Why do we feel the need to compare ourselves to others? The obvious answer is that we feel it provides us a “benchmark” to formulate future choices and behaviors. But why do we allow others to drive our actions? Why not establish our own internal benchmarks and be content with our ability or inability to […]
The taxman keeps coming… A couple of years ago, congress stealthily changed the law for most owners of retirement plans. Under the old law, if you left your IRA to a person, generally, they were allowed to withdraw the money ‘slowly’ over their life expectancy (popularly called a Stretch IRA). For most people, this meant […]
In our last SquareOne blog, What’s The Deal With Emergency Funds? we discussed what an emergency fund is and what it is not, but you might be wondering how much cash you should have set aside. If you crack open a personal finance textbook, the most common answer you will see is “three to six months […]
According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal government will offer a revised PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loan program tailored specifically to small business owners with less than 20 employees. The goal is to focus on access to PPP loans for small companies, including minority-owned businesses and businesses within underserved communities that may not have […]
Financial Fraud is rampant and sophisticated. In the past six months, I know of five cases close to home where people were almost victims of financial fraud. An overview of some of the types of financial fraud shows just how sophisticated and widespread the attacks are. Some cases involve a scammer hacking into a person’s email. […]
Even with modern-day family dynamics, the role of a “financial leader” in a household typically still falls on one person. While most leaders in their pre-retiree years rightly focus on accumulating assets and risk management strategies for protection, a new set of challenges are introduced as one crosses the finish line and enters retirement. These […]
Background In March of 2020, COVID-19 became a wide-spread news story that sent the stock market down by more than 30% in what most investors thought was the beginning of a disastrous year. But it managed not only to rebound but set new highs. As we begin 2021, the stock market continues to set new […]
Planning for retirement is challenging enough without making a big mistake. It takes a lot of money for most people if they want to maintain a retirement lifestyle like what they had while they were working. Here are three common assumptions many people make that are often incorrect and can be devastating to your retirement plans: […]
Forty-six-year-old Tony Hsieh was the CEO of Zappos, the popular online shoe and clothing company that became famous for its ‘no-shipping costs’ service strategy. Tony had a net worth estimated at $840 million and was an extremely bright individual. Unfortunately, he passed away from burn injuries sustained in a house fire in November of last […]
An unfortunate reality today is the staggering amount of people living paycheck to paycheck without a proper emergency cash reserve, or safety net, to get them through times of financial instability. A recent CNBC article stated that since the Covid-19 pandemic began, approximately 63% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and approximately 80% of Americans […]