Shaky Economy Stressing You Out? Here’s What to Do…

Deer in Headlights

Feeling like a deer in the headlights right now? You’re not alone! Soaring inflation, stock market crashing, a pandemic that just won’t go away – and the only light at the end of the tunnel looks like the oncoming train of recession! We’re all getting squeezed from both ends…

Deer in Headlights

It’s costing you 60% more than last year to fill up your gas tank.

Last month, you thought about buying a new home. This month mortgage rates have priced you totally out of the market.

Global supply chain glitches mean that things you bought all the time are almost impossible to find. (Seriously, a sriracha hot sauce shortage?!?)

Your low-interest charge cards are projected to average 20% in a couple of months – and the high-interest rate ones will be off the charts.

A few months ago, you were sitting on your big, juicy 401(k) or IRA and thinking of early retirement. Now, you’re praying they’ll let you keep your job when you’re 82.

Not long ago, you looked at your retirement account balance and felt euphoric. A humongous asteroid could be heading toward earth and the market would still go up! I can relate. [Read more…] “Shaky Economy Stressing You Out? Here’s What to Do…”

3 Reasons Why the Money in Your 401(k)/IRA Doesn’t Belong to You

If you get regular account statements, you probably know the approximate current value of your 401(k) and/or IRAs, so please write that total down now.

Do you think all that money belongs to you?

It doesn’t… and what people find most surprising is how little of your account value actually does belong to you.

3 Reasons the Money in Your 401(k) Doesn’t Belong to You…

Reason #1: You May Not Be Fully Vested

[Read more…] “3 Reasons Why the Money in Your 401(k)/IRA Doesn’t Belong to You”

7 Warning Flags and Financial Risk Factors We Face Today

You know people have gotten too complacent about investing in the stock market and what it takes to grow real wealth when…

  1. People bragging about becoming 401(k) millionaires and posting their balances on social media has become a “thing” (remember when everyone from the company executives to the janitor were bragging at the water cooler about being real estate millionaires, just before the last crash?)
  2. People start to think they can actually retire comfortably on $1,000,000 (you can’t, because the IRS will take at least 25% – 33% off the top, and you’ll need $500,000 just to cover out-of-pocket healthcare and long-term care costs in retirement)
  3. The personal savings rate fell to its third-lowest on record at the end of 2017
  4. Consumer spending is rising, and more of it is being fueled by debt (the last quarter registered the second-largest percentage increase in charge-card debt in a decade)
  5. Inflation is taking a bigger bite out of Americans’ paychecks (real average hourly earnings of 80% of employees fell by half a percent in January – its fifth decline in six months)
  6. Hundreds of major companies have price earnings ratios that are higher than during the height of the 2000 and 2007 bubbles
  7. For a decade now, central banks have pretended they can print up prosperity (which they’ve done at a magnitude beyond imagination… and we’re supposed to have blind faith that they know what they’re doing)

[Read more…] “7 Warning Flags and Financial Risk Factors We Face Today”