Build Your Rainy Day Fund Like an emergency fund, it can come in handy. Sometimes, life gets expensive. A little bad luck or a twist of fate can hit us right in the checkbook and challenge us to live within our budget. An emergency fund may help us handle major financial disruptions. For the minor ones, a rainy day fund may suffice. A rainy day fund and an emergency fund differ in scale, but not purpose. Both funds are designed [...]
Smart Financial & Insurance Moves for New Parents As you start a family, consider these ideas. Being a parent means being responsible to a degree you never have been before. That elevated responsibility also impacts your financial decisions. You are now a provider and a protector, and that reality may make the following financial moves necessary. Think about a budget. As a couple, you may have lived for years without budgeting. As parents, this may change. You will face new [...]
Guarding Against Identity Theft Take steps so criminals wont take vital information from you. America is enduring a data breach epidemic. The latest annual study of the problem from Javelin Strategy & Research, a leading financial analytics research firm, says that 16.7 million people across the nation were impacted by I.D. theft in 2017 an all-time high.1 The problem is getting worse much worse. Last year, 30% of U.S. consumers were alerted about data breaches by firms holding [...]
Are Your Beneficiary Designations Up to Date? Who should inherit your IRA or 401(k)? See that they do Here’s a simple financial question: who is the beneficiary of your IRA? How about your 401(k) or annuity? You may be saying, “I’m not sure.” It is smart to periodically review your beneficiary designations. Your choices may need to change with the times. When did you open your first IRA? When did you buy your life insurance policy? Was it back [...]
Retirement Questions That Have Nothing to Do With Money Think about these matters before you leave work for the last time. Retirement planning is not entirely financial. Your degree of happiness in your “second act” may depend on some factors you cannot quantify. Here are a few of those factors as well as the questions they may end up provoking in your mind. Where will you live? This is a major factor in retirement happiness. If you can surround yourself [...]
