Can money buy happiness? More than a decade ago, Nobel Prize-winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton decided to tackle that question.  They studied the results of a 2008-2009 survey of 450,000 Americans (i.e., the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index).  Kahneman and Deaton observed that the more people earned, the more inclined they were to report being happy—up […]

As a financial advisor, I’m often asked: “Are student loans a wise investment in my future…or a bad idea?” Let me offer some facts, an example, an update, and some advice. Some facts: What does all that borrowing cost? Current interest rates on federal loans range from 4.99%-7.54%. Private loan rates range from just under […]

Someone recently asked, “If I’m already retirement age, is it too late—and too pricey—to consider long-term care insurance?  What I thought was, “It depends. How lucky do you feel?” What I said was, “I recommend you plan like a pessimist so you can live like an optimist.”  Here’s why I answered that way: When we […]

Visit a small town coffeeshop one morning this week. Listen in on the conversation. It won’t be long before someone starts grousing about financial institutions. “Can you believe we’re bailing out banks AGAIN? Why are we giving money to a bunch of billionaire bankers! You ask me…I’m ready to do away with ALL financial institutions!” […]

As a financial advisor, I hear these complaints all the time: All of these comments reflect a faulty mindset. They are looking at the “savings problem” from the wrong end of things.  You see, it’s all but impossible to cut back when you see everything you buy as “essential.” You can waste a lot of […]

If you had invested $100 in an S&P 500 index fund on January 1, 2020, it would have been worth… Which raises the question: Is this kind of volatility normal? Maybe we need to define “normal.” One wag has suggested that the only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well yet. The […]