There are a few resources, above and beyond the guides available at socialsecurity.gov, that I’ve located for you – to help you as you make decisions and learn about your Social Security benefits. The good folks over at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College have developed several resources that you can find at [...]
Posts under ‘Links’
Independent’s Day
Okay, this has nothing to do with America’s celebration of independence from British rule… other than it’s a play on words and you know I can’t possibly resist. No, today’s post is about your own independence from the biases that are infused into advice you might receive from an advisor who is working for an [...]
What to do When You Receive a Notice From the IRS
You’re cruising along with everyday life, dealing with this, that and the other thing… then you go to the mailbox and there it is: A Notice From The IRS. <queue scary music here> It’s a simple enough little envelope, much the same as a lot of other mail you might receive… but look at the [...]
Economic Indicators – What’s Important to Watch?
You see them on the news, in the newspaper, on the internet. Not every day, but certainly it seems like a new one every week: Key Economic Indicators. There’s the CPI, GDP, and Unemployment. There’s also the Consumer Confidence Index and Leading Economic Index. What’s this all about? What do these numbers mean? And most [...]
The Healthcare Plan – A Review
I haven’t had time to delve very deeply into the new Healthcare plan that the President signed recently. Somehow the pile of tax returns keeps getting in the way… Never fear though, a colleague of mine, Curtis Smith, CFP®, of Sugarland, Texas, recently posted a couple of blog articles reviewing the major tenets of the [...]
The Formula for Success
Financial professionals sometimes get wrapped up in the overly-complex – retirement projections, Monte Carlo analysis, trust and estate planning, and complicated portfolio design. It often comes to mind that we need to stop and remember what the most important concepts are in successful financial planning, and that can be boiled down to a very simple [...]
Where to Get Your Annual Credit Report
As a smart consumer, you have likely heard that it’s a good idea to get your credit report every year from all three services: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You’ve probably also seen the ever-present “Free Credit Report” commercials on the television (unless you TiVo everything and skip past the commercials!) – so you may be [...]
Review of 2009 Stats
Ed. Note: taking a breather from our normal business of posting retirement, tax and other personal financial planning topics to report on the blog itself and the statistics we’ve seen in this, the 6th year of publication for the blog. We’ll be back to our regular programming with the next entry. – jb Over the [...]
Linksharing: Illinois Edition
Revisiting an old theme again after a few months off, I wanted to highlight some blogs I’ve read recently that I think are worthy of your review. This particular edition is dedicated strictly to blogs based in the Land of Lincoln. The first is a blog I’ve mentioned here before, The Oblivious Investor. In this [...]
LinkSharing: Financial Advisor Websites with Blogs
Jim’s Note: I am off on a vacation this week. That’s right, I have R-U-N-N-O-F-T (see the excellent movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” to understand the reference). In lieu of my regular LinkSharing, I’ve reprinted the below, with a few additions of my own, from Ben at Money Smart Life. Thanks, Ben! Financial Advisor [...]
And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".
