The worrisome cost of medical care for the elderly by Becky Giles
During the last few weeks I’ve been celebrating my mother’s life and choosing to remember all the good times before the Alzheimer’s diagnosis took many things from her. My mom spent the last five years of her life living in care facilities. There were many difficult days for my mom [...]
Blog post: Least common denominator by Ron Finke
In the fourth chapter of Saint Peter’s first letter, he urges believers to concentrate on loving each other properly because love covers a multitude of sins. God is still working on me in that regard and I am thankful about that. But in the financial world, there is a principle [...]
Don’t just ride along with the market by Luke Davis
Recently I attended the 2018 LINC Conference held by TD Ameritrade. At the event, a wealth of information was shared about the future of the investment management industry. One of the most valuable bits of insight I received was from a recent survey conducted by Dimensional Fund Advisors. The survey [...]
Aaron addresses recent market declines
The water cooler topic of the week has probably been the dramatic movements downward in the stock market. It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure. While scary, we hope to provide proper perspective. Market volatility has been historically low now for the better part of the past year. Not [...]
Look at health savings account options by Aaron Pickert
Health savings accounts (HSA) have become very popular in the last few years. An HSA account is defined as a tax‐advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high‐deductible health plan (HDHP). The money contributed to this account is not subject to [...]
Know the ups, downs of bonds by Ron Finke
Last week’s column was a primer on Bonds. Now let’s take a closer look at how one can lose money owning bonds when interest rates rise. Aren’t bonds supposed to be safer than stocks? First, what does the term “safe” mean? Most people equate financial risk or safety with stability [...]
Are bonds the best option? by Ron Finke
Investors talk about bonds as a financial holding and most own some. But I find few people really understand them. Why are they are considered safer than stocks? Why at times might they not be as safe as thought?Within the investment realm, one can only choose among four basic [...]
Financial parenting is a balancing act by Luke Davis
As a father of boys ages 5 and 1, I am the first to admit, I’m no parenting expert. In fact, there are days when I feel like a total parenting failure. But, I do my best, and seek wise counsel when possible. Since parenting is being discussed in my [...]
Ron Finke: Where best to invest in the year ahead?
Let’s take quick inventory of 2017 investing, then discuss what makes sense in this stage of the current strong bull market. Here are some calendar year results by major indexes and sectors: NASDAQ 100 9% Dow Jones Ind. 1% S&P [...]
Aaron Pickert: Many positive factors heading into the new year
Everyone loves a good forecast. Problem is they are hard to come by -- good forecasts. Like the broken clock, they are likely to be right twice a day. In reality, a positive market forecast has about a 70 percent chance of being right on the overall direction. In most [...]