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Very soon, Joe, the plumber, will say good-bye to his twenty minutes of fame and return to his real calling, unclogging drains and fixing leaky pipes. Joe’s absurd rise to notoriety made me think of the real unsung heroes in our communities who earn their living working with their hands and their hearts. Their voices are rarely heard, but their observations about life could provide some of our greatest wisdom.

Many public corporations issue stock purchase plans for their employees. Others have a match program where for each percentage that the employee contributes, the company will deposit an equal percentage of company stock into their retirement account, sometimes at a discounted rate.

In years past, we have all heard the tall stories about the average Joe getting to retire rich on company  

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Chances are pretty good that if you stay healthy eat right and take care of yourself you’ll get to live a long healthy life. The Trusted Expert in our network want to remind you that with longevity comes an added responsibility to do things today to help you financially and emotionally prepare for that long life. This type of planning helps assure yourself that the rest of your life will be filled  

As a result of many peoples failure to plan for many common life occurrences i.e. retirement , a long term illness or death many of these already unpleasant situations can turn into a full blown crisis.

We all know well in advance that wed like to retire somewhere around our 60s to 70s but the unfortunate truth is that unless we plan for this contingency far in advance we wont be able to retire in the manner wed like to. Fact is that 95% of those reaching age 65 economically wont be able to retire and that was even before our most recent economic downturn. That number will now of course increase significantly with not  

Back in the early nineties, I wrote a book called, RETIREMENT READY OR NOT: How to Get Financially Prepared in a Hurry (Career Press). At the time, the news was filled with reports of corporations folding, downsizing or merging, forcing employees all over the country to accept early retirement long before they expected.

You’re excited today is the day you’ve been waiting for. You have an appointment with the person who will give you and go over your Retirement Packet with all your financial information. You’ll see exactly what you can expect to get each month you’re retired.

With the decline of the financial markets, many workers between the ages of 50 and 65 are asking their financial advisors if they should rethink the start of their retirement. The answer, of course, is that it depends. But certainly the considerations that apply to most everyone would be that by holding off allows you to 1) wait until the financial recovery is underway and your investments start to return to their earlier values and 2) buy into the market at low prices and take advantage of any upswing, thereby making up for some of your losses.

Here are some other smart reasons to delay retirement in this economy:

When it comes to making deposits into a 403b or 401k, a typical investor goes on auto-pilot. They make the same decision they did the previous month or quarter, assuming that it’s safer to stick to an old game plan rather than explore new opportunities. But if we have learned anything from this market volatility, it is that to insure growth, you must be proactive, assess your risk tolerance and focus on long term goals.

The first step in accomplishing all of this is to understand your mindset. When making a deposit, are you only thinking about buying the safest investments and parking the money until you have more confidence in the market? Or, or are you an opportunist who is willing to look for the greatest values, knowing that your  

Whether Youre A Corporate Executive, Business Owner  Or A Professional, The Chances Of You Or Your Key men Or Partners Suffering A Significant Loss Of Income Due To A Disability Are Staggeringly High.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 uses the vehicle chosen to impose the most regressive changes to the Medicaid program since its creation in 1965, as a part of what President Johnson called “The Great Society”.  Medicaid grew to be the major provider of long term care for our aged, blind and disabled.

The time has come for a new addition to the traditional estate planning process, I’ll call it  “The Family Meeting.”  Since talking about the things we don’t want to talk about can be extremely difficult, it unfortunately most times just doesn’t get done.  However, this “Family Meeting” can become one of the most important and pivotal things we can do for and with our children and grandchildren.

Clients keep asking me if there is a silver lining beneath the market turmoil and believe it or not there is not one, but two. Just as the sky high gas prices forced us all to rethink our driving habits and our daily trips, the dramatic downturn in the market has forced us all to rethink our spending habits. Who among us isn’t holding off on expensive vacations and the latest gadgets? And it’s a good thing. By putting the brakes on our excessiveness, we will all be better off by not abusing credit cards and subsequently having more money to save and invest.

Attention TEACHERS: As if you weren’t under enough pressure having the nation’s future in your hands, with the 403(b) plan, you are fast approaching a critical juncture regarding your own future- your financial future.

Are you aware that effective January 1st, 2009, all 403(b) plans will be  

Capitulation sounds like one of those SAT words you can immediately forget after the test, but with the recent economic crisis, it’s a good time to review the meaning. In financial terms, capitulation is when frightened investors lose faith in the market after a period of losses and decide to jump ship en masse. In other words, unable to stomach any further losses, they collectively sell in a panic and look for safer havens.