You’ll Spend on a Funeral
It doesn’t matter whether a loved one dies suddenly or with warning – funeral costs can be daunting. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, which bills itself as the world’s leading funeral service association, the average cost of an adult funeral in 2010 stood at $7,755, and that amount doesn’t include the price of a gravesite, monuments or flowers – not even the cost of an obituary.
November, 2010
Financial Issues for Long-Distance Caregivers
As older friends and relatives increasingly need our help, it’s not always possible for us to move back to personally oversee their care. The same goes for younger loved ones who face sudden illness or injury that robs them of their ability to care for themselves.
November, 2010
Is Paying Extra on Your Monthly Mortgage Always a Good Idea?
As Americans become more conscious about the damage debt can do to their finances, there’s always a question of whether it makes sense to pay down first mortgages and home equity lines so they can direct more money to retirement or other goals.
November, 2010
10 Things You Must Do to Baby-Proof Your Finances
For most prospective parents, financial issues come fairly far down the list of wishes and hopes for their new baby. Health and happiness typically comes first, and by the time the subject turns to money, the discussion often begins and ends at saving for the baby’s education.
October, 2010
Creating a Personal Disaster Plan for Your Home, Your Loved Ones and Your Finances
The idea of a personal disaster plan began circulating in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. They got a boost after Hurricane Katrina. Yet even when we experience a fortunate break between natural and man-made crises, it’s still a good idea to have a plan and review it annually.
October, 2010
Ten Things to Know – and Ask—About Long-Term Care Insurance
For Americans over the age of 50, the time to consider long-term care coverage is now. Whether to buy it is a separate question that’s as individual as you are.
October, 2010
Why Parents Should Give Their College Students the Gift of Professional Financial Planning
In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that student-loan debt now surpasses credit card debt as the No. 1 source of outstanding consumer debt with some $829.8 billion in current federal and private school loans.
October, 2010
Renovating Smart in 2010: Looking for Tax Breaks, Anticipating What Will Bring Value in the Future
Though the housing market has yet to stabilize in many communities, homeowners can’t ignore property maintenance and other critical spending that will add to their home value in the future. Yet for most of us, the days of spending multiple thousands of dollars on a kitchen, bath or room addition expecting our market value will grow exponentially is much like the U.S. housing boom – over.
September, 2010
Top 5 Money Decisions to make in Divorce
The money decisions you make in the first weeks of a marital separation can affect your financial security for the rest of your life.
September, 2010
The Top 5 Things You Need to Teach Kids About Money
What if there was mandatory money instruction for every child in America from kindergarten on up and every adult was required to take an annual test confirming those concepts well into their senior years?
September, 2010
The Smart Way to Review—and Improve—Your Retirement Holdings
A May report by human resources consultant Hewitt Associates showed that the average U.S. employee will need more than 15 times their final pay in retirement resources (including personal retirement savings, employer-based retirement savings and Social Security) to maintain their current standard of living during retirement. Unfortunately, Hewitt found that four out of five workers are still expected to fall short of meeting all their financial needs in retirement unless they take immediate action to improve their savings habits or retire at a later age.
September, 2010
The Need for Financial Planning for Special-Needs Kids
There are many types of financial worries, but probably none as relentless as the cost of treating and supporting a special needs child.
August, 2010
The First Steps in Planning Home-Based Care for an Elderly Relative
No one wants to see someone they love in a nursing home. That’s why many older Americans and their families would opt for home-based care whether it’s for a temporary illness or disability, or end-of-life.
August, 2010
Medical Tourism: What You Should Know
The latest Deloitte Center for Healthcare Solutions report on Medical Tourism projects renewed growth in medical tourism in 2010 as the economy recovers. The reasons? Consumer pocketbooks will be able to better withstand trips for non-emergency care outside the country. Also, it’s believed that more insurance companies will eventually agree to fund procedures at international hospitals that win extensive accreditation.
August, 2010
Why It’s Important To Take an Interest in Retirement Plan Fees
As investors start cautiously peeking at their investment statements again, it’s a good idea for them to take a renewed interest in investment fees and sales charges they pay to their personal retirement plans as well as those at work.
August, 2010
The Do’s and Don’ts of Passing Down Vacation Property to Family
A family vacation home is a place of fun, memories and refuge for generations of friends and relatives. But when the matriarch or patriarch who bought the home dies, it’s not uncommon for the same family members to go to war over visitation rights and ownership of the property, which can be worth a significant sum.
July, 2010
Keeping Your Credit Score Healthy
It doesn’t take much these days to damage a credit score. Before the recession, late payments and blasting through credit limits would take its toll. But in the past year, Fair Isaac, the company that developed the algorithm that is the leading determinant of our scores, made an important change in its formula.
July, 2010
A Midyear Financial Checkup Can Make For a Smarter Second Half
This is not the time of year when everyone wants to stay indoors with their finances. But a midyear review of your tax situation, retirement and spending issues can be far more valuable than the rushed attempt most people make at the end of the year -- or when it’s too late at tax time.
July, 2010
Some Annuities Offer a Way to Pay for Long-Term Care
Current estimates from AARP put the annual cost of a private nursing home room at a national average of $78,000. As older Americans are still struggling to reassemble their retirement plans from the worst economic downturn in 70 years, relatively few are considering the potentially most devastating threat to their plans: the spiraling cost of long-term care.
July, 2010
The 4 Percent Rule—What is the Right Amount to Withdraw from Your Retirement fund each year?
With stagnant incomes and roller-coaster investment returns over the past decade, individuals on the brink of retirement might wonder what became of all those “rules of thumb” affecting how they handle their nest egg once they walk away from their jobs.
June, 2010
Planning for a Child’s Private School Education
Sending your child to private school is an expensive proposition. For most people, it’s made a little tougher by the fact that it’s necessary to save for a child’s college education at the same time. Some have the income that makes this easier, but for the rest, it’s necessary to create a pay-as-you-go system that will somehow make it all work.
June, 2010
How Personality Traits Affect Financial Planning
The ancient Greek expression “Know thyself” carries a lot of weight when it comes to investing. Indeed, an investor’s personality can speak volumes to their ability to spot opportunities and avoid risk. If more people truly “knew themselves” when it came to money over the last decade, it’s arguable we would not have seen many of the individual excesses and mistakes that marked the recent economic slowdown.
June, 2010
A Family Mission Statement Can Help Any Family Manage Assets, Philanthropy and Direction
A family doesn’t need a surname like Vanderbilt to benefit from a family mission statement. A mission statement is a collaborative document created by one or more generations of family so standards and goals can be set for the handling of all family assets, including businesses and philanthropy in particular.