Is It Wise to Tap Your 401(k) to Buy Property?

Is It Wise to Tap Your 401(k) to Buy Property?

I frequently run across ads touting the benefits of utilizing money in your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to purchase investment property.  And it’s not just me.  Les Christie in CNNMoney recently reported that amateur investors are buying up homes using cash in their retirement accounts in order to get in on hot housing markets.  The…
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New Adjustable Pension Plan Looks Promising

One of the problems many employees have faced over the last decade is the rapid disappearance of the traditional company pension plan – also known as a defined benefit (DB) plan – in favor of defined contribution (DC) plans. With DB plans, the investment risk is completely borne by the company, while the opposite is…
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Study Shows Poor Financial Literacy among Americans

With Americans being forced to take more and more responsibility for their retirement savings and growth, the need for making better financial decisions is becoming paramount. Unfortunately, a recent survey by LIMRA, a life insurance market research association, designed to test the financial literacy of the average American, shows that we still have a long…
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Sudden Wealth – Blessing or Curse?

Now that the Powerball lottery has arrived in California, I thought it would be good to talk about the impact of unexpected or sudden wealth on one’s life.  We’ve all probably dreamed at one time or another about how fantastic our lives would become if we could only win the lottery.  I’ve no doubt there…
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How to (Legally) Maximize Your Social Security Benefits

The Social Security Administration gives retirees the option of collecting social security (SS) benefits as early as age 62. But they offer a much higher monthly benefit if you choose instead to delay collecting benefits until age 70. How much more? According to Elaine Floyd of Horsesmouth, LLC, a financial advisor consulting company, if you…
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A New Metric to Aid Mutual Fund Selection

One of the most widely debated investment approaches among financial planners involves active versus passive management, especially when investing in stocks.  Indeed, this debate has taken on many of the attributes of a holy war.  Those supporting passive investing argue that the odds of any individual investor putting together a portfolio that can consistently beat…
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