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What Children Want to Talk to Their Grandparents About May Surprise You.

By Posted on In Retirement, Uncategorized

Children are looking to their grandparents for advice about saving money, according to a new study by TIAA-CREF and MIT’s AgeLab.

85% of the children interviewed were interested in talking more about money, saving and personal finance. Yet, only 8% of grandparents have such conversations.

The article in USA Today, outlined a few good ways to jumpstart the conversation:

  • Talk about how prices have changed in your lifetime.
  • Bring up savings at birthdays if the kids get a check or two.
  • Talk about the opportunities you’ve gotten (or maybe missed out on) through education.
  • Listen to their worries. Ninety-seven percent of young adults in the intergenerational study say they’re worried about saving.

Visit USA Today for the full story.

Now May Be The Best Time To Check Your Risk Tolerance

By Posted on In Investment Behavior, Investment Strategies, Retirement, Uncategorized

Is this the top of the market? If so, are you (and your investments) ready for the possible roller coaster that could follow?

That’s the gist of a recent WSJ article, and it’s not bad advice to consider.

Investor’s appetite for risk is constantly changing.  When the market is bullish (like it is right now) investors want to maximize their returns and are willing to take on more risk.  Yet, as soon as the market turns sour, investors want to limit their risk and move to something “safer”.

That knee-jerk reaction can often end up hurting the investor in the long run. They end up buy and selling at the wrong time.

It’s better to take time now for investors to imagine how they would feel if there was a 5% or 10% drop in the market.  Would they stay calm and stay the course or would they be looking to move to more conservative investments?

If you haven’t thought about that, take some time now to consider what you would do.

Of course, we can help guide you.

Why The Big Mac Index May Affect Your Decision to Travel Abroad

By Posted on In Economy, Rule of Thumb, Saving, Uncategorized

At first it sounds silly; use the cost of McDonald’s Big Mac to gauge purchasing power in different countries. What first started as a humorous approach to addressing the pricing discrepancies between countries for similar goods, has been taken more and more seriously by economists.

See for yourself which countries have the cheapest Big Mac, an indication that your dollars will go further.

Anecdotal evidence based on my experiences abroad is inline with these findings. I felt like I was getting more value in certain countries – After travelling through parts of Turkey, I discovered that I spent much, much less than I budgeted. While a trip to Europe ended with a blown budget.

Before my next trip, I will use the Big Mac Index to help create my travel budget.

Watch That Cell Phone!

By Posted on In Rule of Thumb, Uncategorized

1 in 10 Americans have had their smart phone stolen. Make sure you protect your personal information with these three tips:

  1. Make sure you have a security PIN set up to lock your phone. Consumer Reports states only 36% of all smart phone have some sort of security.
  2. Find an app that will allow you to locate, lock or wipe the phone remotely in case it’s lost or stolen.
  3. Download and set up an app that can help you back-up your phone.

If your phone is ever stolen, you will be able to wipe the app clean (remove all your personal information) remotely. And if you eventually locate it, you can simply restore your personal information.

Just 10 minutes of preparation could save you hours and hours of frustration in the future.

The Great Tax Migration

By Posted on In Investment Strategies, Rule of Thumb, Taxes, Uncategorized

Sick of the high costs to live in Connecticut? Some residents (and our clients, too) are taking action and moving to cheaper states. If you’re curious to see how much you could save, start with these resources:

How Money Walks:Wealth is leaving this state, mostly to Florida, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia and South Caroline. Some wealth is coming into the state from New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Michigan – states that are MORE expensive than Connecticut.

Save Taxes By Moving: Great calculator to help you quantify your state-income savings if you moved to another state.

City to City: How Far Your Paycheck Goes: A simple tool to help compare the cost of living from one city to another. I like this one because it takes into account the median income.

Pay Attention to Your NU Stock

By Posted on In Trend Updates, Uncategorized

For those of you who hold NU stock, you may be excited to see that it has been reaching new all-time highs at over $47 per share! So, let’s take some time to evaluate it as an investment. Recently, we noticed an abnormality that warrants some discussion:

  1. With some unease in the market, investors flocked to a more conservative investment, many of whom turned to utilities for their relatively stable performance and nice dividend. NU pays an annual dividend of $1.57 per share which is a yield of 3.38%. It’s paid off for investors so far this year. The utility industry has been doing very well compared to the S&P 500 so far this year. This, in part, has contributed to the healthy performance for the NU stock.
  2. But comparing the NU stock to it’s peers (other utilities) paints a different picture. NU outperformed its peers for most of 2013. But in 2014, it started to lag. While NU has been performing well this year, the industry as a whole has been doing better.
  3. S&P has recently downgraded their opinion on NU shares to “Hold”, from “Buy”. The rating agency also forecasts the price of the stock 12-month from now to be around $47.

We’re not suggesting that you sell out of NU. Such recommendations are made on a case-by-case basis only. But it’s important to put this performance in perspective. Now may be a good time to evaluate the position to make sure it’s still an appropriate investment.

 

Doom-and-Gloomers Have It Wrong

By Posted on In Economy, Uncategorized

The stock market didn’t crash.

The economy didn’t collapse.

The government didn’t default.

The Euro didn’t fail.

The inflation rate didn’t turn into hyperinflation.

 

And yet, every time we turn on the TV, all we see are more dark clouds looming in the distance, which only gives investors more reason to sit on the sidelines.

 

The Team

H.L. Rives III, CPA
Cliff Jarvis
Michael Lecours, CFP®
Ronald G. Lecours, CFP®

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