June 30, 2018

If you’re a 50 or 60-something with adult children, you may occasionally wonder when you’ll become a grandparent. Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg Businessweek¹, you may have to wait a little longer. “The number of births in the US fell in 2017 to its lowest in 30 years.”

June 30, 2018

While both sad and depressing, the story of Rita Sherman, as reported in The New York Times¹, should provide valuable lessons to every current and future retiree. (The title alone is depressing.)

May 15, 2018

"I'm not going to live past 80!  I know it.  My Mother lived to 82, Dad died at 72.  Longevity doesn't run in my family.  Plus...who wants to live that long anyway?!"  I’m sure many of you have either uttered these words yourself or at the very least heard a friend or family member say them.  Digging into the underlying data, one might be surprised to see how long people are living these days.

March 31, 2018

I recognized the voice long before I saw the face. It was a voice I heard almost every weekday morning for ten years. It was a voice I vividly recalled from our early morning discussions when I walked into the post office to retrieve the mail.

February 15, 2018

By: Stanley F. Ehrlich

As an update to last newsletter's Stan's World article, I am pleased to report that our first experience working in the Farmer’s Market sponsored by the food bank* where we’ve volunteered for years was positive and fulfilling. We’ll be returning for more.

December 31, 2017

I suspect more than a few of you have made a New Year’s resolution or two for 2018. Lose weight? Exercise more? Eat healthier? Drive less aggressively (for NJ residents only)? While I typically don’t make New Year’s resolutions, this year I have one I’m going to work on, and I invite everyone to join me: I need a new volunteer gig.

December 31, 2017

By: John Zeltmann

Meet Abby and Ben.  Abby is our 2-year-old daughter.  Readers of this newsletter have already met Ben (5 years old) in a recent article espousing the benefits of teaching personal finance to children at an early age. While Abby and Ben are great kids, there’s at least one thing I’m not ready to hoist upon them should my wife and I meet a premature demise: our retirement plan balances and life insurance proceeds.

December 31, 2017

As a matter of fact, in terms of life expectancy, where you live matters a lot, but only if you agree that an increase in life expectancy of up to 20 additional years is significant.

December 31, 2017

As published in the Wall Street Journal¹, the author, Dr. Meir Statman, states: “The mindset that works so well as people are building their nest eggs can damage their quality of life in retirement.” In other words, you spend a lifetime learning to save money, and then you reach a point (i.e. retirement) where those savings have to be spent to fund the rest of your life. 

November 15, 2017

What’s the plan if you live too long? Most of us assume (hope?) that we’ll live to some undetermined ripe old age, but determining that number is obviously an impossible task. Yet, calculating life expectancy is one of the most important components when preparing a financial plan.