cut taxes
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Tax Saving! 8 Places to Invest, to Minimize Owing Taxes

Why I Dislike Taxes and How I Minimize What I Owe  I want less government in my life and I will do everything I legally can to give Uncle Sam as little of my hard earned money as possible.  If you want more government intervention in your…
financial planning
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How to Use Life Insurance to Save You From Devastating Health Care Costs

New Use for Life Insurance Read this post carefully if you or your parent has assets they want to pass on to their kids. Most senior citizens consider buying long-term-care insurance because they know that the cost of significant care is exorbitant. …

How Risky are Your Bonds?

Bond prices go up and down every day just like stock prices, but for different reasons. It is important to understand that bond prices move inversely to interest rates.  In other words, if interest rates go up on bonds or bond funds like the…
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Why Cash is Secret to Foundation of Financial Success

I often borrow a phrase  "Big Hat No Cattle" from a book called The Millionaire Next Door and it's That means you live an affluent lifestyle, but have very little money saved compared to what you've earned. I would like to suggest it starts…
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Fantastic 529 College Savings Plans for the Unborn

         529! Want to help your yet-to-be-born grandkids pay for college? You can’t start too soon.                                                                                         …

Is Your Portfolio Ready for Stock Market Drop?

Lifeboat Drills for you investment portfolio should be done BEFORE the markets have a big drop. Stocks rebounded so fast from the last stock market drop you hardly had time to worry. Now that the stock market has recovered  it makes…
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How to Use Supreme Tax Benefits from Exchange Traded Funds

Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) are popular tax avoidance investment vehicles. If you are not a member of Congress, you are not a "lawmaker."  While you do not make laws, you retain some control over what you do to take advantage of the laws…
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Tax-Advantaged Investment Opportunities

It's not what you make, but what you keep that counts! Consider the strategies I have been using for years to minimize my taxable income. I'm overwhelmed by all the tax I pay (income, real estate, sales, etc.) so I try not add to my tax burden…
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Our Story

My wife, Soni, and I celebrated 23 years of marriage recently and I thought I would share what some of the key financial decisions we made along the way and the impact they had on our family. The themes are consistent: Figure out what is…
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Left Alone, Many Individuals Are Horrible Investors

Part 2. of 2. Individual Investors Left alone, many individual investors are horrible at timing the market. Instead of “buying low and selling high” people tend to do the opposite.  The proof is in the chart below: The terrible investor…
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And the Winner is? Active vs. Passive Investing

Part 1 of 2 on Investing: Active vs. passive investing For this article the passive approach will be reflected by the S&P 500 stock index. Understanding the differences: It's easy to get caught up in the Wall Street hype about which…
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One Powerful Financial Move for Kids (or Grand-kids)

Turn $500/Year into $500,000! I recently created Roth IRA’s for my kids and put $500 into each account. With a little guidance from me, the kids will each choose to become stock owners of one company. Going forward I will encourage them…
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Paid Off Credit Cards Killing Financial Success?

  Most of my clients tell me this isn’t true, because they pay their card balance off in full each month. I say, "That’s part of the problem!" We all have a propensity to spend up to what we know we can afford to pay off each…
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Fictitious Balance on Your 401k/IRA Account Statement

Your account balance carries a hidden surrender charge. Millions of working Americans contribute a percentage of their earnings to a 401k account while many also have IRA accounts, most of which were formerly 401k that were rolled over to…