Archive for posts by Kent Irwin

The following are the most common and basic estate planning documents. If you don’t have them, plan now to get them. If you do have them but it has been several years since they were updated, update them now. If you don’t have properly drawn-up documents, your family members will have great difficulty in planning… Read More »

You may be wondering how your investments performed in 2011, and what that prognosticators are saying for 2012, here are some very good resources: “Mutual-fund categories and their benchmarks ranked by one-year total return. Yardsticks are based on categories compiled by The Wall Street Journal, based on Lipper, Inc. fund investment objectives. Performance for Yardsticks… Read More »

If you have had some difficulty with making debt payments recently, this article may be for you. It is has been reported in several places including the Wall Street Journal, that even though people declared bankruptcy, some lenders still tried to collect on the old debt. This is an illegal practice, where the lenders or… Read More »

While watching Jeopardy last night, one of the contestants was a stay-at-home dad. My wife and I discussed how we know more people doing this today. Today I ran across an interesting article at Business Week: Behind Every Great Woman. Many women today earn more than men, and during this recession, reports show that women’s… Read More »

Why this topic is so important. For individuals in the later years of life, health insurance and health related costs are often one of the largest expenses. It is critical that you consider and plan for these expenses and that you become aware of the details of your options. In addition, as a voter you should… Read More »

There as been a lot of talk lately about retirement pension plans for public employees. Public employees being any state, city or county employee. Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today  comparing public pensions to private workers with 401(k)s.

What are your financial goals for 2012? Maybe you want to go on vacation, fund your emergency savings so that unplanned expenses don’t set you back, repay debt so that you don’t feel the burden of living paycheck-to-paycheck, put more money into retirement and college savings, help your family more, give more to charity. But you are wondering how you… Read More »

In colder climates if your average heating bill is $200 per month, for 5 months, then your total cost is $1,000, then a 20% savings is only going to save you $200. So if you are on a tight budget you will be looking for low-cost ways to save on utility bills. Here are a… Read More »

Yesterday’s blog referred to an article about some great investment books for those that want to become more engaged in their investing; more and more people today are doing their own investing, or at the least becoming more informed so that they are partnering with investment professionals in the investment process. Today I want to… Read More »

I stumbled upon this blog article about the Best Investment Book Recommendations. These books look to be great reads for those who want to be engaged in the investment process, whether doing it themselves or having a professional help them. Financial planning is more of a partnership today, with clients becoming more educated about financial matters…. Read More »