Anthony Isola

Financial Sludge

The opposite of nudge is sludge. Many financial firms sign people up for products they don’t want or need. Compounding their sins, some companies make it very difficult for customers to escape. They sludge them with complicated, confusing and time-consuming paperwork. Take a look at what serial offender Wells Fargo has done. As a way…

Incompetence-Based Investing

Good news! Your so-called financial advisor may not be giving you conflicted advice. Bad news! He may be an IDIOT. The results are in from a survey of 4,000 advisors and their clients located in Canada. The Misguided Beliefs of Financial Advisors confirms something I have suspected for quite a while; the vast majority of people…

It’s Tuesday Again…..When Is My Retirement?

It’s a short work week for most. Make it much shorter in the future by reading these retirement tips. Spend more of your money in retirement before it’s too late. Market Watch How you can avoid retirement boredom. New York Times Your final chance to reverse a Roth IRA conversion. Market Watch What exactly do you…

The Details You Should Never Ignore

Dina here … As our sons started to dip their toes in online consumerism via eBay and Amazon, I realized it was time for an education. Armed with gift cards and trigger-happy index fingers, it was too easy to buy. They lacked the healthy skepticism smart consumers have. They would inadvertently by an accessory to…

YOLO!

Newsflash! Many retirees are not spending ENOUGH in retirement. This flies directly in the face of the “retirement crisis” that is constantly drummed into our brains. We see this on a daily basis. Many clients constantly focus on the threat of running out of money rather than enjoying the fruits of decades of saving and…

Nobody Knows Nothing

Regarding personal finance, most students and their teachers are functionally illiterate. On a global basis, our schools are below average at providing a sound financial education. Source: National Center for Education Statistics According to Financial Education Stalls, Threatening Kids’ Future Economic Health by Annie Nova, CNBC, the facts are damning. More than half of states…

It’s Monday Again…..When Is My Retirement?

With a proper financial plan, normal market corrections should have no effect on the outcome. Read this week’s links and choose knowledge over fear. Is there a way to figure out your advisor’s fees? Wall Street Journal It’s possible making the right social security choice could be worth $1 million. HumbleDollar Employers might not realize…

Serenity Now!!!

Only a psychopath would not be bothered by the Dow falling over 1,000 points in a day. While we cannot stop things like this from happening, we CAN attempt to control how we react to them. During these times, we revert to our primal nature. We just want the pain to stop. Unfortunately this comes…

Disproportionately Important Panic

Investing often entails long periods of boredom interrupted by occasional panic. These moments are rare but their significance is enormous. The stock market rises over time. This does not stop it from temporarily declining 14% annually, on average, and roughly double that every five years or so. These numbers do not represent anything out of the…

It’s Monday Again…..When Is My Retirement?

Patriots and Eagles fans need to make a plan for retirement. So do the people who hate both teams. Enjoy this week’s retirement links. Just what we need, more insurance companies selling indexed annuities. InvestmentNews Skiing could threaten your retirement. MarketWatch Retirement can be like your second childhood. HumbleDollar Some companies can’t compete with Vanguard…