September 30, 2020 A few weeks ago, we moved my 98-year-old mother from independent living to long-term care. One of the reasons why we selected the community where she lives is because they have a continuum of care, to include independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing. (As an aside, for anyone considering independent living, a continuum of care on...
September 30, 2020 As many long-time investors know, the stock market doesn’t react well to uncertainty. What the market does reward is constancy: interest rates that don’t fluctuate to any great degree; an economy growing on a gradual incline; and a lack of drama. When it comes to 2020, put a check next to constancy in interest rates, as there’s...
September 30, 2020 Compliments of AARP The Magazine 1, here are “8 smartphone apps to make life safe.” Some might be useful to you, an elderly parent, or to any other age group. There’s so much available on our smartphones that people don’t take advantage of; these apps just nick the surface. (All apps are free except for Dark Sky...
August 15, 2020 If you spent the past five months in lunar orbit and recently opened your brokerage statement, your reaction was probably akin to ho-hum. For the rest of us mere mortals, it’s been an incredible whipsaw. Lacking sports and social lives, watching the stock market became its own entertainment. With industries shedding jobs by the gazillions and retail...
August 15, 2020 Raise your hand if you share one of my many idiosyncrasies: I don’t like change. (Let me qualify that comment. When Dunkin Donuts added sprinkles to their double chocolate donut, I didn’t register a complaint.) Back to the subject at hand: What’s wrong when things are OK staying just the way they are? If you’re a baseball...
August 15, 2020 By: John Zeltmann Times like these are rife with opportunities for potential fraudsters. While the unsuspecting public spends a lot of energy these days on things like trying to remember a face mask when walking out the door, checking in on at-risk family members, or keeping youngsters entertained while working from home, scam artists recognize that we...
June 30, 2020 You’re welcome to call me a skeptic (or worse) but I fall into the camp that says we’ll be battling a second wave of COVID-19 when it revisits us in the Northeast at some point in the fall. To make matters worse, I also believe the lockdown for the second round will occur faster (and possibly feel...
June 30, 2020 Writing in the Business Section of the New York Times 1, that’s the title of a column by Carl Richards, who has gained fame as the “Sketch Guy”, a person who can take complex financial issues and define them through simple drawings. While the column includes a few of Richards’ sketches, it also includes five steps that...
June 30, 2020 As part of our efforts to provide financial advice to clients, we’re regularly reviewing the latest research on investments, planning, and many other topics related to a successful retirement. Much of that research focuses on investors’ ability to stay on course with their asset allocation, through thick and thin. We recently came across a couple of charts...
May 15, 2020 Writing “Stan’s World” eight times a year allows me the opportunity to share a story or anecdote that might be of interest to clients who have faced or might experience a similar situation. In some cases, it’s even cathartic, allowing me to explain how I handled some sort of life-cycle event. At this moment in time, however...