Keeping with Christine’s theme  of retirement savings…
I’m sure most of you remember “What Color Is Your Parachute?” the career guide written by Richard Bolles years ago, now in its umpteenth edition.
Perhaps the best seller ever in its category.
The newest iteration is “What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want”, […]

The Solo 401(k) - also known as an Individual 401(k) or a Self-Employed 401(k) - is specially designed for self-employed individuals and allows me to contribute 100% of my self-employment income up to the annual 401(k) limit ($15,500 for 2008 and $16,500 for 2009).
This means if I only earn $16,500, I can stash away the […]

First, a Public Service Announcement
As you’re scrambling to finish up your tax return (or extension!) today, don’t forget that April 15th is also the deadline to get 2008 contributions into your traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA (and probably other IRA types that I’m forgetting to list here). You don’t want to miss out on […]

The noose is now tightening around Bernie Madoff’s siblings, spouses, in-laws and adult children, not to mention all the non-family employees and the notorious feeder funds.
With a nod to due process, we shall refer to them all as alleged co-conspirators.
For those of you who may still be in doubt as to the involvement of others, […]

The Peter Principle was articulated in the previous century by Dr. Laurence J. Peters, a legendary management consultant and author.
In it’s original interpretation…
“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
Which may help explain the general lack of political leadership in our country today.
Tell me if this scenario resonates with you…
A […]

This was a bit of a surprise, since I thought I had missed the deadline and only just found out that we were published on this past week’s Carnival of Personal Finance - Edition #199. Our post on “Individual Development Accounts“made the cut, along with dozens of other great articles and blog postings.
Here are a […]

That’s what the judge tells you when sentence is passed.
And so it goes for long term wealth management.
Here’s an interesting mismatch to ponder:
A survey sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans polled a thousand women ages 30-59 this past November.

Sixty percent of the women polled said that the economy had had a significant to moderate impact […]

Not an original thought of mine.
The title phrase was the oft quoted lament of the late and legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel when he managed the first season of the hapless new team, the New York Mets.
In fairness, every new administration stumbles as it first assumes the levers and responsibilities of power.
And we all have […]