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Top 5 Mistakes Millionaires Made With Their Investments
Top 5 Mistakes Millionaires Made With Their Investments In a study of 880 global high-net-worth clients, deVere Group asked respondents to identify the biggest investing mistakes they made before they decided to get help from a professional: Focusing too much on historical returns Not reviewing the portfolio regularly Making emotional decisions Investing without a plan […]
Delaying Social Security – if you can afford to – is a great deal
I’ve written about this many times, the most recent time here: <https://meyersmoney.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/delaying-the-start-of-social-security/> Wade Pfau, however, one of the foremost experts on retirement and getting one’s investments to last through retirement – has written a great column in Forbes about the issue: <http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadepfau/2014/04/01/delaying-social-security-what-an-investment/?ss=personalfinance> I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The Seven-Figure Portfolio Fee
Wall Street Journal recently published, in their WSJ.Money magazine, an article titled “The Seven-Figure Portfolio Fee”. Here’s a link to it: <http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579433392421114838> The subtitle is “The cost of managing finances is coming down for many investors. But, for the wealthy, it’s a different story. They proceed to discuss just how much assets-under-management fees add up […]
Sometimes 401(k) plan fees are so high that you’d be better off investing in a taxable account
Via Rick Ferri — <http://www.rickferri.com/blog/investments/dont-bother-with-that-high-cost-401k/> A 401(k) plan is broken when the fund expenses overwhelm the tax benefit of participation. Employer sponsored 401(k) and similar tax-deferred savings plans encourage employees to save for retirement by deferring income taxes on their contributions. However, a recent study suggests that about 1 in 7 plans provide investment […]
Professional Portfolio Management – For Free
In another great column at the WSJ, Jason Zweig talks about some of the new breed of online, computerized portfolio management packages. These providers, for a very low fee (as little as free for the first $10,000, up to about 0.25% per year ongoing), will invest your money into efficient low-cost portfolios of index funds […]
Eleanore Szymanski on How to Choose A Financial Advisor
Naturally, everything she says makes sense… <http://www.nj.com/times-opinion/index.ssf/2014/01/szymanski_take_care_in_choosin.html> She does preface with a caveat – that there are advisors who could be perfectly well qualified but who won’t fit the criteria she lists — but because a lay person may not be able to evaluate and select one who doesn’t fit her criteria, these are a […]
FINRA warns about 401(k) Rollovers – Let’s talk again about conflicts of interest!
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the securities industry’s self-reglatory organization. They do the various test, deal with broker and advisor registration and monitoring, etc. And FINRA has recently started cracking down on advisors and brokers who are giving questionable advice to investors about how to deal with their 401(k)s and rollovers. In […]
Joint Accounts – simple, effective, but not always the right way to go
Estate planning is a huge topic and many of the issues apply not just to what happens to assets after one dies, but also to how best to manage assets while one is still alive, especially in the unfortunate event that one may become incapacitated. One convenient tool is the “joint ownership” of assets, Joint […]
Taking former employer retirement savings with you – 55% should think very carefully!
A statistic quoted in a recent Kiplingers Letter: About 45% of folks who get a lump sum from an employer-sponsored retirement plan after changing jobs roll the entire sum into another tax-advantaged savings plan. That’s double the share who did so in the early 1990s, when lump sum distributions often prompted job changers to […]
2013 Year-End Reminders
At year-end, there are several financial moves which can be particularly beneficial. We list a few here, as a reminder: (a) Charitable Gifts – in order to get the tax break for making gifts or donations to charities, they must be completed by year-end. See A Powerful Tool for Charitable Gifts – the Donor-Advised […]
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