investing

A quick summary of financial activities for the week ending June 23rd, 2017 Positives: 1. S&P 500 made another all-time closing high. 2. Existing home sales rose 1.1% to a higher-than-expected 5.620 million annualized rate. 3. Initial jobless claims rose slightly to 241k, but the 4-week average remains low, at 244.75k. 4.

Let’s start with the basic idea of a Roth IRA: With these accounts, you contribute after-tax dollars. But then everything you make is free from future income taxes as well.

Let's start with a pretty straightforward question: With more than 300,000 financial advisors in America, why is it so hard to find good advice? 

Should You Worry About Inflation? If you’re like most investors, inflation is probably not the biggest — or even the fifth biggest — worry on your list now. But that doesn’t mean it won’t come back in a major way. Indeed, droughts are always a great time to start thinking about flood insurance.

If your goal is to save enough to fund a long retirement, and you’re not sure how to start or how to catch up, remember that there’s more than one path to success. Retirement rules that work for some may be a myth for others. Here’s why knowing that some retirement rules are myths could potentially benefit you in your quest for long-term retirement success.

We all know men and women are different in some fundamental ways. But is this true when it comes to financial planning? In a word, yes. In the financial world, women often find themselves in very different circumstances than their male counterparts. Everyone wants financial security. Yet women often face financial headwinds that can affect their ability to achieve it.

1. Always Clarify Objectives and Be Focused on Results

What do you want to accomplish? Why do you want to accomplish it? Gaining this clarity by answering these “big questions” seeks to lead to better outcomes and a higher chance of success.

On Wednesday, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all closed at all-time highs. For the first time in 25 years, the three indexes made five consecutive new highs together. While I've expected some pull-back in the market this quarter in the near-term, I've been happy to see that my views so far have not been accurate.

Sometimes, the best reaction is no action at all. To help my clients understand this when it comes to their behavior involving their financial investments, I sometimes use a soccer analogy. During a penalty kick, a soccer goalie must make a split-second decision to stay put in the center of the goal, jump left, or jump right.

On a regular basis, I get requests from people to summarize our investment advice. We are in a complicated, nuanced business and its difficult to boil down my views to just a few relevant thought bites. However, here are a few thoughts that are worth remembering when thinking through and evaluating your investment philosophy and strategy. 1.