
WISE Money – Wedding To-do List: Give Yourself a Money Checkup
Amid an engagement, it's easy for couples to overlook key financial points that can affect their financial security and their
relationship. As couples plan their wedding, it's a good idea to do some foundational financial planning, as well.
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WISE MONEY – Do a Reality Check on Your Retirement Finances
Your poor savings habits might stem from ignoring the problem or, when you do think of it,
slipping into denial. Well, denial is not just a river in Egypt. If you're fooling yourself about your
retirement resources, you're probably rationalizing a lot.
If this describes you, you might want to examine your emotions on the subject. Are these
emotions lining up to justify your lack of action to save for retirement (or your all-too-active
spending habits)? If so, you may be using some of these rationalizations too.
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“Fight The Fights That Are Worth Fighting”
Do you work with a financial advisor? If so, is that advisor required to put your interest ahead of his/her own? If you are like 99% of other investors out there, you probably don’t know for sure. The vast majority of advisors are brokers or have the option to operate as a broker, and therefore don’t have to act in their client’s best interest.
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There Is No Such Thing As “Long-Term” In Tax Planning
I often read articles that talk about the virtues of long-term tax planning. This could be in the form of Roth IRA conversions, charitable planning, or gifting strategies. In general, most of these articles are correct in their reasoning, but they tend to under-emphasize one important item.
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The Stock Market Does Not Equal The Economy
The economic data coming out these last few weeks have been spectacular. Whether it be employment, manufacturing, or consumer spending, the economy really seems to be on a roll. Before you buy some stocks as an early Christmas present, it is important to remember that the economy is not the stock market.
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The Predictive Power (Or Lack Thereof) Of Stock Market Indicators
There is really no indicator that we know of that can predict stock market performance. If there ever were, it would very quickly be arbitraged away since markets tend to be fairly efficient. Merrill Lynch uses a metric they call the “Sell Side Indicator” to determine future stock performance.
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Pay Me My Fair Share- Profits vs. Wages
One of the big themes we have seen over the past several years is capital over labor. Corporations have seen an explosion in income while paying their workers some of the lowest wages in history. Here is a chart that shows labor as a percentage of GDP (blue) versus corporate profits as a percentage of GDP (red).
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