Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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All of us hope to live long, healthy lives, so we do what we can to take care of ourselves through proper diet, exercise and avoiding unhealthy activities. However, none of us can predict our future, so it pays to be prepared for anything – including a serious physical illness or the onset of some type of mental incapacity, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Of course, you may never face these infirmities, but you should be aware that they could upset your long-term financial strategy and place considerable stress on your loved ones. What steps can...
Once you’re retired and your children are grown, they are likely “off the books,” as far as your financial responsibility for them is concerned. Yet, you’re probably still prepared to do anything to help them – but are they ready to take care of you if the need arises? Consider this: almost half of retirees say that the ideal role in retirement is providing support to family and other loved ones, according to the Edward Jones/Age Wave study titled Four Pillars of the New Retirement: What a Difference a Year Makes – and a slightly earlier ver...
It’s been called the “Great Resignation” – the large number of Americans voluntarily leaving their jobs. If you plan to be part of it (ideally with another source of employment lined up), you’ll need to make the financial moves necessary to keep mak- ing progress toward your long-term goals. Here’s some background: After a year in which the pandemic caused so many people to lose their jobs, the economy is opening back up, but the “quit rate” – the number of jobs people have voluntarily left – has been breaking records. Some economists say this...
If you’re a grandparent, you don’t need Grandparents Day, observed on Sept. 12, to remind you of the joys of having grandchildren. Yet, you might want to use this day as an opportunity to think about ways to help provide for your grandchildren’s future. The type of gift or support you provide will be different at various stages of your grandchildren’s lives. Here are a few suggestions: When they’re born... • Open a 529 plan. It’s never too early to start saving for college or other types of advanced education. To help your grandchildren...
Like most people, you may have several financial goals. But can you reach them all? It would be simple if you had great wealth. But you’ll likely need to rank your goals in terms of their importance to your life and then follow appropriate strategies to achieve them. By doing so, you may end up getting pretty close to covering each of your objectives, in one way or another. When prioritizing your goals, consider following this process: • Identify goals as “must have” or “nice to have.” Making sure you don’t outlive your resources is a must-hav...
If you’ve heard of 529 plans, you might think they can only be used to help pay for college. And you wouldn’t be alone: Less than one-third of adults properly identified that a 529 plan can be used for more than just higher education, according to a survey by Morning Consult and Edward Jones. But what are these other expenses? Before we get to them, let’s review the main benefits of 529 plans. Contribution limits are high and earnings can grow tax-free if withdrawals are used for qualified education expenses such as tuition and room and board...
If you’ve had an IRA and a 401many years, you may occasionally ask yourself some questions: “Am I contributing enough?” “Am I still funding these accounts with the right mix of investments for my goals and risk tolerance?” But here’s one inquiry you might be overlooking: “Have I used the correct beneficiary designations?” And the answer you get is important. It wouldn’t be surprising if you haven’t thought much about the beneficiary designation – after all, it was just something you once signed, possibly a long time ago. Is it really that big...
If you’re extremely busy with your career and family and you’ve accumulated a fair amount of assets, you might be concerned about a variety of issues related to financial management and legacy planning. Specifically, you might think you don’t have the time or expertise to deal with these matters effectively. If this is the case, you might want to consider using a trust company. You might think you need to have a large estate or millions of dollars to benefit from working with a trust company, but that’s not the case. And if you’re not famil...
If you’re in the early stages of your career, you’re probably not thinking much about retirement. Nonetheless, it’s never too soon to start preparing for it, as time may be your most valuable asset. So, you may want to consider retirement savings vehicles, one of which is an IRA. Depend-ing on your income, you might have the choice between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. Which is better for you? There’s no one correct answer for every-one. But the more you know about the two IRAs, the more confident you’ll be when choosing one First of...
You may have heard that it’s important to take the emotions out of investing. But is this true for all emotions? Certainly, some emotions can potentially harm your investment success. Consider fear. If the financial markets are going through a down period – which is actually a normal part of the investment landscape – you might be so afraid of sustaining losses that you sell even the investments that have good prospects and are suitable for your needs. Greed is another negative emotion. When the financial markets are rising, you might be so mo...
Here’s something to think about:You could spend two, or even three, decades in retirement. To meet your income needs for all those years, you’ll generally need a sizable amount of retirement assets. How will Social Security fit into the picture? For most people, Social Security won’t be enough to cover the cost of living in retirement. Nonetheless, Social Security benefits are still valuable, so you’ll want to do whatever you can to maximize them. Your first move is to determine when you should start taking Social Security. You can begin c...
Now that we’ve gained at least some space from the COVID-19 pandemic, summer travel is heating up. While you might be eager to hit the road, you won’t want your investments to take a vacation – you need them to work hard for you consistently. But how can you make this happen? Here are some ideas: • Know your destination. “If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” This bit of wisdom, paraphrased from the classic children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, may be appropriate for, say, hikers ex...
If you’re a dad, you may be in line to get some nice gifts on Father’s Day. But your greatest gift may be your ability to help your children. One way of doing that is to get them started in the world of investing – and making a few investments on their behalf. Here are three possibilities: • 529 plan – If you invest in a 529 education savings plan, your earnings can grow federally tax-free, provided the money is used for qualified educational expenses. (Withdrawals not used for these expenses will generally incur taxes and penalties on invest...
June is Effective Communication Month. And it’s a good idea to recognize the importance of good communications, because it plays a role in almost every aspect of living – including your finances. You’ll want to clearly communicate your financial goals to your loved ones – and you’ll want to hear theirs, too. Let’s look at some of the communications you might have with family members: • Your spouse – You and your spouse may have different thoughts about a range of financial topics – how much to save, how much to spend, the level of debt wit...
If you have children or grandchildren, you may already be somewhat familiar with the 529 plan, a popular education savings vehicle. But you may not have kept up with some recent changes in the plan’s capabilities and in the educational environment in which the plan might be used. Let’s start with the learning environment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities switched to online classes, or at least to a hybrid of in-person and online. And even before the pandemic, many schools offered remote classes, though obviously not to...
The COVID-19 pandemic may have unsettled many aspects of your life – including your financial situation. Even if your employment and earnings were not directly affected, you might have concerns about whether you’ve been making the right investment moves in such a stressful environment. The pandemic is, hopefully, just a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but different events can rattle financial markets. And changes in your own life also can affect your plans. To prepare yourself for whatever tomorrow may hold, you may want to get some pro...
Is homeownership a goal of yours? It does offer some benefits, in addition to meeting your basic need for shelter. The equity you build in your home can be a valuable financial asset, and you may get to deduct your interest payments on your taxes. But if you’re a first-time home- buyer, what steps should you take? First, make sure the time is right for you in terms of your personal and financial situations. For example, are you fairly con- fident that your employment is stable and that your earnings won’t decline? Of course, external eve...
Mother’s Day has almost arrived. As an adult, you can fully appreciate all your mother has done for you, so, on this occasion, you may be happy to give Mom flowers, candy, jewelry or something similar. But Mother’s Day is here and then it’s gone. Is there a longer-term gift that can make a real difference in your mother’s life? Actually, there is – the gift of knowledge for her financial future. Specifically, there are two key areas in which you may be able to provide valuable help to your mother: long-term care and estate planning. But don’t...
What’s the biggest financial mistake you can make? Choosing the wrong investments? Waiting too long to save for retirement? Underestimating the costs of retirement? All these are reasonable answers, but the biggest mistake you might make is not looking at your financial pic- ture holistically – that is, not bringing into the picture all the elements of yourself. Let’s consider some of them: • Your views on helping your family – Your decisions about helping your family are clearly going to be a major part of your financial strategy – and this is...
On April 22, we observe Earth Day, an occasion that has inspired millions of people over the decades to take steps to clean up our world. Of course, your physical surroundings are important, but you also operate in other “ecosystems” – social, cultural and political. And you’ll need to consider your investment environment, too. How can you improve it? Here are a few suggestions: • Avoid “toxic” investment strategies. The dangers of pollution helped drive the creation of Earth Day. As an investor, you also need to watch out for “toxins” – partic...
You might contribute to your IRA for decades to help pay for your retirement. But if you don’t need all the money, you may want to leave what’s left to your children or grandchildren. However, if you want to ensure they get the most from this inheritance, you’ll need to do some planning. Here’s a little background: Up until a couple of years ago, when you left the proceeds of your IRA to your beneficiaries, they could choose to “stretch” required withdrawals over a long period, based on their life expectancies. These required withdrawals...
The COVID-19 pandemic may end up changing our lives in some significant ways. To cite one example, it’s likely we’ll see a lot more people continue to work remotely, now that they’ve seen the effectiveness of tools such as video-conferencing. Education, too, may be forever changed in some ways. Perhaps just as important, though, is how many people may now think more about the future – including how they invest.If you work with a financial professional, you may have connected with this individual over the past several months through a videoco...
If you’re planning to retire in just a few years, you may be getting excited about this next phase of your life. However, your ability to enjoy retirement fully will depend, at least partially, on the resources you can draw from your investment portfolio. So, while you still have time to act, ask yourself if you’re comfortable with your portfolio’s risk level. Your relationship with risk can change noticeably over time. When you started saving for retirement, you may have been willing to take on more investment risk, which translated into a rel...
If you own a small business, you typically don’t get a lot of recognition – so you may be pleased to learn that March 29 is National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. You might not necessarily think of your business as a “Mom and Pop” operation, but it certainly contributes to the well-being of your family now, and possibly to that of future generations, too – if you make the right moves. Depending on the nature of your business, you may have spent the past several months more concerned about today than tomorrow, given the serious economic...
In just a few days, we will experience the vernal equinox – one of the two times in the year when the sun is exactly above the equator. Apart from this astronomical anomaly, though, the equinox is mostly known as the beginning of spring – a fresh beginning and the time to spruce things up. This year, as you tidy up your home and surroundings, why not also consider some financial spring cleaning? Here are a few ideas for getting your financial house in order: • “De-clutter” your portfolio Over the years, many of us tend to pick up duplicate item...
