As Memorial Day approaches, the memory of the last 18 months still leaves most of us shell shocked. Americans have lost trillions in the stock market. Our retirement accounts are in shambles. Those among us who depend on that money for daily living are counting every dime we spend. Many of us are unemployed while [...]

If you haven’t done so already, it may be time to call your local bank or financial institution and start filling out the paperwork. Mortgage interest rates are at historic lows as housing prices continue to fall and homeowners are refinancing at a higher rate than anytime since 2003.

It’s bigger than the entire television viewing audience of the United States. It is growing faster than all the world’s economies put together. It can be just what you need to invigorate your business and all it takes is a computer. So what exactly is social media?

In this economy of growing unemployment and health care costs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) addressed one important consideration for individuals and families who have been hit by lay-offs. Unfortunately it created as many questions as it did answers.

Next year investors will be given a once-in-a-life-time chance to convert their traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs regardless of how much you earn. Most savers’ knee-jerk reaction is to convert, pay the taxman now and forevermore be free of giving the government a cut of their tax-deferred retirement money. When I dig beneath [...]

When the U.S. government created tax-deferred 401(k) retirement accounts back in 1972 they never dreamed that together with Individual Retirement Accounts, they would become the primary savings vehicle for over 50 million Americans. Nor did anyone care as long as these tax-deferred retirement assets continued to grow but now that over $2.5 trillion of their [...]

No doubt about it, 2008 was a bad year for the stock and bond markets. Hopefully, the coming year may not be as bad but nobody I know is counting on a great 2009 either. Given the recession, dim prospects for investment and a general feeling that conserving capital might not be a bad idea, [...]

I’ve fielded a number of calls lately from clients over 70 ½ who are required to take a minimum required distribution (MRD) from their tax-deferred accounts before the end of the year. The rules state that everyone who owns a traditional IRA (and certain other types of defined contribution retirement accounts) must begin to liquidate [...]

In my last column “Debt—Part two,” I mentioned if debtors must use a charge card at all let it be a debit card. Since then however, I delved deeper into the matter thanks to one reader’s comments and discovered that in certain circumstances a debit card can cost you even more than your credit card.

“I’ve got a stock brokerage account,” asked one of my southern state clients last week, “and I’m wondering what happens to my money if they go bust?” It is a type of phone call I have been fielding quite often these days as the financial crisis continues to build. The near collapse of Bear Sterns, [...]