Nervous about the Stock Market?
Feeling a little nervous about the recent drop in the market? You’re in good company as it’s perfectly normal in this type of environment. In fact, we’d be surprised if the drop had not made you nervous as that is…
Time For A Financial Alignment
No one likes potholes. Not only because of the annoyance they create, but also the added cost of getting your car realigned as a result. Often times, you may not hit anything major but your steering wheel begins to shake…
Balancing Tax & Investment Decisions
While we emphasize the importance of annual tax planning, it’s also important to not let tax avoidance override your other financial goals. Liz Davidson, of Forbes.com, wrote a nice piece describing how people lose money when they let tax issues…
Pushing the Pedal
On most days when people start their cars, they trust that by pressing the pedal, their car will run smoothly. They don’t have to think about the complicated mechanics of how the engine will power the car to their next…
Health Care Reform Scams
Watch out for scammers trying to take advantage of the current confusion on the new health care law. They are banking on folks not knowing enough of the details in order to con them into buying bogus policies. If you…
Checking Up on Your Budget
With the end of the first quarter of 2010 behind us, now is a great time to review your budget. When checking up on your budget, it is important to look over a specific amount of time for comparisons to…
Losing Money in a Top Performing Fund
In this issue of “Under the Hood” we reference an article written by Bob Veres and give some insight into our decision-making process when it comes to evaluating different mutual funds. We also include an excerpt from an interview with…
Fiduciary No More
We in the financial planning community believe that something called a “fiduciary standard” is the very best framework for professionals to work with our clients. That’s why we’re so angry over something that happened in the Senate over the weekend:…
Investigate Your Target-Date Funds
If you invest in your employer sponsored retirement plan you have probably heard of Target-Date funds. These funds are characterized as investments that change the allocation of stocks, bonds, and cash according to your specified retirement date. In theory, these…
A Gold Standard?
The gold standard discussion in the mainstream media over the last year or so has been driven by the extreme measures taken by the Federal Reserve to shore up our banking system during the credit crisis. Brad Delong, an economics…
