Avoiding the Cybercrooks

How can you protect yourself against ransomware, phishing, and other tactics? Imagine finding out that your computer has been hacked. The hackers leave you a message: if you want your data back, you must pay them $300 in bitcoin. This was what happened to hundreds of thousands of PC users in May 2017 when they were attacked by the WannaCry malware, which exploited security flaws in Windows. How can you plan to avoid cyberattacks and other attempts to take your money over the Internet? Be wary, and if attacked, respond quickly. Phishing. This is when a cybercriminal throws you a hook, line, and sinker
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Will You Be Prepared
When the Market Cools Off?

Markets have cycles, and at some point, the major indices will descend.   We have seen a tremendous rally on Wall Street, nearly nine months long, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average repeatedly settling at all-time peaks. Investors are delighted by what they have witnessed. Have they become irrationally exuberant?    The major indices do not always rise. That obvious fact risks becoming “back of mind” these days. On June 15, the Nasdaq Composite was up 27.16% year-over-year and 12.67% in the past six months. The S&P 500 was up 17.23% in a year and 7.31% in six months. Performance like that can breed overconfidence in equities.1,2    The S&P last corrected at the beginning of 2016, and a market drop may seem like a remote possibility now. Then again, corrections usually arrive without much warning. You may want to ask yourself:
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Having the Money Talk
with Your Children

How much financial knowledge do they have?   Some young adults manage to acquire a fair amount of financial literacy. In the classroom or the workplace, they learn a great deal about financial principles. Others lack such knowledge and learn money lessons by paying, to reference William Blake, “the price of experience.” Broadly speaking, how much financial literacy do young people have today? At this writing, some of the most recent data appears in U.S. Bank’s 2016 Student and Personal Finance Study. After surveying more than 1,600 American high school and undergraduate students, the bank found that just 15% of students felt knowledgeable about investing. For that matter, just 42% felt knowledgeable about deposit and checking accounts.1 Relatively few students understood the principles of credit. Fifty-four percent thought
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Active & Passive
Investment Management

What do each of these terms really mean? Investment management can be active or passive. Sometimes, that simple, fundamental choice can make a difference in portfolio performance. During a particular market climate, one of these two methods may be widely praised, while the other is derided and dismissed. In truth, both approaches have merit, and all investors should understand their principles. How does passive asset management work? A passive asset management strategy employs investment vehicles mirroring market benchmarks. In their composition, these funds match an index – such as the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000 – component for component. As a result, the return from a passively managed fund precisely matches the return of the index it replicates. The glass-half-full aspect of this is that the investment will never underperform that benchmark. The glass-half-empty aspect is that it will never outperform it, either.
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Beware of Emotions
Affecting Your Money Decisions

Today’s impulsive moves could breed tomorrow’s regrets. When emotions and money intersect, the effects can be financially injurious. Emotions can cause us to overreact – or not act at all when we should. Think of the investors who always respond to sudden Wall Street volatility. That emotional response may not be warranted, and they may come to regret it. In a typical market year, Wall Street can see big waves of volatility. This year, it has been easy to forget that truth. During the first third of 2017, the S&P 500 saw only 3 trading days with a 1% or greater swing – or to put
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Why Retirees Need
Good Credit Scores

Careers & businesses end, but the need to borrow remains. We spend much of our adult lives working, borrowing, and buying. A good credit score is our ally along the way. It retains its importance when we retire. Retirees should do everything they can to maintain their credit rating. A FICO score of 700 or higher is useful whether an individual works or not. For example, some retirees will decide to refinance their home loans. A recently published study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
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How Will You Spend
Your Retirement Savings?

Keep an eye on where it goes, as some destinations may be better than others. You can probably envision how most of your retirement money will be spent. Much of it will be used on living expenses, health care expenses, and, perhaps, debt reduction. Beyond the basics, you will unquestionably reserve some of those dollars for grand adventures and great experiences. If your financial situation permits, you may also contribute to charity. You just have to remember that your retirement fund is not a bottomless well. If outflows begin to exceed inflows (that is, you repeatedly withdraw more than you make back), you will face a serious financial problem. With that hazard in mind, be wary of these four spending sieves. Some retirees fall prey to them, and all four can potentially reduce a
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Ways the Middle Class Can
Make a Difference for Charity

You don’t need to be wealthy to make an impact & get a win-win. Do you have to make a multimillion-dollar gift to a charity to receive immediate or future financial benefits? No. Consider the following options, which may bring you immediate or future tax deduction Partnership gifts. These gifts are made via long-term arrangements between donors and recipient charities or non-profits, usually with income resulting for the donor and an eventual transfer of the principal to the charity at the donor’s death. For example, a charitable remainder trust allows you to pay yourself a dependable income (perhaps for life) derived from assets placed within the trust. When you die or the trust term ends, the remaining trust principal can go to charity. A charitable lead trust works the opposite way. It makes annual, charitable gifts, giving you the potential to reduce gift and estate taxes; your beneficiaries get the leftover...
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Should the Self-Employed
Plan to Work Past 65

Some solopreneurs think they will “work forever,” but that perception may be flawed. About 20% of Americans aged 65-74 are still working. A 2016 Pew Research Center study put the precise figure at 18.8%, and Pew estimates that it will reach 31.9% in 2022. That estimate seems reasonable: people are living longer, and the labor force participation rate for Americans aged 65-74 has been rising since the early 1990s.1,2 It may be unreasonable, though, for a pre-retiree to blindly assume he or she will be working at that age. Census Bureau data indicates that the average retirement age in this country is 63.3
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May is Disability Insurance
Awareness Month

Do you really want to live without this coverage? If you forgo it, you may pay a high price. Disability insurance is an important insurance coverage that most people lack. Many people think of it as optional – when they think of it at all. Have you thought about it? If you are a parent or a head of household, you should. The odds of a disability are not that long. The Council for Disability Awareness, a non-profit research and education group, estimates that roughly a quarter of today’s 20-year-olds may become disabled at some point in their working lives.1 If you are a breadwinner going without disability insurance, are you taking a risk? Suppose an injury stops you from working for months or years. Even if your household benefits from two or more incomes, the financial hit could be significant.
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Insurance for the Small Business Owner

What kind of coverage do you need, and why? Do you own a small business? Are you starting one? What kind of insurance should you have? Truthfully, you should consider (and preferably have) three kinds of insurance for your business and its assets. Liability insurance. Absolutely essential. If you run a small business, especially one that provides services of some kind, you will inevitably be sued someday or at least threatened with a suit. Liability insurance will help
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Robo-Advisors vs. Human Advisors

If an investor chooses a non-human financial advisor, what price could they end up paying? Investors have a choice today that they did not have a decade ago. They can seek investing and retirement planning guidance from a human financial advisor or put their invested assets in the hands of a robo-advisor – a software program that maintains their portfolio. Why would an investor want to leave all that decision making up to a computer? In this era of cybercrime and “flash crashes” on Wall Street, doesn’t that seem a little chancy? No, not to the financial firms touting robo-advisors. They are wooing millennials, in particular. Some robo-advisor accounts offer very low
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