America and the world have received a legacy of wisdom and wealth but have squandered it as pointed out in this post from HubPages.com…
Shakespeare, Franklin, and Stanley Johnson
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own [...]
Imagine this–
A successful 45 years old
A couple of children about to go off to college
The stay-at-home spouse is about to re-enter the work force even though the family doesn’t need the income
The mortgage-paid off
No auto loans, credit card debt, or home improvement loans
Several years of living expenses set aside [...]
This past weekend my wife and I attended a presentation of the musical South Pacific at the Temple Buehl Theater in Denver. The character Bloody Mary sings a song about Bali Ha’i early in the play and the words struck me as being apropos to the ongoing theme of this blog: helping Americans are find a better way to deal with their personal economies.
Over just a few decades, the Behemoths’ clever public relations firms and their ill-informed minions managed to move almost every dollar that belongs to you and every other American into either debt or equity over which you have no control. There’s just no room for savings in this scheme of things so the Behemoths sell you term insurance to keep you from putting your money in whole life insurance and local savings accounts where you control it.
As I have said on many other occasions, Behemoths—big government agencies like the IRS, Fannie and Freddie, big investment firms, mutual funds, and stock insurance companies, big insurance agencies like AARP posing as advocates, big unions, big community organizations like ACORN—have misled Americans about the how-to of creating wealth and managing personal finances. This is [...]
The financial principles that have made America’s economy and people the envy of the world are clear and simple.
In the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit [...]
Over the past decade or so, the fallacy that home equity should be “harvested” by means of mortgage refinancing or home equity loans and converted into equity in some other investment has been foisted upon Americans as a legitimate financial strategy.
The most common presentation of these schemes suggests that home equity should be redirected into what some advisors call ”investment grade life insurance.” Other schemes [...]
Joseph J. Ellis in His Excellency George Washington [Vintage books, NY] writes that the Father of our Country, unlike Thomas Jefferson and others from the elite class of the day, demonstrated “…concern for his own economic interest…” and adds paranthetically that “Perhaps this is the underlying reason Jefferson and so many other[s]…would die in debt, and Washington would die a very [...]
Planning vs. Management
The College for Financial Planning and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. will likely object to the statement that their business is oxymoronic. They might be justified. Let me elaborate.
The Oxford Dictionary defines an oxymoron as “a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.” Claiming that financial [...]
I recently received this question from Christine:
Hi Jeffrey,
I hear those whole life policys have huge fees, what are all the fees?
Here’s my initial answer…
Great question, Christine!
Unfortunately your question implies a common misunderstanding so lets clarify that issue first. Clarifying things may be enough, but if it isn’t feel free to question or comment further.
Whole life insurance policies have [...]