We live at the apex of human civilization. We carry trillions of bits of high-quality data in our pockets at all times. Despite these advantages, our decision-making process evolved little since our days as tribal “hunter-gathers.?
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When a client retires, we split their portfolio into three buckets: Risk Assets, Fixed Income, and Near Cash. We invest the client’s assets such that the Risk Bucket represents 60-70% of their portfolio, invested in faster growing but volatile US and international equities.
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Depending on the specifics of your employer’s 401(k) plan (which you can access anytime by referencing the Summary Plan Description, or SPD), Mega Backdoor Roths via NRATs offer a ton of upside.
Read MoreMega Backdoor Roth strategies have been in the news (not to mention Congress) a lot lately. In Part One, I review what they are, how they work, and how they differ from other retirement account strategies.
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Retirement doesn’t look like it used to — and for good reason. For prior generations, age 65 constituted a threshold between the working world and the leisure world. Once you crossed it, you took your gold watch, your pension, and your savings, and kicked back in some tropical locale.
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If you have a college bound high school senior in the house, here are some useful tips you should know about filling out the FAFSA form. The application for the 2019-2020 school year is now available as of October 1st. You can also use this estimating tool to get a sense of options without filling out the complete form.
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A common emotion among inheritors is reluctance to change the investment strategy of an inherited portfolio. “If those stocks were good enough for Dad, they’re good enough for me!” In fact, the moment of inheritance is a perfect moment to start over.
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Question: I have a one year old child. Is it too early to start a portfolio for my child, and would it be better to start off with a stock or a bond?
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Question: My mother passed away a few weeks ago. She left five heirs who want to assure that their inheritance is not going to be subject to market risk before it is distributed. I told her advisor to liquidate most of her portfolio but he said the brokerage firm has frozen the account. What can be done?
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Question: I am 54-years-old and plan on retiring at the age of 56 from a Federal Government position. I currently have approximately 25% of my total assets in aggressive non-IRA mutual funds. Since I have over half of my total assets in higher risk investments and stocks are at an all-time high currently, should I re-balance my accounts?
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Question: I am less than three years away from retirement and have 80% of my stock portfolio in a particular stock which has grown about 30% in the last two years. My mortgage is at 4.4% and my 401(k) is about 1/3 of my total assets (the other 2/3 being stock). I am single with a salary between $100,000 and $150,000. I was thinking of paying off my mortgage by selling about a quarter of that particular stock which would include the capital gains and fees. Is it wise to sell stock at this time to payoff the mortgage?
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Question: I have just heard that people should forget about retiring until they are 70 years old. Does this only apply to a certain target audience? I am thinking about retiring when I am 60 years old (9 years from now). I have about $2,300,000 in investments split equally between a 401(K) and other investments. My wife and I have always lived well under our means.
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Forget about everything the media is saying about Millennials. The group born between the late 1970s and 1990s is anything but lazy - yes, I am referring to the young people who in many cases are still living at home with mom and dad.
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