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Are You Ready To Take Charge of Your Financial Life?
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Before every financial decision you make, you have to ask yourself, “Does it make sense?”. In the world of personal finance, what makes sense for one may not make sense for the other. Several factors will play into the final decision. Today’s collection is 107 (with two bonus) things that make good financial “cents”. Most everything here can be applied to anybody and at any point in their lives. Happy reading!
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Tips For Medical Exam
When you apply for life insurance, you typically will be asked to have a medical examination performed by a licensed health professional. The insurance company will order the exam on your behalf and you will receive a call to schedule the appointment.
When I got my term life insurance policy, I had a traveling nurse come to my home and do my blood work and the rest of the tests. Since you’re not supposed to eat before the exam, I had scheduled for her to come early in the morning. There was no way that I can go too long without eating.
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Worried About Inflation
This report was prepared by my firm LPL Financial.
Last week’s key economic data came in better than expected, including the closely watched ISM report gauge of manufacturing activity, auto sales, and employment. This string of better than expected numbers is consistent with the rapid pace of healing in the credit markets—the key driver of the recession. Last week marked the 12th week of improvement in the LPL Financial Current Conditions Index. Important gauges of stress in the credit markets are back to pre-crisis levels; the TED spread, a key measure of interbank liquidity, is back down to a relatively normal 0.50%. On Friday, the employment report reflected a net job loss of 345,000 for the United States in the month of May, far less than forecasted and only half the loss reported four months earlier for January. May’s job loss was the smallest since the crisis began with the failure of Lehman Brothers and the seizure in the credit markets in mid-September of last year. The data increasingly paint a picture of a still weak, but rapidly improving U.S. economy. [.....]
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Market Continues To Fret
Dear Client,
We are between the quarterly earnings report seasons and that has left markets free to fret about all sorts of things – economic reports, government policy announcements and actions, bankruptcy filings, various scandals, etc., etc. Right now it appears that we are “climbing the wall of worry”.
Absent earnings reports for the second quarter, U.S. equity markets have been staging a jittery recovery from the early March lows with the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ now showing positive returns year-to-date, while the Dow is still a bit below. Sector earnings reports generally improved in Q1, but Financials, Energy, Materials, and Consumer Discretionary are only back to near zero earnings per share from huge Q4 losses. Consumer Staples, Technology, [.....]
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Now or Later? When to take Social Security.
Now or Later? When it comes to when to take your social security, this is a common question that most retirees ask themselves. And then they ask themselves again. Then they ask the next door neighbor. After they ask everybody the know, they are still confused on when the right time is. Do you take it early? Or do you wait until you can get the full benefit. If you find yourself getting ready to ask the cashier at the local grocery store when the right time to take your social security is, don’t. Let’s see if I can give you solid reasons to take your social security benefits now, not later. [.....]
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4 Things Making You Poor
Do you always feel that that you can never catch up financially? For many, the rate race seems like a never ending cycle. You got to work, clock in, get your paycheck and your left scratching your head what you can do to get yourself on financial track. If you feel alone, don’t. There are many things you can do to get your investment situation on track, but for the mean time, here’s four things that are making you poor that you can change today.
It’s definitely very wise to save and have a good chunk in savings. You should keep at least 8 months worth of emergency funds (12 months if your income is unpredictable) in a high-yield savings account. But over and above that, your missing out on the potential to earn more. Consider doing a CD Ladder. Just stop losing money by not taken advantage of the opportunity to potentially earn more. [.....]
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Go Paperless!
Attention Clients: You Can Go Paperless
Statements are going green. Help reduce our environmental footprint by signing up clients for Account View and turning off paper statements. You can also help the environment by turning off your hard copies and downloading the client statements from Branchnet. Annually, LPL produces approximately 16 million statements and uses 190 million sheets of paper to produce both the monthly and quarterly advisor statements.
Each year, LPL Financial utilizes approximately 190 million pieces of paper to produce our monthly and quarterly performance statements. That’s about 2,100 trees per year. While recycling efforts across the United States are helping to reduce this number, computers are helping significantly more. By receiving statements electronically through BranchNet and Account View, together we can do our part in helping the environment while reducing cost as well. [.....]
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photo by Éole
Government bond yields have moved sharply higher in 2009—although they remain at historically low levels. After reaching a low of 2.05% on December 30, 2008 the yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to a high of 3.74% last week, reversing the decline in yields that took place during the fourth quarter. The price of the 10-year T-note, which moves in the opposite direction of the yield, has plunged, resulting in about a 25% loss over the same period. Late last year, we recommended avoiding Treasuries and wrote about a developing bubble in them as investors sought safe haven from the financial crisis. Now that the direction of government interest rates has clearly turned around, what does the rise in Treasury yields mean for the economy and markets? [.....]
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The Solo 401k
Recently joining the ranks of the self-employed by starting my own firm in 2007, I no longer had the option to contributing to my previous employers 401k. Having my own business, I was now open to a slew of retirement plan choices.
I could do a Simple IRA, SEP IRA, or the Solo 401k plan. I had done my fair share of advising clients on the investments inside these plans, but it’s whole new ballgame when you are on the other side deciding what plan is best for you.
Although, I ended up choosing the SEP IRA for the previous tax year (I’ll explain my reasoning in the post), I was able to learn much more information on the Solo 401k rules and contribution limits and wanted to pass them along.
Although the plan is designed for the individual business owner (or self employed), it is technically available to the spouse of the owner and any shareholder or partner in the business, as well.
Setting up a Solo 401k makes a lot of sense for sole proprietors, owners of an S Corporation, C Corporation or partnership. Currently, my business is structured as a sole proprietor so setting up a Solo 401k seemed like it made alot of sense. Unlike traditional 401k’s, there are no complicated discrimination tests or Form 5500 filing. Not sure what a 5500 is? It’s a form that larger 401k plans have to file with IRS to be compliant. A Solo 401k doesn’t have to worry until the plan reaches in excess of $250,000 to have to file a Form 5500. [.....]
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Is it really your time to buy a house?
This is another guest post from Joe Plemon from Plemon Financial Coaching. Joe is the Money Columnist for The Southern Illinoisan.
It is a great time to buy a house. Interest rates are the lowest they have been in decades. Housing prices are down and now, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 had dangled another carrot in front of us: a tax credit of up to $8,000. This credit, which expires December 1 of this year, is free money for first time home buyers or anyone who hasn’t owned a principle residence in the past three years.
If you are hyperventilating at the prospect of finally owning your own home, stop and breathe. You are experiencing the early signs of house fever. This ailment has a Steve Urkel effect, causing you to make decisions that you later look back on and ask, “Did I do that?” [.....]
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Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial average is heading for a imminent change with the expected bankruptcy filing of auto giant General Motors. With the falling out of the once legendary blue chip stock, many of my clients have inquired to how companies get listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and when are they replaced. I thought I would give a brief background on the origin of the Dow Jones, with the current holdings as well as what it takes to be listed.
It never fails that everyday I get the question, “How did the market do?” or “How’s the market doing?”. The market that everybody is always referring to is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow (for short) was founded May 26, 1896 initially only having 12 companies from important American industries (hence: “Industrial” average). The Dow currently reflects the top 30 U.S. Companies across it’s various industries. To compute the Dow that you hear about each day, a lengthy geometric formula is used that takes the price-weighted stock price of each company and divides by the “DJIA divisor”. The divisor is a number that is constantly adjust to reflect stock splits, mergers, and dividend payments. [.....]
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529 College Savings For Illinois
As our son rapidly approaches the age of two, the scary reality that paying for college tuition is just around the corner. We were fortunate enough to start a 529 College Saving plan for him when he was born and make a diligent effort to add to it on a frequent basis. For those that reside in the state of Illinois I wanted to do a quick rundown of what your options are in the event you want to get a head start on saving for your kids college education. First, let’s take a look at the basics of what a 529 College Savings Plan is.
Quick note: You can use any state 529 plan to help pay for college and you don’t have to reside in that state to use the benefit. Doing so, you will give up a potential state tax benefit.
529 Plans are the most commonly used savings tool for college education nowadays. They are named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, 529 savings plans provide a tax-advantaged way to save for qualified higher education expenses. These plans are generally sponsored by individual states, while plan assets are professionally managed by independent investment firms or state government agencies. Anyone can open a 529 savings account regardless of income level and contribute up to $13,000 ($26,000 for married couples) a year without gift-tax consequences.
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Jeff Rose is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and founder of Alliance Wealth Management, LLC.
Learn more on Good Financial Cents. Read more on my about page and learn more on personal finance, financial management and how to dump your debt.
Alliance Wealth Management, LLC
Jeff Rose, Certified Financial Planner™
115 S. Washington St.
Carbondale, IL 62901
(866)267-2591
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