Judging from the headlines, California is on the cusp of collapse. The state of California certainly has a sizable budget gap, just like they do every year. There are also a number of people leaving the state to escape the taxes and companies that are fleeing regulation. The news coverage leaves little doubt that California faces a grim future. Yet, the state somehow continues to function and keep millions of its residents. The budget problem is the latest crisis. However, budget shortfalls are a problem that other states face every year and hundreds of cities and countries across the nation also face. The current problems are most likely worsened by the impact of the deep recession. Unemployment in the state has decreased the amount of income taxes collected at the same time the governmen...

When Facebook sold stock to the public, a number of millionaires and a few billionaires were minted in the initial public offering. While others debate whether the stock is worth the price investors are paying, we can look at the IPO for lessons that apply to our financial situations and find ways to make our retirement planning more comfortable. Facebook’s founders are young and rich, the perfect overnight success stories. However, the reality is that they didn’t acquire their wealth overnight. Facebook is a social networking site that was launched in early 2004. Overnight success and billion-dollar fortunes took eight years to accumulate. Lesson #1: don’t anticipate overnight success Granted, eight years is pretty fast, but it shows that hard work and at least some amount of ti...

Many people went to work this week dreaming of the day that they could retire and go golfing more often. While golf may not be for you, there are an estimated 26 million Americans who regularly hit the links. What was once considered a sport for the rich businessman has now become a game that is enjoyed by anyone. The same can also be said of many country clubs – what was once viewed as a playground for the rich is now often surprisingly affordable and could even be a way for golf-addicted retirees to save money. According to a recent news story, overall membership at the nation’s country clubs has dropped by as much as 30 percent at some clubs since 2008. This could an opportunity for you to join. Dozens of clubs facing cash shortages or foreclosure have closed. Others, trying to avoi...

It often takes a significant amount of money to make your retirement dreams come true. Some retirees let their dreams slip away if the funds aren’t readily available or if they are concerned that their money won’t last through their retirement. Others use smart financing tools to turn their dreams into realities, just as they used smart financing to pursue the American Dream while they were working. You may have worked many years and planned to tour the country in your own RV after you stopped working. RV loans are available from major banks. These loans carry high interest rates though, some more than 7 percent, and of course require monthly payments in almost all cases. How a reverse mortgage is different from a traditional loan A reverse mortgage could also be used to fund an RV. Mo...

Bloomberg recently published an article called “The Worst Deal in Mutual Funds Faces a Reckoning.” The article begins, “Imagine an investment that is guaranteed — at least initially — to lose you money. Such an investment was once quite common and still exists: the front-loaded mutual fund. To buy into such funds, investors pay as much as 5.75 percent of their initial investment in a load charge. That $40,000 you wanted to invest? It instantly shrinks by $2,300.” What is a “load fund”? Load funds have long been a staple of the financial planning industry. The rationale to support the immediate loss is that the planner deserves to be compensated for their advice. The truth is that they receive trailing commissions for as long as you hold your funds, and that ...

We are living, many believe, through an unprecedented real estate crash. Those who believe that may also think that the crash was caused by easy mortgage financing which allowed people to buy homes they couldn’t afford. Bloomberg recently posted an article showing that this time is not really different and our grandparents or great-grandparents also suffered through their version of the housing crash. “Not long after the economic crisis began, the president’s landmark Conference on Home Ownership reported that ‘down payments of 10 percent, 5 percent, and even nothing down’ had become common practice in the home-mortgage market. Reliance on second mortgages and novel financing terms, the report noted, were also widespread,” the recent Bloomberg article began. Then th...

In a recent editorial, the San Diego Union-Tribune commented on the state’s budget process, which it described as dysfunctional. The Union-Tribune editorialbegan, “It’s become a pattern in California. An exhausted Legislature finally completes work on a tardy state budget. Soon afterward, it becomes obvious the budget is a farce stitched together with funny numbers and delusional assumptions.” These words could just as easily describe the pattern for retirement planning that all too many individuals rely upon. People near the end of their careers are exhausted from years of work and the demands of raising a family. Retirement is often neglected while families are young because their limited resources are directed towards more immediate needs and the rewards of children. Realizing t...

Morroco is a beautiful city to travel There was a time when the dollar was king. That meant travel was affordable to many parts of the world. A problem was that travel was less convenient for many people then. Another problem was that many people just didn’t have the time or money for an overseas vacation, no matter how strong the dollar was. Now that you are retired, time may not be a problem. Money may be easier to find now that your family is off on their own, and if not a reverse mortgage could provide the funds for your trip of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the long-term decline in the dollar has made many cities, especially in Europe, very expensive. There are still some great travel bargains in the world. According to a report on CNN, a steak dinner in Buenos Aires with wine costs le...

In the most of March Madness, a smaller crowd gathered in Manhattan to watch the USA Memory Championship. The winner set a world record by memorizing 303 random numbers in five minutes. The old record was a mere 248 numbers in five minutes, which the Memory Champ himself set. The Memory Championship competition required competitors to recall random information about 99 people they were introduced to, including their names and faces. The contestants also memorized 50 lines of an unpublished poem and a list of 200 random words. The winner told CNN, “It’s all tricks. I don’t have a good memory naturally. It’s something I learned and taught myself.” Many seniors believe that memory loss is a natural part of aging. To some degree it it, but the Mayo Clinic offers s...

Traditionally speaking, retirement has included leisure and a slow, relaxed pace of living.  Fishing or golfing every day after sleeping in is a common image of what life in retirement will be like for many. Yet after working 50 years to be able to reach that dream, many senior citizens discover that they are bored. It turns out that the human brain is not really suited to a life of leisure in many cases. A recent article in The Fiscal Times explained that modern workers are knowledge workers. In the early 1900s, the typical job was physically demanding, with twelve hour days and six-day work weeks being fairly common. That has changed since the early 2000s and now many jobs require more mental exertion than physical activity. In the old days, retirement was a necessity because a worker�...