Jim Freeman provides you with insight on finances and retirement lifestyles.
1. NIL is already a billion dollar business and is expected to grow much larger. 2. The NCAA is deferring to states regarding the establishment of rules and regulations about NIL and compliance thereof. Sports associations and individual schools have also become involved in NIL. 3. The financial planning industry sees opportunities to help young people navigate and manage new-found wealth and income from high school, college, and beyond.
1. 31 percent of those identifying as part of the Sandwich Generation bear complete financial responsibility for their parents or in-laws. 2. A MassMutual study confirms the emotional and financial stress such dual roles place on families. 3. Creating a financial plan can alleviate such burdens and still allow for retirement saving.
More people are saving for retirement but they are not saving enough. Late-boomer wealth continues to be impacted by The Great Recession of 2008-2009. An increase in Social Security's Full Retirement Age was a de facto cut in Social Security benefits.
1. Studies are mixed about the effects of retirement on your mental health. 2. Having a plan in place may make the transition smoother. 3. Addressing factors such as loss of work routine, loss of a robust social network, and loss of one's professional identity may help mitigate emotional stress points. Not to mention all the additional time to be spent.
The greatest transfer of wealth in American history, approximately $84 trillion, has begun and will peak in the 2030s. Gen X will begin retiring next decade, just as Social Security and Medicare will likely need substantial reforms. A significant number of today's financial advisors will be exiting the business in the next ten years.
The gold watch has been replaced by a green match (employers matching employee retirement contributions). 401(k)s were never intended to supplant pensions but they largely have done so. The burden of saving for retirement is now on the employee, not the employer. A financial advisor can help people through the pitfalls of a DIY or do-it-yourself approach to retirement.
1. A majority of Boomers want to age in place; only a fraction of their homes can accommodate those desires. 2. Plan ahead: The longer you live you become even more eligible for illness and accidents. 3. A a healthy couple retiring at age sixty-five could expect to pay around $300,000 over the course of retirement to cover health and medical expenses.
Legacy planning is not just for the fabulously wealthy; it's for anyone with assets of value to be gifted. A well-crafted and executed plan can make your beneficiaries' lives easier to manage in the future, personally and professionally. What's the difference between a will and a trust?
1. Seven out of every ten Americans who reach age sixty-five will need long-term care of some kind. 2. LTCI premiums count as medical expenses and may potentially be paid with special tax considerations. 3. The burden of loved ones: 66 percent of caregivers use their personal assets like savings and retirement funds, to pay for a loved one's care.
Managing through volatility and navigating around it is a necessity today in retirement planning. A diverse portfolio is still a sound strategy. Market volatility amplifies and accelerates risk, and likely affects investor behavior.
1. Think of income in three stages: generation, preservation, and distribution. 2. Aligning expenses and income is a staple of retirement planning. 3. A majority of Baby Boomers want to age in place but only 10 percent of their homes are set up to accommodate this goal. Plan on unplanned expenses.
A majority of people take Social Security at 62, the earliest eligibility age; they may be leaving money on the table. Barring reforms to the system prior to sometime around 2034, Social Security will still pay benefits roughly around 79 cents on the dollar. Before applying for Social Security, know all the available benefits and options to maximize your payments.
The retirement paradox: Finding yourself in a higher tax bracket in retirement. The importance of having clear and open communications among clients, tax professionals, and financial advisors. Given Washington politics and uncertainty in future tax policy, tax strategies may be more important than ever.
Riders on contracts can provide an opportunity to customize individual needs. Annuities are really risk management products; another means to generate income. Does it make sense for you to shift risk off your personal balance sheet to that of an insurance company?
Ask yourself: Will my financial professional help me achieve my goals? With a process in place, you have a greater probability of success. How values, trust, and competence should be prime considerations in your search.
Financial advisors need to address the needs of the couple and the wife. Separate but equal. 80 percent of men die married but 80 percent of women die single. "Gray Divorce" is on the rise. New complications to retirement.
A recent brief published by The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College sheds light on this issue. Learn about the evolution of retirement plans: the decline of defined benefit plans and the rise of defined contribution plans. Future retirees may need to alter behaviors to protect against outliving their savings.
Northwestern Mutual's 2022 Planning & Progress Study found that 60 percent of U.S. adults say that the pandemic has been highly disruptive to the way they manage their finances. But they have taken certain actions to buttress longer-term financial security. DALBAR's 2022 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior (QAIB) report found that the Average Equity Fund Investor finished the year with a return of 18.39 percent versus a Standard & Poors 500 return of 28.71 percent, an investor return gap of 1,032 basis points (bps). The reports seem to support the idea that emotion costs you money while discipline makes you money.
We are indeed experiencing the highest inflation since the early 1980s, which really had its roots in the 1970s. Still, conditions in this decade are very different from 50 years ago. After WWII, higher inflation resulted from manufacturing disruptions, rebounding demand for consumer goods, and soaring money growth... Sound familiar?
According to Pew Research, over 50 percent of older workers are now out of the workplace. That is up from 48 percent just prior to the pandemic. Older workers continued to work through recessions dating back to the 1990s. The pandemic-induced recession in 2020 saw that trend reverse. The 2008-2009 Great Recession saw personal wealth decline markedly. The economy and capital markets decoupled during 2020-2021. Financial assets and real estate saw record gains, allowing personal wealth to grow correspondingly. Older workers took notice. And took action.
Learn how Social Security is actually funded. The 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax has been constant since 1991. Is it time to change that? The solution to future funding gaps may in fact be a blend of boosting revenue to the system and slowing down benefit payments.
Dr. James contracted the coronavirus before many Americans had even heard of it and spent time thereafter on the front lines in the ICU in New York City just as the pandemic took its grip of the city and the country. Has the pandemic politicized medicine in America? In the midst of the chaos, Dr. James created her own model and her own enterprise to serve patients with an emphasis on early out-patient treatment.
Demographics is destiny. Shifts in demographic power will be seismic. Will poor savings, healthcare costs, looming Social Security challenges, and high debt loads absorb much of the great transfer? With so much change over the horizon, the retirement planning space will radically change.
Breaking down individual and corporate tax rates slated for change. A 900-page proposal... Has anyone in government really read all of it? Will the enactment of higher taxes amidst a fragile economic recovery ultimately contribute to stagflation?
On August 15, 1971 President Nixon gave a speech that was a catalyst for stagflation. Parallels: The oil embargo of 1973 was a shock to the system that, combined with bad monetary policy, brought about economic misery. Is the pandemic the same kind of shock in 2021, along with questionable modern-day monetary policy, that will beget similar conditions? Watch the bond market on where it thinks inflation is heading.
The bond market is a better barometer of the economy's condition than the stock market. Look around you. Bonds are everywhere. Take the municipal bond market. There are over 44,000 municipal bond issuers in the U.S. with over one million muni bond issues outstanding. Your local schools were probably financed with bonds. Not to mention the library and water treatment facility. The Federal Reserve has effectively nationalized the bond market. Its extraordinary intervention has, arguably, encouraged investors to flock to stocks.
Our conversation is inspired by David Hepworth's book, Never A Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded. "What's Going On," a phrase and song that set the tone. The ultimate Baby Boomer year. How 60s optimism and 70s pessimism collided to produce a burst of creative tension since unmatched in modern music.
According to a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, America's retirement system has never been stronger. There's plenty of good news. For one, more Americans are saving for retirement than ever before. What about Social Security? Surprise! Future retirees should be just about as well prepared for retirement as today's retirees.
Fox in the hen house: Frank Abagnale Jr. ("Catch Me If You Can") provides keen insights. Hacking History: Malicious Attacks. Human Error. System Faults. They have all played a role in hacks on retail, healthcare, infrastructure, financial services, and government -- practically on a daily basis. Following the money... A personal security strategy is not as complicated as you think. Some ideas to consider.
Album art, gatefolds, liner notes, bootlegs, pops and hisses were all part of the dialog if you grew up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Why is analog a warm sound while digital can be brittle and cold? We might have the answer... Vinyl Revival: Vinyl sales peaked around 1981, eventually displaced by the CD, But over the last decade, records have staged a comeback.
The study focuses on job exits and retirements for two demographic age groups (50-61) and (62+) Low earners fared worse than their higher-earning counterparts during COVID. The oldest group of high earners did worse during COVID Recession (2020) than during the Great Recession (2009). All workers need to plan years in advance of estimated retirement; not months in advance.
1. What is an NFT? 2. Will NFTs become permanent, or just a passing fad like bell bottom jeans and mullet hair cuts? 3. Bono: "If I don't understand it, it must be art..." sports and music in NFTs.
1. Risk is an emotional motivator: We are twice as concerned about avoiding losses than we are about achieving potential gains. 2. Risk vs. Reward: The risk you want and the risk you need and the risk you have can impact your financial goals. 3. Risk in a portfolio can be defined and discovered. Powerful software tools can shed light on your risk profile. That is important to know.
1. See the ship through the eyes of the crew. - It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship In The Navy 2. Inventing the A-bomb of the social sciences. - If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented The Future 3. Jesus took a disorganized "staff" of twelve and built a thriving enterprise. -Jesus CEO
1. "Craftsmanship comes out of intelligent hard work." -Bill Russell 2. "More space and computers, but less poetry and mystery." -Ron Chernow 3. "I'm not sure if it's for you, but..." -Phil M. Jones
1. Bitcoin Was Born on October 31, 2008. To Mine It You Need Hard Drives Not Hard Hats. 2. Next-Gen Gold or Digital Kryptonite? Don't Count on Bitcoin Replacing the Dollar Any Time Soon. 3. For the First Time, the IRS in 2021 Will Ask You About Your Cryptocurrency Activity on Form 1040 Tax Returns. Regulation Is Coming.
1. The Who, What, Where & Why of GameStop 2. How the Fusion of Cash, Gamification, and Technology Helped Foment a New Financial Populism on Wall Street 3. Reddit + Robinhood = Rebellion. Welcome to Occupy Wall Street Version 2.021
1. We've Come A Long Way From Men In Tights To Financial Neophytes and Terabytes 2. How Does Robinhood Make Money If It Offers No-Commission Trading? 3. Robinhood Is A Free App, Not A Financial Planning Tool
1. To understand The Fed, you must also understand the political and intellectual environment of the time, in addition to the economic environment of the time. 2. Novel Idea: Has the quasi-private Fed been nationalized? 3. A trillion here, a trillion there. Pretty soon Fed action will add up to real money.
1. Surprise! The results of the 2020 DALBAR investor behavior study are not surprising. 2. The best financial professionals double as behavioral finance coaches of their clients. 3. Psychological traps, triggers and misconceptions can cause investors to act irrationally.
1. "The Creature from Jekyll Island" 2. Do you know the difference between monetary and fiscal policy? Why you should. 3. Policies from the Big Chair: Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Jerome Powell
"Don't invest for the end of the world; it only happens once." Baseball tactics and financial goals: Swinging for the fences can lead to more strikeouts, not homeruns. Investment Mindset: Reason vs. emotion.
Maintaining Dignity & Quality of Life Know the Big Six of "Activities of Living" LTC is an income issue, not an asset issue: Medicaid is not the goal
Strategy, Not Product, Key in Retirement Planning Balance: Short, Medium & Long Term Financial Needs Diversification: Safety, Growth & Liquidity (2 Years of Cash)