FINANCIaL
FIELd NOTES
How To Be Happier – Stop Adapting So Much
When my wife and I first got married, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment that was the cheapest option in our zip code. We literally went to apartments.com, sorted from least expensive, and then signed on the dotted line. Our room was sandwiched between habitual smokers. Our assigned parking spot was a 5-minute walk to the front door. They didn’t plow the parking lot when it snowed.
And we were so happy…
Inevitable vs. Predictable
Nearly a decade before the tech bubble popped in the early 2000s, technology companies started to explode onto the scene.
If you had invested $10,000 in the Nasdaq in 1991, you would have had $20,000 just 3 years later.
It was around 1994, that famous wall street investors began calling tech stocks a bubble. As we now know, this was very premature. The bull market would rage on for 6 more years and your $10,000 investment would have eventually turned into over $120,000 by 2000.
Is Buying An Extended Warranty On Your Car Worth It?
You just got done picking out your car and are invited to finish the deal by talking with the “finance guy.” This typically involves sales pitches for extended warranties on everything from your tires to your favorite Beatles CD…okay, that last one might be a stretch but they really do offer protection on just about everything.
Have you ever questioned whether it was in fact worth it? In 2013, Consumer Reports did an extensive survey to find out the answer to that question…
How Cash Can Earn You More Than 0%
Do you know the interest rate you’re earning on your savings account? The last time I checked, my “high-yield” savings was paying a meager .4%. When savings accounts pay nearly 0% in interest, as they did from 2002-2004 or 1992-1994, it is tempting to think of cash as a worthless investment.
But as investors found out during the Covid-19 crisis, 2008 financial recession, and many recessions prior, cash was anything but worthless.
My Retirement Checklist
My family thrives on checklists because without them we would almost certainly head to the beach for a long vacation without sunscreen or our swim trunks.
Preparing for retirement can feel a bit like a really long vacation, constantly wondering if there’s something you haven’t thought of. That’s why I created my 33 item retirement checklist to walk clients through as they prepare for retirement.
My Retirement Checklist (Part 3)
Last week we discussed how to evaluate whether your investment and tax plan are optimized to be working toward your retirement income goals.
In the final part of my Retirement Checklist series, we will discuss how to make sure you’re making cost-effective decisions about Medicare and other insurance, and evaluating the best Social Security strategy for yourself.