DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
Everyone has similar, yet distinct, financial planning needs regarding their families’ financial futures. While more wealthy people (think millions of dollars) have greater complexity to their financial affairs (caused largely by our incredibly convoluted U.S. personal tax codes), everyone needs sophisticated financial lifecycle planning. Whether wealthy or not yet wealthy, families need a personalized way […]
Yes, it can matter significantly how a financial advisor is paid. The heart of the compensation issue is an advisor’s potential “conflict of interest” with respect to payments from third parties. Does third party compensation change the quality of the recommendations that the advisers make? If an advisor works on sales commissions or accepts other […]
CLICK HERE TO READ THE SKILLED INVESTOR’s OTHER ARTICLES ABOUT THESE “10 FINANCIAL PLANNING STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.” Investors with different levels of risk tolerance are more satisfied with investment strategies that are better aligned with their risk preferences. Find Family Financial Planning Software Differences in investors’ personal risk tolerances mean that more risk-averse […]
Part 3 of the The Never-Do List – 22 Good Ways to Avoid Financial Advisor and Investment Counselor Frauds and Scams This article discusses things that you should “never do” with a financial planner or investment advisor, and it covers unsolicited advice, sales pressure, and account decision-making discretion. You should never do certain things with […]
Part 2 of the The Never-Do List – 22 Good Ways to Avoid Financial Advisor and Investment Counselor Frauds and Scams This article discusses things that you should “never do†with a financial planner or investment advisor, and it covers fees, payments, and proprietary investments. You should never do certain things with a financial planning […]
Part 1 of the The Never-Do List – 22 Good Ways to Avoid Financial Advisor and Investment Counselor Frauds and Scams This article discusses things that you should “never do†with a financial planner or investment advisor, and it covers adviser selection, contracts, signatures, and ownership title of your assets. You should never do certain […]
Avoiding financial advisor and investment counselor frauds and scams – Overview The best way to avoid being defrauded or scammed by a financial or investment advisor is to investigate carefully several different advisers before hiring one of them. If you carefully choose a financial adviser or investment counselor, you have a far greater chance of […]
Do-It-Yourself Financial Planning – Earned income drives the personal finances of most people The ability to project your various income sources automatically over your lifetime is one of the first steps in creating a useful do-it-yourself personal financial plan. Whether from wages and salary or from self-employment, personal earned income drives the lifetime finances of […]
< <– Go to Part 4 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Conclusion Find Home Financial Planning Software This article concludes our series on the greatest personal finance story of the past thirty years. In this article, we discuss whether the dramatic growth in equity value of the financial services […]
< <– Go to Part 3 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 4 Find Home Financial Planning Software What does it mean to individual investors that the financial services industry is now about 21% of S&P 500 market capitalization? (For a graph of the relative percentage shares of various […]
< <– Go to Part 2 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 3 Discover Family Financial Planning Software There is no reason to believe that industry self-regulation or governmental regulation will ever fix these problems. Only those individuals who become wise enough to be proactive and seek out lower […]
The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 1 What could the biggest personal finance story of three decades be? The growth of mutual funds and ETFs? Nope. The dot com boom and bust? Nope. Vanishing pensions? Nope. The not-so-high quality of mortgage bonds? Nope. A 0% personal savings rate nationally? […]
Introduction: Roth IRA Contributions versus Traditional IRA Contributions for Renters In a series of articles, The Skilled Investor compares different lifetime financial planning projections for Fran and Fred Frugal to illustrate the relative value of adopting different financial planning strategies. Fran and Fred, both ages 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined […]
Pre-retirement savings rates for renters – with and without investment cost improvements Improving on Fran and Fred’s lifetime financial plan through lower investment costs Fran and Fred Frugal, both age 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined annual earned income. They want to understand how valuable different personal finance strategies could be […]
Retirement savings needs of renters prior to any financial planning improvements Starting to plan with a non-optimal baseline projection Fran and Fred Frugal, both age 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined annual earned income. They want to understand how valuable different personal finance strategies could be to their lifetime finances and […]
Can you really get free and objective investment advice, when you pay investment sales loads? Excessive investment expenses are one of the most significant barriers to your family’s lifelong financial security. Excessive investment costs are a plague on your personal financial planning. While financial services industry sales people tell you that you need to pay […]
Pay Lower Investment Expenses To Get Higher Investment Returns – Part 1 Excessive investment costs are a plague on your personal financial planning. Excessive investment expenses are one of the most significant barriers to lifelong family financial security. While financial services industry sales people tell you that you need to pay more to get more, […]
As a financial decision tool, VeriPlan becomes increasingly valuable with the passage of time Summary: While VeriPlan is an genuine bargain because of its low cost, it is an even greater bargain, when you consider that VeriPlan has no built-in obsolescence and that it can be used productively for years. We have engineered VeriPlan, so […]
For Individual Investors Risk-Free Investment Money Is Fantasy Money Securities with low investment risk and high investment returns are just fantasies. No “risk-free” investment money is consistently and reliably available to individuals. Luck dominates skill in the securities markets. Clever investment selection is vastly over-hyped, and only the promoters tend to benefit. On average over […]
Your personal earnings, expenditures, and savings are the most important determinants of your family’s long-term financial wealth Summary: How much you earn, spend, and save are by far the most dominant determinants of your long-term financial well-being. Self-control in your decision-making regarding consumption is far more important than clever investing. Expenditure control works, while attempts […]