Have you ever thought about the transfer of your wealth at your death and who should get your “stuff”? Assuming that your surviving spouse is taking care of, where do you want the bulk of your money to go? If you're like most of my clients, they consider their adult children as the primary beneficiaries of their wealth once they’ve passed. Let's consider this… Most individuals will die in their 80s and 90s. This will put their adult children in their 50s and 60s. I think that most … [Read more...]

In our last article “How Risky Are My Investments? Part 1” we discussed what is meant by the “risk” of an investment portfolio. We ended the article with the question, "How do we reduce risk without compromising return?" One of the best ways to reduce uncertainty and risk without compromising returns, is to reduce the correlation of all of the investment assets inside the portfolio. Correlation means that two investments have similar results and outcomes (even though they have a different … [Read more...]

In my experience of guiding investors, I find that it is common for them to underestimate the risk of their investment portfolio that they bring in. How are investment portfolios measured in regard to risk? What is risk as it relates to investments? Risk is defined as uncertainty. It is the uncertainty that the performance of the investments will be what the average historical return has been. We all know that our investment portfolio does not receive the average historical return every year. … [Read more...]

Recently Katie, my wife,  needed help with a project in her music classroom. She wanted to mount about 24 ukuleles on the wall. It seemed pretty straightforward. The problem is, that I don't have any skills related to accomplishing it. Yet still, I want to help my wife. I knew that I needed reinforcements.  My first call was to my dad. Dad used to have his own handyman business. He's my go-to person whenever there is measuring or tools involved. The thing is,  I know that … [Read more...]

The infographic found below is an extremely compelling one. I use it in my Maximizing Social Security course when talking about the value of delaying Social Security. What it communicates goes well beyond just Social Security planning and invites us to think about planning for longevity in all aspects of retirement. It's not uncommon to use life expectancy tables to consider longevity and the timing of Social Security break even points. Unfortunately, most life expectancy tables consider life … [Read more...]