Can You Be Your Own Financial Planner?
A great opportunity for the American public and for advisers too Let’s be blunt, by default everyone is really their own financial planner. Regardless of the extent of help they receive from professionals, the consumer ultimately is the goal setter, and decision maker, implementing the steps necessary to accomplish goals. The consumer has more resources… Read More »
Introducing the New eFinPLAN Website!
The eFinPLAN online financial planning Web site is entirely new this autumn! We are very excited about all the new things we are bringing you. This has been an almost 12-month project, and we are extremely pleased to make everything better for you. Here are some of the highlights: State-of-Art Web Design—More modern and easier to navigate,… Read More »
Credit Ratings 102
Common questions about credit ratings and closing accounts, credit card usage and boosting ratings Q: I’m currently unemployed and unmarried. Do these facts impact my credit scores? A: No. Neither of these facts affects your scores. Also, your scores are not affected by the number of dependents you have, retirement, debt-to-income ratio, number of years… Read More »
Credit Ratings 101
Cut through the misinformation about credit ratings Q: What’s the difference between a credit report and a credit score? A: A credit report contains information that creditors provide to a credit bureau; it details how you have handled your past and current financial obligations. A credit bureau collects data from creditors 24/7, but does not… Read More »
Is Black Friday a Retail Illusion?
Is it smart to buy during Black Friday? The Wall Street Journal reported that Black Friday is “A Retail Illusion, The Dirty Secret of Black Friday Discounts,” is merely a manipulative ploy aimed to get you to buy things you think are at the lowest cost of the year. In actuality, retailers are really smart, they know… Read More »
13 Year End Tax Tips to Save You Money
13 Key things to consider before the end-of-year to save taxes Overview. This article will help you Take the Mystery out of Personal Tax Planning by providing some year-end tax savings tips. (This article does not include special issues that relate to business or self employment). This is to serve as a general guide to help you… Read More »
How to Thrive Financially after Graduating College
Tips to Thrive Financially After College: Taxes, Spending and Financial Planning The Big Surprise for Recent College Graduates College students are now graduating with more debt than ever, loan payments can be crippling as they enter an economy where almost everything has increased a lot in cost, like food and gasoline. Graduates right out of… Read More »
A Review of Monte Carlo Simulation
Conventional retirement projections in most retirement financial planning software packages and calculators looks at everything the moment you enter it, such as your goals, assets, benefits, and expenses coupled with assumptions for taxes, rates-of-return and inflation. Since this is just a calculation it doesn’t measure probability of all of the many variables that could possibly… Read More »
How to Start Planning For Retirement
A retirement plan is not your 401(k); therefore, just because you may be a part of an employer-sponsored retirement plan, it doesn’t mean you have a retirement plan. Some people think their retirement plan is their 401(k) or Roth IRA or something like that. Those are just types of retirement accounts–labels on special accounts. They are like one… Read More »
Important Financial Articles from the Web – Nov
Important and Interesting Financial News and Articles from the Web Open enrollment for ACA Obamacare 11/15: If you didn’t sign up last time you can soon, already covered: renew/change, from the New York Times Retirees and real estate, decisions and planning implications, often overlooked but important, from Market Watch Financial planning data worth noting: Social… Read More »