- How to Create a Personal Financial Statement
Assessing your financial situation can help you understand your options for creating a steadfast financial future. To outline your finances, a personal financial statement can provide an overview of your financial circumstances. With this in mind, here’s how a personal financial statement is used and how to create one for yourself. If you’d like hands-on… read more…
- What Is Real Estate Wholesaling?
Real estate wholesaling is a kind of arbitrage in which a party known as a wholesaler negotiates a contract for the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a property for a particular price. Rather than completing the purchase, however,… read more…
- What Is a Minimum Viable Product?
A minimum viable product (MVP) is an early version of a product with only basic features. The purpose of an MVP is to help a company or development team learn what will work without investing too much money or time… read more…
- Understanding Crummey Trusts and How to Use Them
Establishing a trust may be on your estate planning to-do list if you want to preserve your wealth for future generations while potentially enjoying some tax advantages. A Crummey trust is a specific type of trust that can be used… read more…
- What Is an In Kind Transfer?
Opening an investment account can help you grow wealth for retirement or other financial goals. Brokerage accounts can offer flexibility when it comes to choosing where to invest, and many online brokerages now offer low fees, a fact that can… read more…
- How Does an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Work?
As part of your company’s benefits package, you may have access to an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or ESPP. These plans allow you to purchase shares in the company you work for, typically at a discount. An ESPP is separate from a 401(k) or similar workplace retirement plan, but both can be useful to growing… read more…
- How an Accelerated Death Benefit Works
When buying life insurance, you may be asked whether you’d like to add on various riders. Riders enhance the policy’s benefits and there are a number you can choose from, including an accelerated death benefit. Adding on this benefit may… read more…
- Permanent Life Insurance: Definition and Pros & Cons
Permanent life insurance can allow you to continue to support your family members and ensure that they are financially protected after you pass away. This is a life insurance policy that never expires and pays a benefit upon the policyholder’s… read more…
- What Is Hyperinflation and Why Should You Care?
Changing economic conditions can trigger various side effects, including an uptick in inflation, as began to happen in 2021. When inflation leads to rising prices and a decline in the purchasing power of money, your dollars and cents don’t stretch… read more…
- How to Read an Annual Report (And Why You Should)
If you invest in stocks then you’ve probably received an annual report in the mail at least once. While you may be tempted to toss it out, it’s worth taking the time to read through it to better understand the… read more…
- Alternative Funds: Definition and How to Invest
Alternative funds offer a unique mutual fund option for investors seeking exposure to securities beyond traditional bonds, stocks or balanced mutual funds. These funds focus on non-traditional investment opportunities and leverage alternative strategies to enhance performance and manage risk. While not suitable for every investor, alternative funds can play a pivotal role in diversifying your… read more…
- How to Assess and Mitigate Portfolio Risk
Portfolio risk is one of the most essential challenges for any investor. More ambitious portfolios can generate greater rewards, creating more wealth in a single year than cautious portfolios can provide over several years of investing. But they can also… read more…
- What Is a Land Trust, and Who Needs One?
Trusts can be used as an estate planning tool if you need more than just a will to manage your assets. A land trust is a specific type of trust related to real estate. This is a type of living… read more…
- How to Retire in Guatemala: Costs, Visas and More
If you’ve thought about retiring in Central America, you’ve likely learned plenty about Costa Rica and Panama, two popular destinations for ex-pat retirees. However, their neighbor Guatemala, the Mayan heartland of Central America, is another attractive retirement destination in the region. Guatemala’s beautiful landscapes include Lake Atitlan, a lake created by a massive volcanic crater,… read more…
- Fiduciary Duties in Trusts and Estate Planning
As you plan how you will leave your estate, it’s important to your family’s future that you leave a legacy with well-executed documents. It’s also essential that you understand all of the roles of the people involved in your estate,… read more…
- Financial Planning for the Sandwich Generation
Being part of the sandwich generation – meaning you’re caring for aging parents while also raising children – can create unique challenges in shaping your financial plan. You may be trying to balance the financial goals and needs of your… read more…
- What Is a Lean Startup?
The term “lean startup” describes a method of starting a business that favors a flexible, trial-and-error approach to product development. Unlike traditional startup methods, which include analyzing, testing and verifying potential customer demand, a lean startup anticipates uncertainty in operating conditions… read more…
- How Does an Asset Protection Trust Work?
Trusts can be a useful addition to your estate plan if you want to create a financial legacy for your loved ones or minimize estate taxes. An asset protection trust is a type of trust that has a specific purpose:… read more…
- What Is the Unemployment Rate? It’s Complicated
Unemployment is a messy statistic. Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes its civilian unemployment rate or what is more commonly referred to as simply “the unemployment rate.” That rate was 13.3% in May – far above February’s 3.5% rate. The weekly… read more…
- Retirement Planning for Married Couples
Retirement planning for married couples involves estimating future expenses, understanding income sources and determining how much savings are needed to maintain a desired lifestyle. When considering how much a married couple should have for retirement, factors like age, anticipated healthcare costs and desired retirement age play a significant role. Many financial experts suggest aiming for… read more…
- Estate Planning for Business Owners
Estate planning can take on a new dimension when you own a business. Not only do you need a strategy for managing personal assets but you also need to consider what will happen to your business in the long term.… read more…
- How to Retire in Croatia: Costs, Visas and More
When you think of Croatia, do you think of the beautiful Dalmatian seacoast where they shot “Game of Thrones”? Or perhaps Croatia conjures up visions of Plitvice Lakes National Park’s waterfalls and blue water. Or, if you’re a city person,… read more…
- Estate Planning Documents: What Do You Need?
Estate planning begins with knowing which documents you need and making sure they are up to date. Among the most common such documents are wills, trusts, powers of attorney and designations of beneficiaries. Understanding how each document works and what… read more…
- What Is a Constructive Trust?
Trusts can be helpful in estate planning if you want to avoid probate or minimize estate taxes. A revocable living trust, for example, might be useful if you have assets you want to pass on to your beneficiaries that aren’t… read more…
- How to Retire in Cambodia: Costs, Visas and More
Cambodia is known for its stunning landscapes, vast temples, and low cost of living. Cambodian people are often noted as being some of the friendliest people in the world. From its rich culture to unique ecosystem, there are plenty of… read more…