Did you know your resume could be worth over $1 million? It could be. My reasoning is as follows…
(cover photo courtesy of Juhansonin)
Some time ago, I came across this neat article on how to frame a resume from Tammy Erickson in the Harvard Business Review:
The Case of the Rolling Stone (that Gathers no Moss) Resume
In this short but sweet article, are some excellent tidbits: Read more »
from Bloomberg:
Rob Braunstein said his search for a three-bedroom home on a quiet street in Needham,Massachusetts, is taking on more urgency as he watches mortgage rates tick higher. Every increase, he worries, shrinks his budget by boosting monthly payments, he said.
That says everything you need to know about the current real estate market. And if you are considering downsizing your house, you need to do a similar analysis for yourself. What analysis? You need to determine for each 1% increase in mortgage rates, how much more it costs a buyer to buy your house with a mortgage.
Over the past 12 months, the decline in mortgage rates has increased the amount of house that one could buy by 20-30 (THIRTY)%! For this
by 401(k) 2013
reason (and others, like ZIRP causing TINA thinking), house prices have risen strongly – especially in the areas where people desire to live like vibrant cities .
Mark Hanson, a very strong and very thorough critic of the current real estate boom has outlined this affordability boost of super low rates quite eloquently HERE in his blog so I won’t duplicate his fine work. By the way, I often compare Mark with Bill McBride of the well known blog Calculated Risk, who was early in reporting the uptrend in real estate after the crash, in bull bear real estate debates.
But to summarize, if rates were to rise from 3.5% (where the 30 year was a week or so ago before rising above 4% lately) to 5.5%, it will make homes much less affordable. By how much?
Home Affordability Example* Read more »
Front page photo credit: CherryPoint
It’s classic. People in studies (including this from the Chicago Tribune) often talk about health being the most important concern in their future and during retirement. But then when you look at people, you see them focused (read: worried) about everything but health.
Get in shape! photo source: iivangm
Here’s what I mean – if health were THAT important, it would be scheduled first in our calendar, wouldn’t it? I’m guilty of this myself often. Saying health is important but working an extra hour or two instead. It’s likely that extra work time didn’t do much for me, but missing an hour of healthful exercise per day DOES add up over time.
So what’s the solution?
Delegate the CRAP you shouldn’t be focused on and schedule more time for health:
And since this is a financial site, I’ll tell you what not to do:
DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR MONEY. HIRE SOMEONE ELSE TO
This is what I constantly tell prospective clients. Let me worry about your money so you don’t have to. And this applies to other areas of your life. Do not clean your house unless you like cleaning. Do not do yard work unless you enjoy it. Hire someone else to and do what you need to do to focus on what’s important to you.
DELEGATE DELEGATE DELEGATE!
Simple as that. And if you feel like it, share below something you’ve done to delegate to what’s most important.
Thanks for reading.
Photo courtesy of likeablerodent
For the past 2 years, we have had to settle with America’s anemic growth being the attraction of the world. Yes China was still growing 7+% (or so they say), but no one was buying that as Chinese stocks hit 2009 lows. And Africa was powering higher but other than high net worth investors with access to hedge funds, few could take advantage of high flying illiquid stocks on small African exchanges.
So where does that leave an investor or trader, looking for a long term trend that he can ride? That would lead to two sectors. And what sectors have been on my mind for our clients? (There are 5-6 major trends I am studying and will develop) The sectors that have intrigued me the most, but also the ones that have frustrated me the most are: Read more »
Photo Source: Tax Credits
Read an interesting article in IBD last week outlining the expected costs in retirement of health care. The author writes that retirees should expect Medicare to cover only 60% of expected health care costs in retirement and that they should plan on $5,000-14,000/year in out of pocket health care costs.
Is this realistic? I would agree that I’ve seen Read more »
Reflections on an article from IBD I read last week…
The number of retirees moving to Florida has decreased over the past 20 years according to Richard Johnson of The Urban Institute. According to Johnson, 1/4 retirees age 55-65 moved to Florida from out of state. That number dropped to 1/7 by 2010.
Question:
Is Florida losing its luster?
Some of it can be explained by people wanting to retiree closer to home. The number of retirees moving to Las Vegas, Arizona, Texas and South Carolina for example, have increased. According to a recent study, 9/10 of Americans want to stay in their homes indefinitely (see article).
Downsize…to the City?
One point Read more »
Today I dropped by to visit my friend John DeCecca and see The Herrick House – an assisted living community that is on the campus of Beverly (MA) Hospital and now part of Lahey Health.
view from front lot of Herrick House
Herrick House is relatively new construction (1994) and offers the typical amenities found in assisted living communities (they also have a few independent residents and a separate memory care unit). They have reading rooms, a pub, private dining hall, community kitchen, small gym, and other amenities. Rates are slightly higher and it is a private pay only community (no Medicaid or other assistance programs). It appears to be a very desirable community as its constant nearly full occupancy attests. Some of the attractive features of Herrick are:
John is a seasoned veteran of the industry and I value his wisdom and insight on the business of aging. The demographics are there in most western nations – people are living longer. And unlike Okinawa where nutrition and lifestyle lead to long age, they’re living longer due to medicine and surgeries. This has created some interesting trends in the field of care for the aging.
Let me share some of the things John and I discussed: Read more »
cover photo courtesy of 401(k) 2013 on Flickr
A recent survey by financial planning behemoth Amerprise (reported by NY Times) revealed that nearly half of older working Americans expect to count on their home equity to help with retirement. This result is up sharply from the 37% who expected to use home equity before the recession.
Photo Source: 401(k) 2013
Why Is That?
That’s a bit surprising because home equity value was shooting up before the recession. One would think that people would naturally desire to use it to enhance their retirement quality of life. But people don’t often think that way about housing. Before the recession, people were making money in stocks, had good jobs etc and likely planned to live in their home until they were carried out “feet first.” Today, with stocks just making it back to break-even from 2007, and with many boomers likely underemployed, they are forced to consider their home equity.
And it’s likely that with Read more »
Tim, a friend of mine emailed me recently. Here’s what he wrote:
I am listening to Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s new book Antifragile, and he discusses the barbell investment strategy at some length. I googled it and Walnut Hill came up about number four on the search. Were you channeling him, was he channeling you, or were you both channeling some third and wiser party?
Of course I laughed – but I was also a bit surprised. I have one page on my site which outlines what a barbell portfolio is. So getting a #4 google ranking is quite interesting to say the least. Nonetheless, Tim’s email motivated me to follow up on that page as that style of investing likely appeals to many people. With that said, in this article I want to:
Before we get started, please Read more »
images courtesy of Tax Credits via Flickr
Millions of small businesses in the US are owned by people who need to invest for their future but who don’t have a generous 401(k) plan in place. When looking to save for the future, many options present themselves offering different benefits and costs. For many though, especially lower and middle income business owners, the simplicity of using an IRA fits their needs perfectly.
Here’s why:
2013 and continue to increase with inflation – which is enough for most people to startWhy not establish a business level retirement plan such as a 401(k), SIMPLE IRA or SEP? Here’s why a low to middle income owner might not want to: