Category Archives: Regular Blog

I was thinking about the “right” lead-in to the video below and I found it in a book written by a well-known colleague who is a fellow Certified Financial Planner, Roy Diliberto. Here’s a few verbatim sentences from page 7 in his book, “Basic Truths for Financial Life Planners” about why clients should want their advisor to act as a “fiduciary” vs. the much lower but more prevalent “suitability” standard of care. Here it goes: From page 7: “How does this sound for an elevator speech? I want to help you with your financial goals, but … Continue reading

“Accumulation vs. Distribution” is another part of the “Math vs. Money” concept. One of the most difficult concepts I have to train my own clients to appreciate and fully understand is the fact that rates of return are not just meaningless when it comes to retirement income planning, they are misleading and can even be dangerous as well. You can also watch a short 5 minute video webinar about MATH vs. MONEY on the video page of this website. It Can … Continue reading

What does climbing Mt. Everest have to do with retirement income planning? To find out, watch my latest 60 second video below. all the best… Mark PS – I had written this video script just days before the disastrous earthquake that hit Nepal and decided to wait an appropriate amount of time before having it produced. This earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people and demolished more than 500,000 homes. At least 22 people died on the mountain as well. The survivors still need a great amount of help.

First off, if you were counting on getting a few extra dollars in your Social Security checks during 2016, you might want to re-think that. The general opinion of the experts, including the trustees, is senior citizens will not see a cost-of-living (COLA) in 2016. Here’s why this might be true. The Government Executive website reported, ‘The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released another data point that provides a glimpse into the potential cost-of-living increase for federal retirees in … Continue reading