The Biggest Retirement Planning Mistakes
People make a lot of mistakes planning for retirement. Thankfully, the biggest retirement planning mistakes can be corrected by using a good financial planner.
U.S. Stock Valuations and Return Expectations
Valuation is a terrible short-term indicator, but it can be useful in setting expectations for future returns.
Don’t Predict, Plan
We never know when or why the next correction or bear market will happen. What we do know is that market downturns happen on a regular basis. Rather than trying to predict the timing or cause of the next downturn, you’re better off planning on historical levels of volatility persisting over time.
Building Meaningful Benchmarks
Most people don’t know how to properly evaluate their financial advisor and overly rely on performance as the sole measurement of success. A better approach is constructing a portfolio-based benchmark and goals-based benchmark to measure their progress.
Myopic Loss Aversion
The Digital Age has made access to stock market data and real-time portfolio values increasingly easy, but it causes investors to lose sight of the big picture. Myopic loss aversion is the idea that the more we evaluate our portfolios, the higher our chance of seeing a loss and, thus, the more susceptible we are to loss aversion.
Cash is King: 3 Ways to Manage It the Right Way
People say that cash is king, but they don’t give their cash the royal treatment it deserves.
The biggest mistake people make is having too big a cash balance in their primary banking account. Since cash loses its purchasing power over time, efficient use of cash is a crucial piece of your financial plan. Here are three ways to manage it the right way.
The 3 Best Uses For Your Tax Refund
Windfalls like a tax refund provide some of the best opportunities to make permanent improvements to your finances. Here are 3 ways to put your refund to the best use.
Do You Have a Bad 401(k) Plan? Here’s How to Tell
While classifying a retirement plan as “good” or “bad” is partly a matter of opinion, there are several items that you can objectively evaluate to determine if you have a bad 401(k) plan.
My First Money Lesson
In school, you are given a lesson then a test. In life, you are given a test and then you learn a lesson – money lessons can be expensive.
Fees Matter
People are more aware of fees than ever, but they still don’t give fees as much weight in their decisions as they do past performance, which is ironic because investment fees are a strong predictor of future returns.
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Peter Lazaroff, CFA, CFP® is Plancorp’s Chief Investment Officer, a financial advisor, speaker, and author of the book Making Money Simple.
