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You don't need to cut the cable to retire comfortably. In this week's Wealth Wise advice column, advisers tell a couple with $300K saved how to catch up.
Present value is the organizing principle of the Actuarial Approach recommended on this website. Retirement sustainability ultimately depends on a single question: Can the present value of your assets...
How much life insurance you you really need? Relying upon an insurance agent's word or an oversimplified "rule of thumb" can lead you to buy either too little life insurance---or too much! Here's how ...
The 401(k) can be a great savings vehicle, or a financial black hole where investors lose huge chunks of their hard-earned money to hidden fees and missed opportunities for investment growth. The diff...
Do you know all the ways your financial adviser profits from your account? What's the difference between a broker and a financial adviser? If you can't answer both of these questions with confidence y...
What issues will your family confront after your death, and how will it shape their opinion of your life? Discover the dire consequences of not setting up a proper estate plan so you can take the simp...
"Wait until 70" is good advice on maximizing Social Security for a single person, but married couples need a different number. Do you know how to do the math?
How does your IRA compare? Discover the average and median Traditional and Roth IRA balances by age in 2026, 2026 contribution limits, and key catch-up strategies.
Rather than claiming Social Security based on when you need the money, view your timing as a tax-planning tool that can help you lower your lifetime tax bill.
I’m of the mind that downsizing is more about liberation from stuff than it is about square footage in the home. My wife and I found that it was much harder to do this item by item and much easier to ...
Six ways "free" retirement accounts can cost you without showing it — and how to keep more of your money.
Specific, research-backed ways to help you deal with financial stress and money worries. Start building real confidence today. The post How to Deal With Financial Stress: 10 Ways to Worry Less About M...
Moving to Europe from the U.S. can get more complicated the wealthier you are. Find out what it really takes for a successful move — and how to plan for it.
Maxing out a traditional 401(k) without cash reserves triggers tax spikes and market losses. Here's where and how to save cash for easy retirement withdrawals.
Intentional lifetime giving creates far greater impact than lump‑sum inheritances by reducing stress, building responsibility, and passing down values along with wealth.
As I get closer to retirement, I'm trying to figure out the best way to budget for major home expenses. Things like a roof, A/C unit, water heater, or appliance replacement may not happen for years, b...
I just got an email from AARP. Contained in the email was an article relating to where to live in retirement. The jist of the article was how to escape the dome of heat that has affected several state...
Laura Stover, RFC® is joined by guest co-host Darlene Tucker, CFP® today. This week's weekend brief comes from Forbes: "5 Predictions For An Economic 'Soft Landing' That Were Totally Wrong." With a lo...
Laura Stover, RFC® and Michael Wallin, CFP® discuss the Baby Boomer Dilemma documentary and its implications for pre-retirees and retirees. The film talks about many topics we routinely cover on the s...
Laura Stover, RFC® and Michael Wallin, CFP® discuss why 1966 was the worst year to retire and why it matters in 2023. They explore the market downturn in 1966 and its impact on retirees, as well as th...
Investors often underestimate the risk in their portfolio. Today, Laura Stover and Michael Wallin break down 5 common portfolio mistakes, as outlined by Christine Benz in Morningstar. They are portfol...
Retirement planning involves mitigating risk and understanding the various risks that retirees face. Laura Stover and Michael Wallin break down these risks today, including reduced earnings capacity, ...
In this episode, Laura Stover, RFC® and Michael Wallin, CFP®, discuss the concept of a cookie-cutter retirement portfolio and its implications for retirees. They start by addressing the recent news of...
Once you make the decision to take the next step toward ensuring a solid financial future, the next is who you should work with. There are all types of financial professionals that provide a variety o...
Big tech has seen strong gains in 2023 and has outpaced most other sectors. In doing so, the S&P 500 has also performed well, but when you take away a handful of tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, ...
Every investor, whether you do it yourself or have professional help, needs to understand the fees they are paying because this is one of the most important factors attributing to investment performan...
No one can predict the future of finance, so how do you make sure your portfolio is able to withstand the inevitable swings in the market? The answer is through stress testing, which has proven to be ...
We're more than halfway through 2023 and we've already seen the impact SECURE Act 2.0 has on retirement planning. These first six months have given the financial industry time to identify some of the ...
Diversification is a risk management strategy that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. We'd venture to guess that everyone who is listening to this podcast is very familiar with th...
We know there's always another market crash in the future, but should we be worried that it's happening soon? An economist named Henrik Zeberg thinks so. He expects a massive blow-off top for equities...
You'll never be able to predict the movement of the market but understanding the cycles will make you a better investor. The market goes through different phases and building out a purposeful portfoli...
Many times we find that retirees only look at that investment pillar with the traditional assets in mind. They focus only on investments and ignore critical areas that also need attention. In this epi...
We all have our own savings goals and dreams of retirement, but difficult markets and high inflation can be quite discouraging. Sometimes it feels like you'll never achieve what you've hoped for. So w...
Being flexible with spending absolutely matters in financial planning and it often gets overlooked when people step into retirement. Most people look at their budget and the assets that they've accumu...
We work with people that have investing questions all the time but there are two that investors often boil it down to. They want to know how long they need to be invested to be sure they don't lose mo...
The market has shown some signs that it might be turning around, but we've seen quite a bit of up-and-down over the past few years. These fluctuations have created some nice gains at times for investo...
A year like 2022 doesn't come around too often but those significant market corrections we saw in both equities and bonds made many people begin to wonder about the effectiveness of the traditional 60...
The famous boxer Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." He meant it about his opponents, but we can apply that same idea to financial planning in the middle o...
Reaching retirement doesn't mean you can put your plan in cruise control because plenty of risks remain. One that all recent retirees are dealing with is the sequence of returns risk. This is an overl...
For many people, the goal in life is to have enough wealth that you can pass it on to people or organizations you care most about, and your advisor should be a key partner in helping you with that est...
We spend most of our life saving and investing to accumulate as much wealth as possible before retirement, but there's not nearly as much thought and research given to how you take that money out once...
When things are down, everyone's risk profile gets much more conservative. Emotions shift as the market does, and we spend a lot of time consulting clients to help them keep balance. One of the produc...
Americans have been falling behind on retirement planning for some time now, and the past two years have only increased the difficulty to save money and grow a nest egg. This recent trend emphasizes t...
If you go back to October of 2022, you'll find the worst 12-month period ever for bonds. With the pressure on the economy, bonds struggled right alongside many other investments. The last year showed ...
For the vast majority of retirees, there will come a time when the IRS comes calling and you're required to start taking money out of qualified retirement accounts. These required minimum distribution...
It's that time of the year where taxes become top of mind as people look through income over the past year to get their filing in order, but taxes need to be at the forefront of your financial plannin...
A declining market will make any retiree uncomfortable, and it could put your future in jeopardy if you haven't thought through your withdrawal strategy. Many retirees struggle to shift their mindset ...
The recent passing of SECURE Act 2.0 brought about a long list of planning opportunities, but the change in age for required minimum distributions will give advisors a chance to think outside the box ...
The start of 2023 brought us another round of retirement changes with SECURE Act 2.0 officially taking effect and there are a number of important provisions that retirees need to be aware of. In this ...
Investors use rate of return to make decisions and evaluate performance all the time, but they often get misled by the average return. With the market showing some positive signs to start the new year...