It may seem like a tall order, but it can be accomplished. Plan to put yourself steps ahead of your peers. If you have a young, growing family, no doubt your to-do list is pretty long on any given day. Beyond today, you are probably working on another kind of to-do list for the long [...]
The clock is ticking ... is opportunity knocking? If you hurry, you might realize some nice tax breaks before 2014 runs out. Once again, Congress has acted at the eleventh hour to bring back some expired tax perks. H.R. 5771, the Tax Increase Prevention Act, was passed and signed into law by President Obama on [...]
How long will it last? Who wins & loses from it? On the New York Mercantile Exchange, a barrel of light sweet crude is currently worth well under $60. Prices have dropped more than 25% in a month and almost 45% year-over-year. What is behind this freefall? How long will prices keep dropping, and who [...]
Remember that the major indices don’t represent the entirety of Wall Street. The S&P 500 is up about 10% YTD, why aren’t I? If your investments are lagging the broad benchmark, you may be asking that very question. The short answer is that the S&P is not the overall market (and vice versa). Each year, [...]
Here's a brief excerpt from the full research report from LPL Research: Since the wind-down of the Great Recession in early 2009, the latest economic expansion has certainly delivered the goods and rewarded investors’ mailboxes with six consecutive calendar years of positive gains for stocks. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” has kept a [...]
Retiring? Saving for retirement? Here’s some good news. Are 90% of articles written about retirement pessimistic? Sometimes it seems that way. Repeatedly, we are reminded that most baby boomers haven’t saved enough for the future. There’s no denying this, but the media is giving short shrift to other, more positive developments that may be improving [...]
Start your child on the right path from Day 1! [gview file="http://VirtueWM.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/LPL_Baby_Steps_for_Planning_Your_Childs_Financial_Future.pdf"]
It only makes sense – yet many retirees live without one. The importance of creating a budget for retirement. You won’t be able to withdraw an unlimited amount of money in retirement, so a retirement budget is a necessity. Some retirees forego one, only to regret it later. Run the numbers before you retire. Years [...]
Things for trailing-edge boomers & Gen Xers to consider. When you turn 50, retirement starts to seem less abstract. In terms of retirement planning, a 50th birthday can act as a wake-up call. It may offer a powerful reminder to trailing-edge baby boomers and Gen Xers, many of whom are wrapping up their second act [...]
Breaking down the basics & what each part covers. Whether your 65th birthday is on the horizon or decades away, you should understand the parts of Medicare – what they cover, and where they come from. Parts A & B: Original Medicare. America created a national health insurance program for seniors in 1965 with two [...]
