Important Birthdays Over 50
Most children stop being “and-a-half” somewhere around age 12. Kids add “and-a-half“ to make sure everyone knows they’re closer to the next age than the last. When you are older, “and-a-half” birthdays start making a comeback. In fact, starting at age 50, several birthdays and “half-birthdays” are critical to understand because they have implications regarding […]
Term vs. Permanent Life Insurance
According to industry experts, most people don’t have enough life insurance. The American Council of Life Insurers recently reported that average coverage equals $183,780, which is equivalent to approximately 3.5 years in terms of income replacement (with the median income being $54,132 in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). That’s only half the […]
Understanding FDIC Insurance
It’s natural to wonder exactly how a bank safeguards your money. Fortunately, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance exists for this very reason: to help protect your funds once deposited. Read on to explore the purpose of FDIC insurance, how it works, and what it covers. What Is FDIC Insurance? The FDIC is an […]
SECURE Act 2.0: An Overview
In the final days of 2022, Congress passed a new set of retirement rules designed to facilitate contribution to retirement plans and access to those funds earmarked for retirement. The law is called SECURE 2.0, and it is a follow-up to the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act passed in 2019. The […]
Traditional vs. Roth IRA
Traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), which were created in 1974, are owned by roughly 36.6 million U.S. households. And Roth IRAs, created as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act in 1997, are owned by nearly 27.3 million households.1 Both are IRAs. And yet, each is quite different. Up to certain limits, traditional IRAs allow individuals […]
Diversification, Patience, and Consistency
Investment Regardless of how the markets may perform, consider making the following part of your investment philosophy: Diversification. The saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” has some application to investing. Over time, certain asset classes may perform better than others. If your assets are mostly held in one kind of investment, you could […]
Where is the Market Headed?
We all know the stock market can be unpredictable. We all want to know, “What’s next for the financial markets? Transcript: We all know the stock market can be unpredictable, and after the COVID-19-related drop in 2020, some may tend to overreact when prices become volatile. We all want to know what’s next for the […]
The Business Cycle
Investments What has upswings and downturns, troughs, peaks, and plateaus? Though such terms could easily describe a roller coaster ride, they are also commonly used to describe the business cycle. The business cycle – also known as the economic cycle – refers to fluctuations in economic activity over several months or years. Tracking the cycle […]
The Cycle of Investing
Understanding the cycle of investing may help you avoid easy pitfalls. Watch the video below. Transcript: Investing should be easy. Just buy low and sell high but most of us have trouble following that. Why is it so hard? It has to do with fear, greed, and something called the investment psychology cycle. As the […]
Pullbacks, Corrections, and Bear Markets
When the market drops, some investors lose perspective that downtrends and uptrends are part of the investing cycle. When stock prices break lower, it’s a good time to review common terms that are used to describe the market’s downward momentum. Pullbacks. A pullback represents the mildest form of a selloff in the markets. You might […]