How to choose an Honest Financial Advisor in Ten Minutes

It’s possible a teacher (or anyone else) can choose a good financial advisor in the first ten minutes of an initial meeting. This simple process will save you time, money and plenty of heartache! Our CEO, Josh Brown, brought up a terrific point in one Monday morning meeting. Josh pointed out that Ritholtz Wealth Management’s…

Some Teachers Need Tough Love

It is easy to blame insurance companies and greedy brokers for the awful state of the 403(b) market. There is no disputing their role in this mess. It would be unfair to say they are the only culprits. Individual responsibility and poor choices play a large part, as well. It is time to create a…

Class Action Could Mean Trouble for Insurers

Insurance companies often make misleading claims to teachers and the elderly when pitching expensive insurance products. Often these two groups fall victims to these deceptive sales gimmicks. In a recent development, a certified Class Action against insurer ING Group could be a game changer. This is not the first time ING has had legal difficulties…

Today is the Most Difficult Day to Invest

While markets tumble and pundits howl with fear, there is a proven solution to this madness. Create a globally-diversified, low-cost portfolio that will benefit from the completely normal temporary stress that markets routinely endure. I find it amazing that people continue to have the same reaction whenever markets go south. The tired photos of traders holding…

403(b) on a Card

Teachers finances are intentionally made to be unnecessarily complicated and expensive. This is the result of the toxic combination of conflict driven salespeople combined with mass financial illiteracy. Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack just came out with a great book that reinforces the fact that personal finance does not have to be complicated. In fact, so called…

Desperately Seeking Powerball

2016 is just a few weeks in and I’m already tapping my toe, and feeling a little anxious. No, it’s not the fact that the stock market is off to a rocky start, or that I didn’t win Powerball (I didn’t play). It’s the fact that this is all everyone is talking about. Call it…

Teachers’ Pensions need F.B.I. Protection

Being a former public school teacher for twenty years, I know how God-awful the average 403(b) plan can be. Now comes the not so stunning revelation…the state- run pension plans can be even more diabolical! Rhode Island teachers have called upon both the S.E.C. and F.B.I. to investigate some very serious allegations. Several hedge funds are…

Investment Lessons from Genghis Khan

Teachers and other small investors need to look at the investment landscape as a financial battlefield. Conflicted armies of salespeople, brandishing lawyer-produced camouflage are an imposing enemy. The corpses of educators’ decimated investment portfolios are strewn throughout a fifty-state battlefield. Who better to learn the ways to combat a potent enemy than from the greatest…

The Devil’s Financial Dictionary for Teachers

Teachers are often misled with financial jargon meant to obscure the truth. Here is a quick translation of these ten innocent sounding terms. Pull it out the next time an insurance salesperson tries to sell you the financial equivalent of The Brooklyn Bridge. My inspiration for this post was Jason Zweig’s instant classic, The Devil’s…

Holy, My 403(b) Plan Is Not Free, Batman!

The reason most teachers do not have low-cost index funds in their 403(b) plans is because they are too inexpensive. Financial salespeople have little incentive to sell a product when they will receive a small percentage of a number like 0.10%, the cost of a typical total market index product. On the other hand, provide…