By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner ™ Would you like to design your ideal retirement? Where do you begin? First of all, what does retirement mean to you? If you’re in a relationship, does retirement mean the same to you as it does to your partner? Do you know if your “ideal retirement” is affordable […]
Social Security: Don’t Make These Three Mistakes
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner ™ Social Security has been around for decades and it’s not about to disappear. Why? Social Security is not an “entitlement” (gift) – it’s a forced savings scheme that Americans pay into in their working years in order to secure a pension for life. Ideally, Social Security shouldn’t be […]
Getting Real About Retirement – Will You Have Enough Money to Remain Comfortable?
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner™ Let’s get real about retirement. Will you have enough to remain comfortable in retirement for 30 years or more? Studies show this is a recurring fear many Americans feel. As a Fee-Only financial advisor, my number one priority is to confront this fear and help my clients retain enough […]
Now That The Dust Has Settled…Smart Tax Moves In 2018
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner® Now that the dust has settled, here are some smart tax moves to lower your taxes and/or avoid higher taxes/penalties in 2018. These steps may be especially helpful if you live in high property and high income tax states (e.g. New Jersey, New York, California) since state and local […]
Invest Like a “Tortoise” — Not Like a “Hare”
by Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner(R) Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” is a perfect metaphor for the way people go about investing their money. As you recall in the fable, the hare brags about his ability to beat the tortoise and is overly confident about winning. In the investment world, the hare is someone […]
Six Mistakes People Make When Hiring a Financial Advisor
by Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner (TM) There are 6 common mistakes people make when engaging a financial advisor — and all of them are avoidable! Before we go through this list, let’s put the issue of paying for financial advice into context. Health and money are two areas of life where everyone benefits from […]
Market Forecasts: Helpful or Useless?
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner® The financials industry spends a lot of time and money on preparing stock and bond market forecasts – especially at this time of year — but are they “helpful” or “useless” when it comes to making investment decisions? In my opinion, most of these forecasts have little predictive power. […]
Five “No Brainer” Moves to Strengthen Your Finances
by Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner (TM) Here are 5 “no-brainer” moves you can make before year-end to strengthen your finances: Taxes: NJ AND NY RESIDENTS ALERT: If Congress pushes through tax reform that eliminates state and local tax exemptions, many NJ and NY residents (along with MA and CA residents) will be hit […]
“It’s Greek to Me!” – Understanding Your Investment Statements
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner™ Note: I recently gave a seminar at the Bernards Township Library in Basking Ridge, NJ. Here are a few points that we touched on. When you look at your monthly investment statement, do you think “this looks like Greek to me”? Do you ignore all but the first page, […]
High Exposure to Employer Stock in Your 401K: Good or Bad?
By Eve Kaplan, CFP® Professional Is it good or bad to have a lot of employer stock in your 401k plan? It depends. Some employees accumulate company stock quickly because their company match is 100% company stock. Other employees load up on company stock because they’re bullish on their employer (and don’t fear an Enron-type […]