The Fastest Way to Sabotage Your Retirement

We’ve talked about this before – on a few occasions – but it never hurts to revisit timeless truths that help keep things in perspective. Last year, a survey by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America reported that more Americans would rather die than run out of money in retirement. While neither is a pleasant thought, at least the latter can be avoided.

Raise the Debt Ceiling or Default?

President Ronald Reagan stated in 1983, “The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate.” On Aug. 2, the U.S. Treasury will no longer be able to pay our nation’s obligations. Congress is at an impasse, essentially faced with two immediate choices: …

Retirement Regrets

I was reading an article on Yahoo! a few weeks ago and author Mark Patterson closed his piece by saying, “The pain of financial discipline will be far less than the pain of retirement regrets.” The statement really struck me, and I started thinking about how many retirees look back on what they could have – or should have – …

The Investor’s Curse Part II

As an investor, you need to be aware of the underlying biases and human tendencies that can influence your behavior and cause you to act irrationally. In the most recent blog post, we discussed how emotions and psychology often have a negative impact on our investment decisions. We took a closer look at recency bias and herd mentality, two common …

The Investor’s Curse

When it comes to investing, emotions and human nature often influence our decisions, causing us to behave imprudently or illogically. Why does this happen? Behavioral finance is the study of psychology as it relates to the fields of economics and finance to explain why and how people make irrational financial decisions. For years, it was assumed that “conventional” economic theories …

Three Simple Steps to Make Your Retirement a Reality

STEP 1 – Make a Plan If you wanted to build a house, you wouldn’t start with a pile of bricks and tools and then try to figure out how to build your home based on the materials lying in front of you. You would first have a blueprint that offered exact dimensions and specifications about how your house should …

Step #2 – Retirement Preparedness Checklist: Insure Risks You Cannot Afford to Take

One of my clients, a physician, when discussing insurance, said to me, “We’re all just one step away from the banana peel.” She would know better than most. While it’s not particularly pleasant to think about becoming sick or needing assistance, healthcare and long-term care costs pose very real risks to your retirement nest egg. Can you afford to chance …