Our Commentary

“Become a Banker, Save the World” – Feburary 20, 2011 Stewart H. Welch III, CFP, AEP Founder, The Welch Group, LLC Feburary 20, 2011 How would you like to become a banker and help save the world?  It used to be that we thought of bank CEO’s as pretty smart people.  But after the financial […]

  One of my associates recently told me of two instances where her family had been a victim of fraud. This surprised me because she and her husband are very astute and seemed to me unlikely to fall for any scam. Here’s her story: In her first instance, her husband sold some high-end electronic to a buyer […]

  June marks the mid-point in the year and is a good time to pause and do some income tax planning for 2011. Step one is to decide what to do with your income tax refund if you are one of the more than fifty-seven million taxpayers receiving a refund. The average tax refund this year is […]

  Twenty-five years ago a young lady came into my office in tears and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her very successful salesman husband had recently passed away of a heart attack and while he left behind a $1 million life insurance policy, he also left her in financial peril because he made the […]

  Over the past thirty years I’ve had an opportunity to work with hundreds of couples regarding their personal finances. While most of these couples were not financial experts they were wise enough to know they needed professional advice. Research suggests that only a small percentage of people seek professional help regarding mapping out an effective retirement […]

  Mortgage interest rates continue to hang around historical lows with a thirty-year loan under 5% and a 15-year loan under 4%. In addition to low mortgage rates, you receive a deduction for your interest payments from the federal government and, in many cases, the state as well. For example, if you have a 4.5% interest rate […]

  A restaurateur friend of mine recently opened a new restaurant in North Shelby County. When I asked him how it was going he was very excited and especially pleased with the friendliness of the customers that frequent his restaurant. His biggest problem? “Stewart, it is nearly impossible to find people who are willing to work,” he told […]

  I was recently visiting with a client who’s heading for a European dream vacation in a couple of weeks. It got me thinking about how to make certain the dream doesn’t turn into a nightmare. Here are my top 10 tips for a great trip overseas: Leave your itinerary and copies of your passport with a […]

  April is kick-off month for the wedding season…a time when many young folks commit to each other ‘until death do us part’. Well, about half of the time, it’s not death that does the parting, but rather divorce. Why is it that so many marriages fail and is there anything that young couples can do to […]

  Recently, Lawrence, a reader from Canada, asked about the advisability of borrowing money to buy an electric car. Lawrence read one of my books where I explain the debt rule: Don’t borrow money to buy a depreciating asset. However he reasoned that the thousands that he would save on gasoline would make it worthwhile. This got me […]