How Will A Bear Market Affect Your Plan?
In this week’s edition of the Ballast Atheneum, I am going to explore a subject no one wants to see but we all must prepare for; Will my portfolio survive a bear market? Fortunately, we can use some of our technology tools, specifically, Monte Carlo analysis to determine how prepared a client is for a […]
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 […]
The Grey Area of Paying Off a Mortgage Early
A key question that soon-to-be retirees often face is whether or not to eliminate a debt before retirement. Generally, we would love to see all our clients enter their retirements debt free. However, there could be some instances where making monthly debt payments is not necessarily a bad thing (i.e., zero-percent financing on a car). […]
The Hidden Benefits of Saving Early in Life
We’re all aware that saving for retirement is not a strong suit for many Americans. There is no end to the alarming statistics regarding our lack of preparedness for when it’s finally time to call it a day. The most recent head-scratcher I came across was a survey done by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and […]
Cash Flow Autopilot
The Ballast Atheneum has focused on many aspects of cash flow planning, including budgeting, retirement savings vs. paying down debt, costs of vehicle ownership, and cash flow planning vs. long-term care. This article shares a case study that we try to create for working clients. We have implemented this Retirement Autopilot for many people and […]
Cash Flow Planning and Long Term Care
One of the most challenging planning areas for us as practitioners is Long Term Care. In principle, it should be easy to universally recommend everyone go out and buy a Long Term Care policy that pays for skilled nursing needs at the end of their life. However, we have found planning in this area to […]
Student Debt Options for Graduates
Although a minority of our clients have student debt, those that do not almost always have children or grandchildren planning on attending college. Costs of college attendance have inflated so fast that we discuss it with parents of newborns. We’re seeing a steady increase of borrowers with six figure debt levels, making student debt repayment […]
The Flexibility of Being Debt-Free
In our previous Atheneum commentaries on debt we’ve covered a myriad of topics including, good vs. bad debt, prioritizing debt payoff, and different mortgage planning strategies. We hope these commentaries have helped shed light on what we consider one of the most important topics in financial planning – debt analysis. Today we discuss what for […]
Early Mortgage Payoff
Although we spend a large majority of our time planning our clients’ investment portfolios, we believe advising on the entire client balance sheet is just as important. On the liability side of the balance sheet, a client’s primary mortgage is often a major talking point. The last decade has allowed homeowners ample opportunity to refinance […]
Prioritizing Debt Payoff
Key Takeaways: In our first Atheneum article on debt, Brian discussed the difference between good and bad debts. He defined good debts as those that will appreciate or help grow your net worth over time, such as mortgage, education, and business investment. This is great advice for anyone considering taking on new debt. Unfortunately, we don’t […]
When is Debt OK and When is it Not?
An amount of money borrowed by one party from another – the basic definition of debt sounds neither good nor bad and leaves many wondering – how do I determine if taking on debt is worth the risk? Although the answer is not always crystal clear, most debts can be defined as either positive or […]
Planning for RMDs
The vast majority of people save the bulk of their retirement funds in qualified retirement accounts (401ks, 403bs, etc.) and IRAs. Through regular saving and long-term growth of the investments inside these accounts, a typical account holder hopes to develop some type of an income stream during their retirement years. According to the US Census […]
