• Taking Responsibility for Retirement: How today's scary headlines can help your retirement plan
    06/01/2006 - 08:00

    First, it was the combined whammy of the tech wreck and the post-9/11 recession that battered our 401(k) accounts. Next was inflation in health care and education costs that further diverted indebted consumers from concentrating on retirement. Now come the headlines that any company facing tough times - or intense shareholder pressure - can pull the rug out from under its retirees hoping for the traditional three-legged stool of retirement - pension, Social Security and savings.

  • About that dream vacation home...
    06/01/2006 - 08:00

    With observance of Memorial Day behind us and vacation season at hand, it's time in many American households for two perennial questions:

    * "Where shall we go this year?"

    * "Should we pay rent in a hotel or resort again, or does it make more sense to apply the money toward getting a place of our own, which we will then have whenever we want to go there in the future?"

    Many households answered the second question with a "yes" last year, and others are expected to do so again this year.

  • Financial Education for Minorities
    05/01/2006 - 08:00

    All Americans are in need of financial literacy and financial planning. But minorities are seemingly in particular need of the information, knowledge and skills required to navigate what is increasingly becoming a complex financial services market.

    Consider, for instance, the following:

  • The Importance of an Annual Financial Checkup
    05/01/2006 - 08:00

    It's one of the six steps of the financial planning process. But, oftentimes, it's the one step that gets overlooked. It's the sixth step - the annual financial check-up.

    The annual financial check-up is indeed the most important of the financial planning steps. And yet, financial planners and clients sometimes downplay its significance.

  • The Truth about Small-Business Succession Planning
    04/30/2006 - 23:00

    Of all the things facing a man or woman from the moment he or she becomes chief executive officer of a large company, few have a higher priority than determining who will succeed him or her when it becomes necessary.

    This is critically important for a large public company with thousands of employees and thousands upon thousands of stockholders. It is no less important for a small company with relatively few employees depend on it for their livelihood.

  • A BRAVE NEW FINANCIAL WORLD FOR BABY BOOMERS
    04/01/2006 - 09:00

    On any given day, you will find not one but several studies that examine the current state of affairs for Baby Boomers, the 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 that are now slowly approaching retirement. And what's emerging is an interesting, though at times bleak, picture of one of the most analyzed groups in America.

    Here are some of the highlights of that research and the financial planning implications.

  • A New Approach to Selecting a Financial Planner
    04/01/2006 - 09:00

    Selecting a financial planner has never been an easy task. Yes, experts have long advised checking such things as a person's experience and education, as well as their regulatory record. But in recent years, selecting a planner has become especially difficult given so many financial professionals, including stockbrokers, insurance agents and bankers, often provide similar services, such as comprehensive financial plans and investment products.

  • Alternatives to Traditional Investments
    04/01/2006 - 09:00

    Investors sometimes get bored with traditional investments, such as U.S. stocks, investment-grade bonds, and the mutual funds that are invested in those asset classes. Especially when such investments fail to generate adequate returns as they did in 2005. And when that happens, investors often tend to hunt for what some refer to as "alternative" investments, investments with exotic names that hold out the promise of higher returns.

  • The Perplexing World of Social Security and Earnings in Retirement
    03/01/2006 - 09:00

    Launched in 1935 during the Great Depression as a principal component of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal recovery program, the Social Security System has earned an unquestionable reputation for the reliability of its stream of monthly checks to retirees, the nation's first comprehensive source of retirement income.

    But did the laws that authorized the checks and ensured their reliability also:

    * Permit the checks-based on your lifetime income -to be large enough to sustain seniors in comfortable retirement?

  • The Return of Uncle Sam's 30-Year Bond
    03/01/2006 - 09:00

    Nearly five years after offering its last issue of 30-year bonds to individual and institutional investors-causing some to warn of a bond shortage-the U.S. Treasury has returned to the market place with a $14 billion issue of its longest maturity, perhaps leading you to ask yourself whether you should consider adding some to your portfolio.

    The likely answer? Probably not.

Market Snapshot

SymbolLastChange
^DJI
10,340.70
-107.24
^GSPC
1,098.87
0.00
^IXIC
2,228.87
0.00
TYX-X.W
0.00
0.00