Category: Family

Posted on

Should You Use a Financial Planner or an Investment Adviser?

couple-meeting-financial-advisor-916x516From 1998 to 2013, the number of Fortune 500 companies offering pensions to their employees fell from 60% to 24%, according to The Washington Post. With the decline of unionism and loss of employee bargaining power, corporate managements have aggressively replaced pensions with profit-sharing plans, essentially transferring the risk of retirement planning and investment management to their employees. It is possible that the Social Security program will be similarly transformed, making retirees responsible for investing funds through private accounts. However, the truth is that few people are prepared to manage their own retirement funds – as Howard Gold writes in MarketWatch, “Most investors have no idea of what they’re doing.”
 
In the last half-century, the financial markets have become increasingly complex with new products, new markets, and changing tax laws. Technology makes it possible for investors to remain informed 24-7 about events that may affect their stock positions and to enter trades from the comfort of their home. At the same time, they must compete with robo-trading programs that react to news and market activity faster than any human can. As a consequence, according to Rosalind Resnick writing in Entrepreneur, even people capable of managing their own capital should carefully consider whether a go-it-alone approach to investing makes sense.
 
Whether due to a lack of training, interest, or time, many individuals are turning to professional advisors to help them navigate the perilous waters of personal finance. In some cases, advice covers the entire spectrum of financial services, ranging from budgeting, to creating specialized trusts and estate plans. In others, the consultant’s primary responsibility is limited to a specific need, such as managing a portfolio of investments or developing effective tax strategies.
 
Seeking and finding the perfect advisor is not always easy, especially in an industry filled with confusing acronyms. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), there were more than 160 different professional designations. In addition, terms such as financial analyst, financial advisor, financial consultant, and wealth manager are generic titles and can be used by anyone without registering with securities regulators or meeting educational or experience qualifications. To add further confusion, many consultants add multiple titles and designations to their resumes, making it difficult to determine which services they actually provide.

Do You Need Financial Planning Advice or Portfolio Management Services?

While the terms “financial planning” and “investment advice” are often used interchangeably, they refer to different skill sets. As a consequence, two of the more popular designations – certified financial planner (CFP) and registered investment advisor (RIA) – are regulated under different authorities.
 
Read more . . .

Posted on

10 Best U.S. Cities to Live Without a Car

biketoworkAccording to the 2015 edition of AAA’s Your Driving Costs, the average annual cost to own and operate a vehicle in the U.S. is $8,698. This includes fuel, maintenance, tires, auto insurance, license and registration fees, taxes, depreciation and finance charges – but not the cost of vehicle storage or parking your car at a meter.
 
Even a small sedan like a Honda Civic or Ford Focus can set you back $7,606 annually, while a large vehicle like a Ford Explorer or a Jeep Grand Cherokee has a yearly expense of $11,931. The cost of owning and operating a single car can exceed the monthly food costs for a family of four, while operating two cars in a family can generate costs greater than the average mortgage payment in the United States.

Benefits of Car-Free Living

Aside from the considerable monetary savings of being automobile-free, there are many other advantages:

Less Environmental Pollution

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, operating automobiles is the single greatest cause of air pollution. Pollution results from the combustion process and spills hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. According to the EPA, carbon dioxide is considered the primary greenhouse gas contributor to recent climate change. Automobiles are also major causes of of smog and acid rain.

Increased Personal Safety

According to U.S. Census data, there are approximately 11 million automobile accidents each year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that this results in more than 30,000 deaths, 2.3 million injuries, and, according to a separate report by the NHTSA, an almost $1 trillion cost of productivity and loss of life. Living without a car dramatically reduces the likelihood of death or injury related to cars, as pedestrian deaths are far more unlikely than those of car drivers or passengers.

Better Health

Without an automobile, people increase the time and distance they walk each day when commuting to and from work or when shopping. Health authorities from the American Heart Association to the Arthritis Foundation recommend daily walking as the key to long-term health. The benefits can include weight loss, longer life, better sleep, and reduced Alzheimer’s risk.

Less Stress

MIT’s Sensible City Lab and automaker Audi did a study on driving and learned that stress levels for driving in city traffic and skydiving from an airplane for the first time were about the same. Karl Greco, one of the project leaders, claims, “Certain driving situations can be one of the most stressful activities in our lives.”
 
A 2014 article in TIME magazine noted several studies about drivers who commute more than 10 miles each way to work and the deleterious effects upon their mental and physical health. John Casada, a psychiatrist who specializes in anger issues, says, “Sitting in traffic all boxed up in your car, running late and feeling powerless to improve your situation, is a perfect recipe for stress… As our society spends more time commuting amid more and more traffic, it’s no surprise that rates of aggressive driving and road rage are on the rise as well.”
 
Read more . . .

Posted on

5 Steps to Better Problem Solving

problem-solving1Modern humans are the greatest problem solvers the world has ever seen. While our predecessors developed primitive tools to better live in their environments, humans are the first to develop the mental acuity necessary to transform their living space. As a consequence, we thrive around the world, altering hostile, barren desert lands and freezing climates into hospitable habitats with growing populations.
 
Of course, problem-solving abilities vary considerably from one individual to another – some of us excel in resolving overarching dilemmas, while others are more adept at making basic day-to-day decisions. Researchers at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan believe that difficulty solving problems tends to stem from the following two issues:

Inaccuracy in Reading

Incorrect interpretation of a problem can stem from perceiving it without concentrating on its meaning. It can also result from reading unfamiliar words, overlooking important facts, and starting to address it prematurely. Simply stated, many people have difficulty framing a problem accurately at first and consequently develop inadequate or incorrect solutions.

Inaccuracy in Thinking

Ancients Greeks called the ability to properly reason “logic.” Today, we sometimes refer to this ability as “pragmatism”—a system of thinking to determine meaning, truth, or value. Poor decisions result from a lack of clarity so that irrelevant information is considered in the problem-solving process. We sometimes pursue solutions that do not meet our intended goals, or we fail to break complex problems into understandable parts when time constraints force us into premature decisions.
 
Each of us makes decisions every day that affect our happiness, careers, and satisfaction with life. By learning and practicing the skills of proven problem solvers—and following the necessary steps— you can boost your self-esteem, reduce interpersonal conflicts, and lessen overall stress.
 
Read more . . .

Posted on

Vaccination Debate: Should Immunizations Be Mandatory for Children

Baby-Vaccines-175058_LChildhood immunizations have been controversial for centuries. To many, the idea that protection or immunity can be gained by deliberate exposure to a disease is counter-intuitive. That unease, coupled with the possibility that a child might have an allergic reaction to a vaccine’s ingredients, is enough to cause many parents to question the wisdom of inoculation.
 
Anti-vaccination sentiment began early, even prior to Dr. Edward Jenner’s creation of the first smallpox vaccine in 1796. In Boston in 1721, Reverend Edmund Massey published a paper titled “The Dangerous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation,” which argued that diseases were sent by God to punish evildoers and that attempts to prevent them, therefore, were sinful.
 
By the late 1800s, anti-vaccine movements, present in both Great Britain and the United States, were active. The Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded in 1879, and the protest against vaccinations continues today. Ironically, the movement expanded even as the number of smallpox outbreaks was reduced because of inoculation.
 
By 1900, many states—including New York, Massachusetts, California, and Pennsylvania—passed laws requiring vaccinations for any children attending public schools. Now, this is required by all 50 states—though all do provide some form of medical, religious, or philosophical exemption. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that states have the right to enforce compulsory vaccination laws, a ruling subsequently confirmed in 1922 and most recently in 2014.
 
Despite the opposition, vaccines for smallpox, rabies, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella were in use by the 1970s. In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control estimated that vaccinations had prevented more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children since 1994.

The Andrew Wakefield Study

The controversy over mandatory vaccinations for children has intensified since the publication of a study in The Lancet in 1997 by British former physician Andrew Wakefield linking the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) immunization to autism.

Claims Within the Study

Wakefield’s study involved 12 patients treated at a London hospital. He and his colleagues reported that all 12 children had intestinal abnormalities and development regression beginning one to fourteen days after the MMR vaccination. The study went on to suggest that the vaccine caused a gastrointestinal syndrome in susceptible children that triggered autism.
 
Recognizing the profitability of a public controversy – fueled by all parents’ desire to protect their children – the popular press and fringe-favoring talk show hosts in the UK and U.S. immediately fanned the flames of public reaction and spread news of the study far and wide. According to a Salon article, U.S. newspapers mentioned the link 400 times in 2001 and more than 3,000 times in 2009 – and there were five times the number of television evening news stories on the link in 2010 than in 2001. As a consequence, vaccination rates in Great Britain decreased significantly.
 
Read more . . .