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The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.
Linus Pauling Categories
Author Archives: George Feiger
No New Taxes? Think Again
At the time of this writing President Obama and congressional leaders of both parties have evidently agreed to a framework for a budget deal that would cut trillions of dollars in federal spending over the next decade and clear the way for an increase in the government’s borrowing limit. Read More
5 Steps Toward Sound Investing
Making sound investments is simple, but it’s not easy. It requires planning, discipline, realistic expectations, flexibility and understanding. Read More
Thinking about financial risks
There are no sure things in the world of finance. The market value of the securities in your 401(k) may rise or fall, the monthly cost of your variable rate mortgage can go up and down. Even Treasury securities will vary in value. Read More
Defusing the Debt Trap
Burdened by an IOU totaling more than $14 trillion, the US economy is stumbling toward a debt trap – with no easy escape in sight. Read More
Thinking Ahead: Part One of Two
It’s good to know what your family goals are for the next 10 or 20 years: Buy a home, send children to college, accumulate enough for retirement and many other worthy aims. But good intentions don’t necessarily make good outcomes. To be successful, you need to do some simple arithmetic, and then — and this is the hard part — live according to the calculations. Read More
The Bucket Plan: Regain Control of Your Future
Many families have discovered that the assets they intended to use for important purposes — paying for the children’s college educations, funding retirement, buying a long-awaited vacation home — have been swallowed up by the financial crisis. They’re now having to make last-minute and often drastic adjustments to their plans. Read More
Making the Worst of a Bad Situation
Investors living on bond income are getting squeezed badly.
Yields today on government bonds are so low that these investors, many of them retirees, simply cannot maintain their standard of living by relying on their current portfolios, especially when stock dividends are also falling. The temptation, with no improvement in sight for at least the next year or two, is to seek higher-yielding investments. However, this is often a big mistake, exposing retirees to unreasonable amounts of risk — with potentially catastrophic consequences. Read More
Regulatory Reform
The bloodletting on Wall Street is still in full swing, yet we’ve already begun to hear calls for greater regulation of the financial services industry. Given the magnitude of the crisis, it is likely some regulatory reform will occur. As we go through this process, it’s critical that we keep our wits about us and make decisions based on fact and not emotion. Read More
