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The Single Most Important Question to Ask Yourself Before Retiring!
The other night I had dinner at my favorite sushi place (Sagami’s in Collinswood, NJ) with a good friend. He’s over 50, and we discussed the topic of retirement. He described vacillating between getting an RV (and a dog) to travel the country versus continuing to work. After a few minutes of the pros and cons, I asked him one of my favorite contemplating-retirement questions. “Do you think you are retiring TO something or FROM something?”
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Trick or Creep: What’s lurking behind your lavish lifestyle?
Many of us experience this phenomena and don’t even realize it. Basically, lifestyle creep pertains to how our style of living increases as we advance financially (most often through our careers). Once, you drove a 15 year old “beater” car. Now, you drive a BMW. You used to only vacation where you could pack the car and drive. Now, you fly your family of five to Europe every year.
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No Cash? No Problem. The New Way to Transfer Money to Friends & Businesses
A few years ago my brother owed me money for some wine. I said to him, “Hey man, just send it to me by Paypal.” He said, “Paypal? I only have Venmo. What is your Venmo info?” I responded, “Venmo? I only have Paypal. Who doesn’t have Paypal?”
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What Credit Card Debt Can Tell You About Yourself
You can tell a lot about a person by their finances. Usually, I look at ones assets and make some pretty good assumptions about how they save. However, a lot can be learned simply by someone’s credit card debts. It serves as a glimpse into that person’s financial soul.
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A Breakdown of Bonds: Positives & Negatives
Most of us have heard about bonds. Furthermore, most understand bonds are an investment vehicle much like stocks. However, I find many truly don’t understand how a bond operates. For instance, did you know the rarely talked about bond market is substantially larger than the stock market? It’s true; it’s about 30 trillion dollars larger! The global bond market is approximately $108 trillion compared to the approximately $79 trillion of the global stock market.
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Your Savings Assessment Test [Where do you Score?]
Many of us like to get a sense for our place in the world. This sense comes in different forms: spiritual, emotional, financial, and more. When it comes to finances, it’s helpful for everyone to grasp how well we are all saving for the future. The sooner all of us can wrap our heads around where we “stack up,” the sooner situations can improve. To help, I’ve created my own “savings assessment test.” It uses a scoring scale from 1-10 (one being the lowest and ten the highest) to determine retirement savings health.
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Tips for How to Make Financial Planning a Cinch
I work with clients to develop a very sophisticated and multifaceted plan to organize their finances. Oftentimes after that meeting (or meetings, to be fair), they leave with a series of detailed steps geared towards putting them on the “right path” to success. I recognize; however, many people work best if given just one singular goal — one objective prioritized ahead of the million other smaller things.
READ MORE...Help! My Spouse Handles ALL the Finances.
I find many couples generally divide and conquer the family duties -- one handles the laundry, the other does the cooking; one does the cleaning, the other plans the vacations; one handles all the finances and the other deals with charitable endeavors. This strategy is fine “most” of the time. However, the problem here is when the time comes to pass the finances baton.
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