Blog
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Money Can’t Buy Happiness, But . . .
A new study released in the spring by Morgan Stanley contains some pretty interesting ramifications for the old adage, “money can’t buy happiness.” It's not the money itself that makes you happy; it’s the feeling of knowing that you have planned and prepared for the future, not only for yourself, but also for those you love.
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Behaving Badly: Your Emotions and Financial Decision-Making
In the world of investing, our emotions often create problems for us, if we permit them too much control over our financial decisions. Let’s take a look at a few of the most common behavioral traps that individuals fall into, like herd mentality, recency bias and confirmation bias, which can undermine investment performance over the long term.
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Three Keys to Estate Planning for Business Owners
Many business owners, while very focused on the needs of their customers, employees, and other stakeholders, are much less attentive to the ongoing health of their enterprises in the event of their incapacitation or passing. In the absence of a properly prepared and executed estate plan, this can bring even the most well-run business to its knees. Here are three key estate planning items that owners and other principals of thriving businesses should review today.
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Making Your Retirement Great: It’s Not Just about Money
Retired people are much more subject than other segments of the population to loneliness, boredom, and other emotional factors that can negatively affect their quality of life. A well-rounded retirement plan needs to go beyond the financial forecasting and calculations of needed income to navigating the four phases of retirement and tackling its tough questions.
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No Time to Unplug: Why Staying Connected in Retirement Is Vital
We human beings are hard-wired for meaningful connection. That's true even in retirement—and maybe especially during retirement. Even if you're no longer making that daily trip to the office, you shouldn’t completely unplug from that complex web of relationships that we call “life.” For retirees, emotional and social investments may be just as important as financial holdings when it comes to your longevity and quality of life.
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How to Value Non-Cash Donations to Charity
The IRS has issued its final rules on how to value non-cash donations to charity, which apply to all contributions made on or after January 1, 2019. The regulation involves items like artwork, jewelry, and other collectables. Here’s how the new appraisal process works for this charitable deduction.
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Five Things You Need to Know about Life Insurance
For most of us, life insurance is a central element of the financial safety net we provide for our families and loved ones. Life insurance can provide what has been called an “instant estate” in the event of our deaths: vital resources that can make all the difference in our families’ ability to carry on after our passing. Here are five important facts that you need to understand about life insurance.
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Short on College Funding at the Last Minute? Don’t Panic.
For many parents, time is running out to address the last gaps in financial arrangements for their student’s upcoming academic year. If you’re looking at the final bills for your child’s enrollment and wondering where the last few (or few thousand) dollars are coming from, you aren’t alone. Here are some ideas for rounding up the needed financing, even if it’s last-minute.
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Rising Student Loan Rates: What Parents Need to Know
Student loan interest rates are going up for the 2018–19 academic year. With total student loan debt at nearly $1.4 trillion and rising, even small increases in the interest rate indicate millions of additional dollars required by students and parents to service these loans. If your child is using student loans to help pay for higher education, or if you are using Parent PLUS loans to help your child out, here are five important facts to keep in mind.
