All of us now or at some time in our lives will have to take care of someone- a child who is ill, or a spouse who gets disabled or has a chronic illness- but most of the time it is a parent that is aging. We are all living longer. The heavy responsibility that [...]

This is a series of articles I’ve labeld ‘Variable Annuities are Retirement Snake Oil’ on why today’s deferred annuities are not investments to consider for retirement. Over at least ten columns I’ll cover why you should avoid these ‘in…

Every year, long about three months before your birthday, you should receive a statement from the Social Security Administration detailing your benefits projected to your potential retirement age(s).  While the statement is designed to be pretty well self-explanatory, I thought it might be beneficial to review the statement so that you know what the statement [...]

Post from: Getting Your Financial Ducks In A Row

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Your Social Security Benefits Statement

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from clients lately asking about various investments.
However, I have a set of core beliefs when it comes to investing, and every “investment” that has been asked about or put on my desk hasn’t held muster against my investment philosophy which I believe to be rational and sound.
If you [...]

When faced with the high cost of college, you want to find and take advantage of every opportunity that you can to cut down on your out-of-pocket expenses, before you give in and take out loans.  So after you’ve applied for all of the grants, scholarships, and other non-loan financial aid that you can, it’s [...]

Last week I attended the Financial Planning Association annual symposium in Dallas, and one of the speakers was Bart Boles, executive director for Texas’ insurance guaranty association.  He shared the association’s processes when an insurance company fails, and how we as the consumer would likely be affected.  Some of the exclusions and limits are important information [...]