What is a Fund of Funds

A fund of funds is a type of mutual fund that is made up of other mutual funds (and occasionally ETF’s).  Similar to a book that is a collection of poems.  You get a bunch of different poems in one book. Why Fund of Funds Exist These funds were designed to make investing easier by [...]

What is 401K Vesting

You just started a new job and one of the perks of the job is a 401k.  To make things even better your company also offers a match for your contributions.  Who doesn’t like “free” money for investing? Before you get overly excited, let’s look at one aspect that may impact just how much of [...]

Target Date Funds and Your Retirement Money

Vanguard Summary

Picking the right selection of mutual funds for your retirement plan can be an intimidating task.  The options seem to be endless and in a foreign language.  Then you spot it: the Target Date Fund for your retirement year.  Could this be the answer to your problem?  Before you jump right in, let’s take a [...]

What is a Roth IRA

So what exactly is a Roth IRA?  (Other than one more confusing term for investing). History (short and sweet): Back in 1997 congress put together a bill called the Taxpayer Relief Act of 197.  One of the great things to come out of this was a new IRA, called the Roth.  (Named for the Senator [...]

What is a Ticker Symbol

Sometimes the most confusing part of starting to invest is knowing all the terms.  Today we get a quick run down on what a ticker symbol is. A ticker symbol is a combination of letters used as an abbreviation for a particular stock.  This is so that it is not necessary to write out the [...]

The Skinny on an IRA

The term IRA gets tossed around when talking about investments, but have you every wondered what exactly an IRA is? The letters in IRA stand for Individual Retirement Account. An IRA is not actually an investment, such as a stock or a bond is an investment.  Instead an IRA is an account where you hold [...]

When Should I Invest In the Stock Market

Would you take the time and effort to make chocolate chip cookies, only to take them out of the oven five minutes before they were done?  No, because that would be a waste of time, resources and the end result would be an inedible cookie that you have to throw away. The same goes for [...]

How to Create Your Own 401K

We all need to save for retirement, what the government offers for social security just is not enough to cover all of our expenses and emergencies in retirement.  Unfortunately not all of us are lucky enough to have an employer who offers a 401(K) or even a pension.  So how do you go about saving [...]

Are you Investing with Your Intuition

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and ignorant when you look at investing information?  It can be very overwhelming.  There seems to be a never ending amount of information.  What if I told you that you could get to a point where you felt like you just had a “feeling” you were picking the right [...]

I was Eavesdropping – Guess What I Heard

eavesdropping

I like to eavesdrop.  Especially in coffee shops and restaurants.  Why? Because this is where many financial planners like to meet prospective clients and I love to hear what they have to say. This weekend I had the opportunity to overhear the sales tactic that makes me the maddest, and is used way too often.  [...]