Should You Buy An Annuity For Retirement?

Should You Buy An Annuity For Retirement?

Annuities get a bad wrap. Most of that bad wrap is justifiably earned. Annuity providers often reward the “salesperson” (yes, many times, that is what they are) with a big commission check. As such, they are incentivized to encourage (scare you into) putting as much of your money as possible into annuities. As a result of those sales antics, many advisors that take the other side of the annuity argument spend a lot of time saying how horrible annuities are….

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Ashby Talks Retirement

Ashby Talks Retirement

Over the past few weeks, I chatted with a couple of my advisor friends that I thought I would share with everyone. Not surprisingly, we spent the majority of time talking about retirement planning. On Monday, I spent the afternoon with Justin Castelli, CEO of RLS Wealth Management. Prior to shooting the video, we talked about all types of things about our industry and profession. We are both passionate about how we can make a bigger difference in the lives…

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Reflections on 2018 and What’s To Come in 2019

Reflections on 2018 and What’s To Come in 2019

I wavered on whether to write a post like this or not. But after realizing so much wisdom from reading similar posts from other people that I respect, I feel that if it benefits just one person then it would be worth it.  If you’re here strictly for financial content, I won’t be offended if you skip this one. As we closed out 2018, I took the week of Christmas totally off.  It ended up being nine days with the…

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Comparative Disappointment

Comparative Disappointment

A friend of mine has a client that inquired with disappointment that his account was down 2.5% when the S&P was up 0.5%.  He wanted to know why his portfolio was performing so poorly by comparison to the S&P.  At the time of this inquiry, the S&P was up 0.5%, Small Cap was down 5% and International was down about 15%.   This has been a pretty typical refrain for many investors over the past 10 years as the S&P has…

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Something To Think About

Something To Think About

If you really think about it, the only two points in life that we truly don’t care about money is when we have a total lack of wisdom as a child and at our point of maximum wisdom late in life.  We spend the rest of our lives chasing it only to return to our childlike state by realizing it doesn’t matter a whole lot. That may seem odd for a financial advisor to say, but my job isn’t to…

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One Bad Decision Is All It Takes

One Bad Decision Is All It Takes

There is a saying in professional golf that, “You can’t win a tournament on Thursday, but you sure can lose it.”  For the golf uninitiated, every professional golf tournament starts on Thursday and concludes on Sunday.  So, a good round on Thursday can put you in position to win with three rounds to go, but a terrible round on Thursday is likely to result in missing the cut and any chance at a paycheck. Retirement planning follows a very similar…

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“Optimal” Retirement Planning Strategies

“Optimal” Retirement Planning Strategies

I read articles regularly that discuss optimal portfolio withdrawal strategies.  I think these articles are great but are probably best kept in the academic world.  In other words, they should not be given to clients.  I have a friend that was forwarded one of these articles by an advisor as the basis for their retirement planning decisions and asked for my thoughts.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that this advisor is staying up to date on the latest research, but…

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New Page: Retirement Resources

New Page: Retirement Resources

The post this week is not a typical one.  I hope it is obvious based on my website name plus the content that I write that I am passionate about the subject of retirement planning.  I am also passionate about #RetirementLiteracy and improving the lives of retirees everywhere. There are many issues that I believe retirees should be educated about prior to turning in their retirement papers but often are not.  This is true regardless of net worth and regardless of…

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A Case For Long-Term Optimism – Words Matter

A Case For Long-Term Optimism – Words Matter

The words we use are important. When you hear the term “stock market,” what immediately comes to mind?  Recently, I completed an informal survey asking that very question of various non-financial industry connections and the number one response was “risky.”  I think part of the reason people view investing as risky has something to do with the term we use when referring to the assets we are purchasing — stocks. “Stocks” at an emotional level have no personalities, no balance…

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“Best Interest” is not Black & White

“Best Interest” is not Black & White

Back in March, the CFP Board voted to require every CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM professional that provides financial planning to be held to the duty of care of a fiduciary starting October 1, 2019.  I greatly applaud this move!  For folks not in our industry, if an advisor is a fiduciary, then that advisor is legally and ethically required to put your best interest before their own. Up to this point, the CFP Board separated the level of care required between planning…

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