New Year’s Resolution Time
This is the time of the year that we all take a moment and reflect on the things we want to do different and better for our New Year. We are digressing from the usual health, weight, and family ideas, to give you…
Category General Financial Planning
Estate Tax Exemption Legislation, Ball In Senate’s Court–Keeping Close Watch
The race is on to hammer out a new Estate Tax Exemption amount prior to the end of the year, 12-31-09. As a refresher on this tax; Estate Tax is the tax owed the Federal Government when the last heir of…
Black Friday, Cyber Monday Update– The Winner “Suzie the Saver”!
As a quick update from last weeks humorous duo of fabricated personalities, we wanted to give you a quick status report. It appears as if “Sammy the Spender” did make a few runs to the store, but was trumped by “Suzie…
Black Friday Conclusion,”Susie the Saver” and Happy Thanksgiving!
Yesterday (Black Friday Looms-”Sammy the Spender” and “Susie the Saver”) we introduced a few casual seasonal thoughts concerning our interest in “Black Friday” and also our hopeful busy appearance of a cheerful character, “Sammy the Spender” as an investor’s and analysts best friend. Today…
Black Friday Looms-“Sammy the Spender” and “Susie the Saver”
Most know that Black Friday’s name came from days gone when retailers finally turned a profit for the first time of the year, or moved into the “Black”. Fortunately as analysts in this day and age, most companies profit throughout the…
Health Insurance Options for Early Retirees, It’s Not Impossible, Here are a Few Options
Those in the midst of early retirement are facing a slight challenge, finding health coverage to bridge them to governmental plans. With many taking early retirement we wanted to re-iterate a few options for acquiring health coverage to bridge the…
401k Maximum Contributions to Be Same Next Year Too
Sandra Block, acquaintance, USA Today Business reporter, and fellow worker of the Good Morning America interview we completed October, of 2008, John on Set of Good Morning America Live from New York, has an article in USA today that follows our thoughts yesterday on…
Social Security, No Benefit Increase Next Year
Social Security benefits have a COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) feature that is tied to CPI (Consumer Price Index). Earlier this year Social Security benefits were increased dramatically, over 6%, due primarily to the increase in energy prices the prior year.…
Not All Bonds are Created Equal-The GNMA! (If it sounds too good to be true, it might be)
Based on a conversation I had over the weekend, I thought I would share some information gathered about the popular GNMA (Ginnie Mae) bonds. Most investors have heard of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) because they have been the cause of many…
Taking Advantage of The Recession, Holiday Shopping and Vacation Planning Time is Now
Over the past several weeks we have listened diligently to numerous company conference calls in order to better understand what is going on with companies and the economy in general. A window is still open for many. This recession has been dramatic…