Finding the Best Order for Funding Retirement

Ballast team

With a task as important as funding your retirement, determining which accounts to fund and in what order should not be taken lightly.  Whether it’s a company plan, individual retirement account or taxable account, there are a lot of ways to save for retirement.  So how do you decide where to put each dollar you […]

Testing the Challenges of a Long Retirement

We often joke that our job was created because of increasing life expectancies and pensions seldom being offered.  Obviously, finance and investing has become more complicated and there are an ever-increasing number of investment vehicles and planning strategies we help our clients choose between.  We also know there is great value placed in our ability […]

Insight Into Fixed Income + Timing of Social Security

When entering retirement, the question of how to structure income can be the most influential factor in determining a family’s long-term financial well-being.  Several factors such as income source, inflation, and sequence of returns present risks and opportunities for retirees.  Today’s Atheneum discusses how we might explore retirement income with John and Jane Smith.  They […]

Is the Recent Climb in Interest Rates a Real Threat?

If you pay as close attention to mortgage rates as we do, you may have noticed a fairly significant move higher over the last few months.  In fact, 30-year mortgage rates have risen in nine of the past eleven weeks, up 41 basis points from a low of 2.93 percent earlier this year, to the […]