t was the Happiness Spreadsheet Workshop entitled “Where Creativity and Finance Connect”, and the exercises these women were about to embark on were from my newly published ebook, “The Happiness Spreadsheet.”

I come across investment bloopers all the time in my line of work – I’m a Fee-Only (no products sold) Certified Financial Planner®. From what I can see, many bloopers are a “perfect storm”  – a combination of opportunistic product sales combined with a lack of understanding by clients. How does this happen? The standard [...]

Short-term disability insurance is meant to provide a stream of income during times when you are unable to earn a paycheck but don’t fit the bill for long-term or permanent disability coverage.

When you visit a Fee-Only financial planner to talk about your financial future and retirement planning, there is a good chance that person will ask if you have long-term care insurance.

Private mortgage lending or investing in “hard money” mortgage Notes or a Deed of Trust is something that is becoming more popular with investors. I used to work in the lending business and am strongly opposed to individual retail investors buying or funding a loan.

The possibility of long-term care costs financially wiping out a retirement nest egg is not minimal. Estimates of the likelihood of a 65-year-old needing long-term care vary between 35% and 55%, depending upon definitions. Further, the average cost for a semi-private room in a nursing home is about $75,000 a year. Assuming this cost increases by 4% per year, as many experts expect nursing home costs to rise faster than general inflation, the average cost will be $164,300 per year in 20 years, right as a person turning age 65 today will enter the high-incidence years for needing long-term care. With this level of risk and potential cost, the necessity of planning is clear.