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How Well Do You Know Your Financial Advisor

How Well Do You Know Your Financial Advisor?

https://media.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/content.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/kitchen_table_12.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadDon’t wonder if your financial advisor is trustworthy and on the level. Do some research. Trust but verify. Bernie Madoff was arrested in December 2008 when his sons revealed that his giant asset management firm was a Ponzi scheme. He had stolen an estimated […]

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Individual Stocks

Why We Don’t Recommend Individual Stocks

https://media.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/content.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/kitchen_table_13.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFrequently when we meet people who handle their own investments, they like to talk about individual stocks. I can understand why. Individual stocks have a story that you can wrap your head around, such as Pfizer creating a vaccine for Corona Virus, to borrow […]

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State Of Michigan Health Plan. Michigan woods with path in fall.

Evaluating the State of Michigan Health Plan Options

The State of Michigan is in round two of open enrollment for 2020, and there are some changes in the State of Michigan Health Plan Options that are worth evaluating. Here are our thoughts on how to assess the State of Michigan’s health plans for 2021.  What’s changing?  The significant […]

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Saving When Interest Rates Are Low. Iron bench on dock by lake in the fall

Four Tips for Saving When Interest Rates are Low

https://media.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/content.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/kitchen_table_7.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadDo you have money in savings that could be working better for you somewhere else? Interest rates are low right now. That’s great if you are a borrower, but not so great if you have savings in the bank. With all the economic upheaval […]

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Employer's Retirement Plan. Field of yellow flowers with house in the distance

Getting Started in Your Employer’s Retirement Plan

https://media.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/content.blubrry.com/kitchen_table_finance/kitchen_table_4.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadStarting a new job that offers retirement benefits is great. But your employer’s retirement plan can offer a bewildering array of choices if you’re not used to the language of savings and investing. The good news is that getting started in retirement savings requires […]

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Evaluate Your Portfolio While Markets Are Good

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 to “Reassess  Your Investments Before the Next Panic.” There is wisdom in his approach: most investors only take action when it is too late. They sell their investments after the […]

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What Do We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then

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 a few months at a time. There are bits of data and global activities to worry about – a talking head on MSNBC talks about “valuations being extended,” and other […]

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Weather & Climate Are Like The Stock Market

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 national conference. We followed the event with three days of hiking in Olympic National Park. Every mid-westerner knows that Seattle is as famous for its rain as Michigan’s Keweenaw region […]

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