When facing the loss of a loved one, the last thing someone wants to think about is the expense related to the funeral. Often the cost comes as a shock to the family. When I lost my father in 2006, it was up to my step-mom and I to go about planning his funeral arrangements. I guess I always knew that the cost of a funeral could get pricey, I just never realized how much!
The cost of the average funeral has dramatically increased in the last 25 years. However it’s an expense that we can’t avoid. Being prepared and understanding the costs involved can help the process of planning for a funeral a little bit easier. [.....]
Do you ever wonder if you really have to file a tax return? When I was younger, I always assumed that since I barely made anything, that it didn’t make sense for me to file.
Filing taxes and whether or not you need to actually do so can be confusing. But if you follow a few simple guidelines, you can more easily understand where you are at in this. Not all people do need to file. If you have a moderate to low income, for example, you may not have to. For those that get overwhelmed when filing taxes, this can be a plus. [.....]
In today’s high tech world, you stand a much better chance of becoming a victim of credit card and identity theft than a robbery committed in person. Thieves have a number of crafty technology based ways to steal your personal information, often including credit card numbers, bank account information and other financial information.
Skimming represents just another one of these new technology based ways to steal from you. These schemes are designed to steal your money or your identity without you even knowing about it. They also make it harder to capture the assailant. Knowing about these schemes and taking steps to prevent them is your best chance of avoiding them. [.....]
I thought that I would switch it up a little bit on the blog today and share one of the videos that I did for my other site Soldier of Finance. You did know that I another site, right? Consider yourself informed. Here’s one of the many videos I’ve done. Enjoy…..
Today I want to talk a little bit about failure. A lot of people are afraid of failure. They are just terrified of it. They are afraid of trying something new. They’re scared of attempting to change something about their life so they just don’t do it at all. As much as I talk about success, whether that be on the Soldier of Finance blog or my Good Financial Cents blog, the one thing I am not afraid to admit is that I have failed. I have failed many times. [.....]
Welcome! Today, I want to actually start a new thing, a new series that I wanted to do where basically I just give quick little financial tips. Good Financial Tips from Good Financial Cents is going to be the name of this new series.
Today’s financial tip is this: Don’t do this! I guess I should elaborate on what “don’t do this” really means. I recently met with a gentleman who was five years out from retirement, and he was counting on his father’s business to be a big part of his retirement dollars or his retirement bucket. Turns out as life progressed, I’m not exactly sure what happened, but basically the son- he actually was one of two sons- he did not get any of the business. For some reason it all went to his other brother. [.....]
One of the concepts fundamental to physics is that of inertia. Inertia is the tendency of a physical object to resist change in its current state of motion or rest. If an object is moving, it will resist stopping. If an object is at rest, it will resist being put into motion. The same concept can be used to describe finances. Often, we have built up financial inertia. We are going along a certain path, engaging in certain money habits, and it is difficult to break out of that situation. If you are looking to overcome financial inertia, here are some things you can try to get yourself out of your rut: [.....]
In a tight economy like we are all dealing with today, managing your money appropriately and efficiently are arguably the most important things you will be dealing with on a day to day basis. There are varieties of different tools out there that will keep track of your expenses, as well as let you input a little bit of debt information. The majority of these sites or applications just organize your information in a user friendly type interface with a couple of graphs or charts that separate your expenses by category. Many will also allow you to put your salary information into the program to help you come up with a budget for each paycheck, and allocate some of the extra to savings. [.....]
Over the past four weeks, the combination of lower Treasury yields and higher inflation fears suggests the bond market may be signaling the return of stagflation. Normally, higher inflation expectations would translate into lower bond prices and higher yields as investors demand protection from rising inflation that erodes the value of bond investments over time. However, the fact that high-quality bond yields declined over the past four weeks while inflation expectations increased suggests that the bond market may be pricing in both slower economic growth and higher inflation, otherwise known as stagflation. [.....]
No matter who you are, you probably rely on a checking account to keep track of your liquid assets, and most people have a savings account whether they use it or not. Your checking and savings account are probably both provided by a bank of some kind because, until recently that was the only option most people knew existed. However, since the start of the recession there has been a dramatic increase in people choosing to invest their money in credit unions rather than banks. Many people, myself included, have experienced frustration with their bank and have gazed with interest at their local credit unions. [.....]
Today I want to address another common question I get when it comes to a lot of my clients that are retiring or are very close to retirement. The question is, “Jeff, how do we take care of the taxes whenever we are taking distributions out of our IRAs?” It is a very common question I get. Most typically why I get that question is because whenever they are talking to their HR department with their 401Ks or pension, they are commonly told if they do a distribution from there, they’re going to withhold 20% on federal income tax. That is typically an IRS standard where if you are taking distribution from a 401K or pension, by standard that is how much they are going to withhold, so they just assume that that is how much we are going to withhold on our end, and that is not the case. [.....]
I recently met with some clients that were in the process of inheriting a very large chunk of money, more than they might otherwise have in their entire life, unless they were to win the lottery. I don’t believe that they buy lottery tickets, so chances of that happening are pretty small. During the meeting we spent a great deal of time discussing their current investments, what they’re invested in, etc. As the meeting went on and we began to scratch past the surface, I learned more about the clients’ situation. At this point in their life, they didn’t have a lot in savings and had not done much in the line of preparing for retirement. [.....]
Well, it’s here again. Another tax season is upon us and millions of people are preparing to go through the often complicated filing process. One of the common questions asked concerns how you determine your tax filing status. It is important to figure out what your correct filing status so you can sure that your taxes have been prepared properly. As you will see there are five different tax filing statuses. Each one represents different circumstances. [.....]
Is the Bond Market Signaling Stagflation?
by LPL Financial
Over the past four weeks, the combination of lower Treasury yields and higher inflation fears suggests the bond market may be signaling the return of stagflation. Normally, higher inflation expectations would translate into lower bond prices and higher yields as investors demand protection from rising inflation that erodes the value of bond investments over time. However, the fact that high-quality bond yields declined over the past four weeks while inflation expectations increased suggests that the bond market may be pricing in both slower economic growth and higher inflation, otherwise known as stagflation.
Read this article →[.....]