Yearly Archives: 2012

Client resistance is an inevitable part of the financial planning process. It’s a sign the advisor is doing his or her job.

Once you buy this product, you’re stuck. All structured settlement transfers must take place through a court order…

Marotta On Money is a weekly financial column and daily financial blog about the comprehensive wealth management small changes that have a large effect over time.

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A tax tsunami is coming at the end of this year. This will be your last opportunity to safeguard your assets in a lifeboat and avoid getting swamped with taxes.

Freedom scores ranged from #1 in freedom Hong Kong at 89.9 to #92 ranked mostly unfree Italy at 58.8.

Over the past five years, countries with the most economic freedom averaged annual returns just below emerging markets.

Sovereign debt and deficit weigh most heavily on a country’s level of government spending, one of the ten components of freedom in the Heritage Foundation economic freedom study

We believe this is one of the times when your asset allocation should tilt foreign and overweight the handful of countries with high economic freedom.

New Zealand, the fourth highest country in economic freedom, joined the United States with positive returns for 2011.

The equation of the trend line shows that every point on the freedom index was worth 0.36% annual return over the past year.

Now at year end, I will review how freedom investing fared in 2011 and in the decade since 2002.

I had a dream in which I saw a map similar to the one above and I heard myself explaining why 2011 was not a financial mulligan

A Donor Advised Fund is a way to give small amounts to many charities. But take a look at the pros and cons of this strategy before diving in.

Much of the recent conversation about ETFs has to do with the hidden risks of “synthetic ETFs,” risks which are not present in their mundane relatives known as “physical ETFs.”

Q: My husband hasn’t gotten rid of a single bill or financial statement during our entire 18-year marriage! He received a shredder from Santa this past Christmas, and I am ready to get started, but I want to know what, if any, of this paperwork I should keep.

If money is among the most common causes of domestic spats, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that almost one in four Americans would try to hide money troubles from their spouses.

We compute an asset allocation deviation or “out of balance” number for each household’s primary retirement assets and rebalance to lower this number.

Lots of articles steer you to the best credit card by categories–one if you want airline miles, another if you need to transfer a balance. This is not one of those articles. The millionaire mindset does not want airline miles and doesn’t carry a balance.

Comprehensive wealth management is based on the idea that small changes in our finances can have large effects over long periods of time. These changes can make the difference in achieving our life goals.

On my Charles Schwab Statement, what does “Total Capital Gains” mean under Income Summary?

“Successful active management is a fantasy stoked by the financial services industry.”

Q: I am a 65-year-old retired widow and I have a large IRA. How should I invest if I don’t need this money?

“Many investors think active managers can shift out of stocks in time to stem losses in bear markets. Not true.”

Listen to David John Marotta’s interview on growing rich slowly: the four secrets of an automatic millionaire

The world markets groaned as the burden of the rising American debt and the European deficit weighed down more productive countries.

Learn about the index preferred by the person who invented index funds with the Vanguard S&P 500. And no, it isn’t the S&P 500.

“A blindfolded chimpanzee throwing darts at The Wall Street Journal can select a portfolio that can do just as well as the experts.”

You have now created an efficient money-generating machine, and you should start enjoying your success.

“There exists a timeless and flexible process for successful investment management decision making that is specifically tailored for Investment Stewards.”

Kiplinger is teaming up with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) to bring you FREE, personalized financial advice.

For a small business, marketing and advertising seeks an answer to the question “How will prospective customers find me?” Most small businesses would benefit from enhancing their website presence by blogging and social media connections.

Most investors invest in only one and a half of the six asset classes. Learn where to invest in all six and how to tilt in each to over-emphasize appropriate categories.

Kiplinger teamed up with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) to bring you FREE, personalized financial advice as part of Kiplinger’s 11th annual Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days.

Q: I was told that I would not be able to apply for spousal social security until my husband qualifies for social security. Should I keep working so I can collect my small social security payment or should I just wait for spousal payments at age 73?

“One of an advisor’s greatest challenges? Directing client expectations – and meeting them with portfolio performance.”

When Gordon Murphy, an investment banking veteran, was told he only had six months to live, he decided to use his last days to write a book aimed at changing the way most individual investors think about investing.

Computing your net worth annually is like taking a sextant reading to chart your course toward financial security. Net worth gives you a snapshot of how much money would be left if you converted everything you owned into cash and paid off all your debts.

There are three IRA tax requirements and saving techniques which collided recently for a client. I found a solution.

Q:What advice can you offer for how to go about accessing retirement funds after a hardship?

“Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business and a third let him keep by him in reserve.”

Most investors do not have a balanced portfolio. And by chasing investment returns they miss the easy money they could make from having a good asset allocation in the first place and rebalancing it periodically.

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