Dave Ramsey has his opinion. Suze Orman has her opinion. Maybe you have an opinion on the reverse mortgage as well. I know that before I began to do research on the subject of reverse mortgages, I was fairly well indoctrinated that they were a bad idea. And trying to find out more about the pros and cons of reverse mortgages through Google searches or media articles didn't really help. It seems like, similar to annuities, people love to hate reverse mortgages. Whenever there seems to be … [Read more...]

If you’re in the early stages or retirement, or about to retire, you may think you’ve got everything sorted. You’ve saved and invested and you’ve done some research so what value could a retirement advisor possibly have for you? There are 3 big benefits that my clients get from working with me as their retirement advisor and these are often things that have been overlooked. 1. If you are currently preparing for retirement, or in the early stage of retirement, a retirement advisor can … [Read more...]

In my last post, I explained how commission-based investment advisors make their money since they don’t directly charge clients a fee. In this post, I’m going to explore if the difference in compensation models present any conflicts of interest between client and advisor and which is best for you. Let’s look at an imaginary investment advisor named John. If John sells an A Share Class fund, he is compensated right away and not much afterward. He gets an initial compensation of 5.75% of the … [Read more...]

One of the great things about having someone that does your taxes each year is… well… you don't have to do your taxes each year! Who wants to be an expert on federal and state income taxes?  The bad news is that most accountants and CPAs are incredibly busy each year attempting to finish everyone's return by the deadline. They aren't necessarily thinking to themselves, "how can I help this client save on taxes?". That's a shame because they are a wealth of knowledge which could be tapped if … [Read more...]

Have you ever heard this expression? “Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions” Don’t you wish you could just skip to the good decisions part?  Well the next best way to make good decisions aside from your own bad decisions is to learn from OTHER’S experience.  Being in my second decade of helping retirees, I see common patterns of mistakes that retirees can make and you can avoid. Using the same investment approach in your distribution … [Read more...]