Three Retirements in One It’s normal to be on the cusp of retirement and not know what to expect. I have seen this look countless times; it’s a healthy mix of anxiousness and excitement. The reason is because retirement is a broad term, which makes it hard to grasp what it will be like. What…

When Safe Becomes Risky You’re counting the days to retirement. Or maybe you’re already retired, but everything seems to be getting more expensive: housing, bills, and let’s not even go into weekly visits to the gas pump and the grocery store. The one thing that doesn’t seem to budge is interest rates. Inflation doesn’t appear…

Is the Million Dollar Nest Egg Broken? We all hear these amounts that we should have saved by the time we retire. We hear we need $1 million dollars, and immediately think – well, I’m already sunk. Others may say you’ll need only $500,000 or $300,000. It can be hard to figure out what we…

This Little Piggy Went to the (Stock) Market A piggy bank changed my life. I remember it distinctly: It was Christmas morning, I was 7 years old, and I ripped off the red giftwrap to find a piggy bank, except this wasn’t the traditional round, pink ceramic pig with a slot in the top. What…

Veteran Benefits to Help Pay for Long Term Care My grandfather was my hero. He served as an officer in the Navy for 30 years, serving during three wars. Yet, at 92, he was about to face one of his most difficult conflicts. My grandmother and eventually himself required long term care, and he thought…

LTC Options: Choose any Option, But Choose While I was growing up, my grandfather became, and continues to be, one of the greatest role models of my life. After my grandmother passed away, my grandfather became a bachelor living by himself. I was the only other bachelor in the family available to live with him.…

COVID-19 Wake Up Call The world will be forever changed by the COVID-19 crisis. Any crisis can highlight glaring cracks in a financial plan, but COVID-19 was not just any crisis; it was a global crisis that woke up business owners and Americans because so many were not prepared for a squeeze on their cash…

It is better to give! It can be true; it is better to give than to receive. However, many Americans could be experiencing less joy when giving this year. After the most recent tax reform, many givers were surprised to discover that the standard deduction was so high it eliminated the need to itemize. Therefore,…

What to ask a Financial Advisor Finding the right advisor can be more intense than a trip to the dentist. If you are currently with a financial advisor or searching for a new one, it can seem overwhelming. You have to gather everything confidential about your family and become financially exposed to a stranger. You…

The Fable of Two Retirees I want to introduce you to two retirees. First, I want to introduce you to “Ann”. Ann is 60 years old, has $500,000 saved and she wants to withdraw $24,000 a year for the rest of her life. She reads Money magazine before her meeting with her financial advisor and…

RMDs: Be prepared If you are hearing that Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are not a big deal, I want to share with you  some hard truths about RMDs . RMDs are distributions from qualified accounts imposed by the federal government in order to force investors to pay taxes on previously untaxed assets. The purpose of…