Why Good Annuity Advice is Hard to Get

Why Good Annuity Advice is Hard to Get

Annuities can be a very valuable part of an investment portfolio.  Unlike stocks & bonds, they provide guaranteed income for as long as you live (at least to the extent supported by your state’s Life & Health Insurance Guarantee Association).  But getting help on what kind of annuity to buy (let alone which one specifically)…
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What’s In Store for the S&P 500?

As of this writing the S&P 500 is once again testing new highs.  It’s always valuable at such a juncture to consider the two trends that market returns always follow in order to keep one’s perspective within the realm of rationality. First, there’s cyclical change, best expressed by the adage “What goes up must come…
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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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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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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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