How to Protect Yourself Against Cyber Crime

Cyber crime is on the rise. It’s costing people like you and me very real money, well into the billions of dollars world-wide. Cyber criminals are growing increasingly clever, with new tools and techniques being developed to deceive.

One of the biggest tragedies of this type of crime is who it primarily targets: seniors living on a fixed income. Since the vast majority of my clients are age 50 and above, I wanted to dedicate some time today to exploring a few recommendations to help keep your financial accounts secure.

Bonds Are Back (In 3 Charts)

This will certainly go down as one of the most interesting investment years in recent memory. There’s been a lot of pain felt with inflation pressure and a falling stock market and bond market.

But there have been some silver linings, too. One of those is that bonds, money market funds, CDs, savings accounts and other “fixed income” type financial products are paying considerably more interest than even 6 to 12 months ago. Here are a few charts to illustrate that “bonds are back,” and how investors can take advantage of the opportunity.

Top Ways to Lower Your Taxes

We’re more than half way through the year! Can you believe it? Tax return season is still a long way off, but families should always have taxes on the mind when making financial decisions.

I’d like to write a short post today reminding readers of some of the most fundamentally simple ways to save on taxes. Most Americans want to pay a bit less and the IRS has several practical ways allowing you to do so. Here are several that can make the biggest impact on your tax bill, and also benefit you and others in the future.

Social Security–It’s Worth Getting This One Right

There are some things in finance that, as long as you follow a few general rules of thumb, you’re going to be fine:

  • Save about 10% of your wages in a variety of stocks and bonds

  • Take 20 times your annual wage and buy that much term life insurance

  • Withdraw about 4% from your retirement account each year.

There is certainly room for more nuance in these rules, but they get you close to success.

Social Security is a different animal. There are general rules, but the potential benefit over a couple’s lifetime is so significant, that it’s worth knowing some particulars. I’d like to lay a few of these out in this post.