28th September 2006
I recently read a financial advice column that began with the premise that putting money away for retirement was extremely difficult because "its hard to part" with money for a future need.
What's wrong with this picture?
Money saved for retirement ...
07th August 2006
Since the advent of 401(k) plans, employees have been empowered to take responsibility for their retirement assets by controlling the placement of their investment dollars. Over time, many employees have been ill-equipped and uncomfortable in making those...
13th July 2006
Here's the issue. You bought a stock umpteen years ago that is now worth 10 times what you paid for it, but in the last 5 years its trading price seems to be super glued to the wall. You have always been a proponent of "buy and hold" and this stock seems ...
05th June 2006
My Aunt Betty's closest companions have always been her cats. Ever since I was a boy, my family never traveled to the Midwest to visit just Betty. It was always Betty and Roscoe or Betty and Fluffy. She's always loved those feline friends and, as age crep...
11th May 2006
Delta Widget, Inc. has just made you a tender offer to buy back its shares of stock, which you bought from your broker a few years ago. The stock price hasn't grown as expected and the tender offer is just slightly over market value. It's tempting to take...
03rd April 2006
So Uncle Harry's estate has finally been settled and you have been blessed with both his extensive wardrobe and a tidy sum of his investment portfolio. Harry was not only the sharpest dresser in the family, but the financial guru as well.
Now, if you c...
12th March 2006
If you are looking for some education money for yourself or your spouse, or your children or your grandchildren, and you have not reached age 59½, consider a withdrawal from either your traditional IRA or your Roth IRA, without having to pay the 10% addit...
09th February 2006
Low interest rates and relatively easy access to mortgage money are just two factors that have caused a boom in residential real estate prices over the past few years. This phenomena has caused a number of analysts to ask whether a national "housing bubbl...
03rd January 2006
Forget fundamental research, put aside those technical charts and, by all means, turn off those cable business programs. If you really want to know what's going to happen in the stock market, all you need to follow are a number of urban legends.
Starti...
20th December 2005
Here are some of the changes in contributions and compensation limits that are in place for 2006:
IRA Contributions:
For those eligible, the 2006 maximum allowable contribution for a traditional IRA is $4000. This is the same for Roth IRA contributi...
02nd December 2005
There must be a touch of inflation in the air, since a few clients have been calling with questions regarding I Bonds. With the low inflationary environment of late, there hasn't been a lot of press concerning I Bonds. But since we don't know what evil lu...
18th November 2005
One of the holy grails of investing is the ability to achieve a decent return without volatility. After all, I think we all learned somewhere along the line that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. To say we are a long way from ac...
10th November 2005
One of the best indicators of corporate health is the Free Cash Flow (FCF) of a company and, unlike some other indicators, it is relatively easy to understand.
Think of FCF as the deposit you put in a savings account after paying your regular monthly b...
17th October 2005
Increasing yield - while maintaining an appropriate allocation - is often a difficult trick for trustees of living trusts. But one tool you can pull out of your kit is the "Dogs of the Dow," a contrarian strategy designed to potentially increase yield and...
06th October 2005
Let's face it, you're on a roll. After getting down to your attorney's office to sign the new Living Trust and then diligently tracking down your assets to fund the trust, you should be congratulated. You're one of the responsible ones - 70% of the people...
