Turn your intent into a commitment. Goals give you focus. To find and establish your investing and saving goals, first ask yourself what you want to accomplish. Do you want to build an emergency fund? Build college savings for your child? Have a large retirement fund by age 60? Once you have a defined motivation, a monetary goal can arise. It can be easier to dedicate yourself to a goal rather than a hope or a wish. That level of dedication is important, as saving and investing usually comes with a degree of personal sacrifice. When you dedicate yourself to a saving/investing goal, some positive financial “side effects” may occur. A goal encourages you to save consistently. If you are saving
Sometimes more money can mean more problems. “Lifestyle creep” is an unusual phrase describing an all-too-common problem: the more money people earn, the more money they tend to spend. Frequently, the newly affluent are the most susceptible. As people establish themselves as doctors and lawyers, executives, and successful entrepreneurs, they see living well as a reward. Outstanding education, home, and business loans may not alter this viewpoint. Lifestyle creep can happen to successful individuals of any age. How do you guard against it? Keep one financial principle in mind: spend less than you make. If you get a promotion, if your business takes off, if you make partner, the additional inc
WEEKLY QUOTE “The secret of happiness is not in what one likes to do, but in what one has to do.” - J.M. Barrie OIL HITS A 4-YEAR PEAK The price of WTI crude settled at $71.36 on Thursday, hours after Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts forecast $90 oil by spring 2019 and a “risk of $100 a barrel” Brent crude next year. Thursday’s close was oil’s highest settlement since November 2014. Futures rallied 1.4% on the week after the Trump administration said that the U.S. would exit the Iran nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions against that OPEC member. That implies reduced global oil supply. As of Friday evening, no other OPEC country had committed to produce more oil in response. WTI crude c
Classroom educators are coping with hybrid plans and pension fund shortfalls. Arizona. Kentucky. Massachusetts. Michigan. Pennsylvania. Rhode Island. Tennessee. In these states and others, teachers are concerned about their financial futures. The retirement programs they were counting on have either restructured or face critical questions.1,2 Increasingly, states are transferring investment risk onto teachers. Hybrid retirement plans are replacing conventional pension plans. These new plans combine a 401(k)-style account with some of the features of a traditional pension program. Payouts from hybrid retirement plans are variable – they can change based on investment returns. The prospect of
