How does my financial advisor actually get paid?
Commission, fee-only, fee-based, trails, revenue sharing. Four of those mean someone is paid when you buy, and most people are never told which one they are sitting across from.
Advisors · 8 min read
Advisors
3 articles
Definitions
What's a fiduciary, and is my advisor actually one?
The word is doing a lot of work in a lot of advertising. Here is how to check, in about two minutes, using public records.
Advisors · 6 min read
Price check
How much does a financial advisor cost?
The real ranges, in dollars, for every fee model. Read this before you sit down with anyone, so no number can surprise you.
Advisors · 7 min read
The DIY question
Do I need a financial advisor, or can I do this myself?
Early on, with simple finances, you genuinely can. The honest answer is a trigger list, not a sales pitch, and it names the moments when paying starts to beat guessing.
Advisors · 6 min read
Insurance
4 articles
Read this first
Why is my insurance agent pushing this on me?
A plain reading of what gets recommended, what it pays the person recommending it, and the questions that make the answer obvious.
Insurance · 7 min read
The big fork
Term or whole life. Which do I actually need?
One is cheap and temporary, one is expensive and permanent, and the pitch you hear depends partly on who profits from which. Here is the whole fork, priced honestly.
Insurance · 6 min read
Coverage math
How much life insurance do I actually need?
Ten times your income is the folklore. The real answer comes from four numbers you already know, and sometimes the real answer is zero.
Insurance · 6 min read
The later years
Who actually pays for long-term care?
Not Medicare, mostly. The real payers are Medicaid after a spend-down, private insurance for the few who bought it, and unpaid family for everyone else.
Insurance · 6 min read
Retirement
6 articles
First responders
I have a pension. What else should I actually be doing?
The pension changes every generic rule of retirement saving. Here is what it actually covers, what it quietly does not, and the accounts built for people like you.
Retirement · 8 min read
Order of operations
401(k) or Roth IRA. Which do I fill first?
There is a standard fill order, it fits most people, and it takes one paragraph to state. The interesting part is knowing when your situation bends it.
Retirement · 5 min read
The number
How much do I actually need to retire?
There is a convention, 25 times your annual spending, and it is a decent starting flare. What it is not is a verdict, and the difference is worth five minutes.
Retirement · 5 min read
Timing
Social Security at 62, or wait?
Claiming early shrinks the check for life. Waiting grows it. Both can be the right call, and the deciding factors are rarely the ones the break-even charts show.
Retirement · 5 min read
Job change
What happens to my 401(k) when I quit?
Nothing dramatic, and nothing automatic. The money stays yours. You have four doors, one of them is expensive, and the differences between the other three are worth knowing before the paperwork.
Retirement · 5 min read
Guaranteed income
What is an annuity, and when does one actually make sense?
You hand an insurer a lump sum and it hands you a paycheck. The trade itself is simple. The products built around it often are not, and the difference is worth understanding before anyone slides a contract across the table.
Retirement · 5 min read
Investing
2 articles
Investing basics
What is an index fund, really?
It is a fund that gave up trying to beat the market and, by giving up, quietly beats most of the funds that keep trying. Here is how that trick works.
Investing · 5 min read
Purchasing power
Inflation is quietly shrinking your savings. Here is the math.
Your balance never goes down, which is exactly why the loss is so easy to miss. A few minutes of arithmetic shows what cash actually costs to hold.
Investing · 4 min read
Debt & Savings
2 articles
Debt
Snowball or avalanche. Which actually works?
The math says avalanche. The completion rates say snowball. The honest answer is about which one you will still be doing in month nine.
Debt & Savings · 6 min read
The cushion
How much emergency fund do I actually need?
Three to six months of expenses, says everyone, without saying which expenses, whose months, or when you are allowed to stop. Here is the fuller answer.
Debt & Savings · 4 min read
Planning & Taxes
4 articles
Taxes
Tax-loss harvesting, explained without the jargon
Selling a loser on purpose sounds like giving up. Done right, it is a tax move that keeps you fully invested. Done wrong, one rule erases the whole benefit.
Planning & Taxes · 4 min read
Health money
The HSA might be the best account you are ignoring
Three tax breaks stacked on one account, and most people who have one treat it like a debit card for copays. Here is what it can actually do, and who should not chase it.
Planning & Taxes · 5 min read
College
How 529 plans actually work
Tax-free growth for education sounds simple until the what-ifs start. Here is the machine in plain words, including what happens if your kid never sets foot on a campus.
Planning & Taxes · 5 min read
Estate basics
Estate planning when you are not rich
If you have a kid, a house, or a bank account, you have an estate. The state already wrote a plan for it. You will probably want to overwrite that.
Planning & Taxes · 5 min read