June 30, 2018

Are you a pre-retiree who dreams of retiring so you can wake up every morning with a big smile on your face? Do you envision endless days of joy, with time spent fishing, hiking, eating, socializing, or gardening? Is your vision of retirement an image of pure bliss?

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

Yes, you read that correctly; it’s time to start thinking about 2018 taxes. Why? Because the earlier you do so, the better the chance that you’ll uncover an opportunity you otherwise might have missed. In the tax business, opportunities may potentially translate into saving on taxes and putting more money into your pocket.

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.)

Source: Direxion Funds

June 30, 2018

• 28% of American jobs do not require any formal educational credential, i.e., not even a high school diploma.

• Over the last 20 years, i.e., 4/30/98 to 4/30/18, inflation in the United States (using the “Consumer Price Index”) has increased +54.2% or +2.2% annually. An individual living on a fixed-income who has not benefited from “cost-of-living” increases would have only 65% of the purchasing power as of 4/30/18 that he/she had 20 years earlier. The consumer price index (CPI) is a measure of inflation compiled by the US Bureau of Labor Studies.

May 15, 2108

Brunner Opticians has been a landmark in Westfield for more than 75 years. When we first moved to Westfield, I was the proud owner of three pairs of new eyeglasses I couldn't use because the prescription was incorrect in all three. I looked for a local optometrist, found one at Brunner, and made an appointment to see if he could figure out what had gone wrong.  He did a thorough eye examination, wondered why my previous prescription was changed, and voila, vision problem corrected.

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.

May 15, 2018

Here are a few of the apps highlighted by MONEY Magazine¹ that may help make life a little easier (and less costly) to navigate:

Source: Direxion Funds

May 15, 2018

• Major US retailers closed 6,955 stores nationwide during calendar year 2017, a total greater than the number of closures that occurred in any single year during the global financial crisis that began 10 years ago.

• Student loan debt, equal to $1.38 trillion as of 12/31/17, has doubled in just over 8 years. Student loan debt was $690 billion as of 9/30/09.

• The US homeownership percentage (i.e. “owner” households as a percentage of total households) was 63.4% in 2016, the lowest percentage nationwide since 1965 or 51 years earlier when the rate was just 63.0%. The homeownership percentage rose to 63.9% in 2017.

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.