Understanding Federal Student Loans
In order to plan for funding your student’s college education, you must understand the student loan landscape. I won’t take…
Lessons from the Financial Crisis
Ten years ago, we were in the middle of the Financial Crisis. Between October 2007 and March 2009, the S…
A Practical Approach to Paying for College
Paying for college creates a financial planning dilemma for many families: How can working parents save for their own retirement…
Understanding Qualified Charitable Distributions
If you have an IRA and are required to take annual distributions, and you are charitably inclined, listen up: the…
Saving for College with 529 Plans
If you are putting away funds dedicated for your child’s higher education expenses, a 529 College Savings Plan is tough…
Steady As She Goes – Stock Market History
What a lousy week for the stock market. In case you were lucky enough to miss it, on Friday, the
Evaluate Your Portfolio While Markets Are Good
On August 14, 2015, in his “Intelligent Investor” column for the Wall Street Journal, Jason Zweig wrote about the need
What do We Know Now That We Didn’t Know Then?
This is a common scenario for the markets: The indices are chugging along, making some headway, and posting gains for
Please Stay Seated While the Train is Moving
On August 6, 2011, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States credit rating from AAA to AA+, kicking off a
Weather & Climate are Like the Stock Market
Late last month, my wife and I went out to Seattle so I could attend the Financial Planning Association’s annual