Create a financial plan that can help you make the best of any circumstance. Here’s a checklist for financial preparedness. Lay a secure foundation Consider disability insurance to replace income that you may no longer receive if you become disabled by illness or injury. Some employers offer free or discounted disability insurance policies to their […]
As more Americans shoulder the responsibility of funding their own retirement, many rely increasingly on their 401(k) retirement plans to provide the means to pursue their investment goals. That’s because 401(k) plans offer a variety of attractive features that make investing for the future easy and potentially profitable. What is a 401(k) plan? A 401(k) […]
Using ETFs in Tactical Asset Allocation Strategies – Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may be ideal tools for helping savvy investors execute a tactical asset allocation strategy. A general understanding of tactical asset allocation can help crystallize this strategic use of ETFs. The process of creating an allocation starts with an assessment of the investor’s age, goals, and […]
Small Business Owners: Test Your Retirement Plan Knowledge While worker confidence about having enough money to live comfortably in retirement has been on the rise in recent years, that confidence is based largely on access to and participation in a workplace retirement plan. According to the latest annual Retirement Confidence Survey conducted by the Employee […]
Few Cost of Living Adjustments for Retirement and Health Plans for 2016 – The IRS has released the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) affecting dollar limitations for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), defined contribution and other retirement-related items for tax year 2016. In general, most limits will remain unchanged for 2016 because the increase in the cost-of-living index did […]
Americans’ confidence in the ability to afford a comfortable retirement continues to rebound from the lows reported between 2009 and 2013. The increasing optimism is coming largely from workers who indicate they and/or their spouse have a retirement plan, such as a defined contribution (401(k)-type) plan, defined benefit (pension) plan, or individual retirement account (IRA). […]
[contextly_auto_sidebar] For many people, the answer to the question, “What do you want to do when you retire?” may be very obvious. They have a clear plan for the hobbies they want to pursue or the trips they want to take, but for others, the answer might not be as clear. Planning for retirement is […]
With some $30 trillion poised to change hands over the next several decades from parents and grandparents to so-called Millennials — those 90-million-plus Americans aged 18 to 33 — the financial services industry will have its work cut out for it. Popular investing wisdom states that the younger you are, the more time you have […]
Nobody likes to pay taxes. That’s why investors naturally are interested in earning tax-free income. Municipal bond issues are a very popular way to earn tax-free income and, if income is reinvested, achieve tax-free compounding of returns. Municipal bonds (also known as “munis”) are fixed-income investments that can provide higher after-tax returns than similar taxable […]
Dividend-paying stocks provide investors with tangible returns on a regular basis regardless of market conditions. This can benefit a range of investment styles and management strategies — from completely passive indexing to active buy-and-hold selection to aggressive trading and arbitrage. Passive Dividend Portfolios In 2014, a portfolio composed of all stocks in the S&P 500 […]
