... and Portugal. Developed countries like ours are losing ground in the overall happiness ranking because of this. We now rank near the bottom of a list comparing current happiness to results from 10+ years ...
... back below 5% over the next two years, but they started to surge again in 1979 with the Iranian Revolution and the overthrow of the Shah. Over about a year, prices nearly tripled again, causing the second ...
A few years ago during Covid I decided to say “Yes” more. “No” is negative and exclusionary while “maybe” can be so unfulfilling. But yes is exciting and freeing while also sometimes being a little terrifying. ...
... been upended this year by our government that, ironically, was only trying to help.
I’m sure Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act a few years ago with all the best intentions. The Department ...
... the past few years.
The economy was going to crash. We were supposed to be in a lengthy recession by now. High inflation was expected to be part of the new normal. And the government, overburdened by ...
... taxpayers use a paid preparer to file their returns. Most people I know have a “tax person” and this also seems true for most of my clients. Personally, I did my family’s taxes for years using TurboTax ...
... then reworks your amortization schedule and lowers your monthly payment accordingly.
Here’s an example:
Say you’re five years into a 30yr loan with a $350,000 balance. At 3.5% interest your monthly ...
...
Clubber: “Pain.”
And then we have the famous prediction of more than 100 years ago from either Henry Poor, a founder of Standard & Poor’s, JD Rockefeller, or JP Morgan himself on what stock prices ...
... years ago to over 7% now hasn’t had a direct impact on the financial lives of the overwhelming majority of American homeowners. And since these folks are the ones doing much of the spending in our economy, ...
... Index that includes energy prices and it’s “Core” sibling over the past three years that doesn’t. Look at those lows in the lower-lefthand corner of the chart – that’s a dramatic change in average prices ...
... to only $194. Sometimes traders get lucky and that success keeps them going for a time, but I can attest after 20 years in this business to how hard it is for that luck to hold year after year.
Here' ...
... months because it always has when indicators X, Y, and Z have looked like this, and so forth. I can’t tell you how many comparison charts I’ve seen in the past couple of years that offer a compelling case ...
... years after buying our first home at age 19 as nepo-buyers with maybe 3% down and haven’t looked back.)
Financially, after factoring everything in over the long-term, you usually come out ahead by owning ...
... impact your bottom line.
While I’m not a Medicare expert, I’ve learned in my years working with clients that there are common threads to the various problems people report having. These often start with ...
... hard to lock in 5+% for more than a couple years without taking on additional risk or other nuisance issues. Additionally, nobody knows where interest will be over any timeframe, so the ability to respond ...
Deciding to take a lump sum instead of ongoing pension payments is challenging. One option gives you a nice big check with all the associated possibilities and the other option promises years of much smaller ...
... at the highest level in over 20 years. - Rates for new mortgages are especially elevated relative to rates on already outstanding mortgages, and that creates no incentive for existing homeowners to ...
... offering higher rates, but these get riskier as rates rise.
You’ll see in the second column from left that you can lock in 5+% returns for maybe a few years. Longer than that and yields drop meaningfully. ...
... waiting until 70 to start SSI would be sizeable. For example, a random sample from the variety of financial plans I’ve done over the past 10+ years shows about $100,000 of extra income over a longer life ...
... time running races from marathon distance and longer, often in mountainous terrain. All my years of running inspired a sense of adventure but, admittedly, I was turning into a one trick pony. I enjoy paddling ...