Originally posted at Financial Planning Today , by Julie Lord. Over many years the big insurance and investment companies have been portraying retirement as one big vacation where sensible savers can play golf or lounge about on sandy beaches, living their retirement dreams. The same companies are guilty of scaring people about how much money they will [...]
Originally posted at Reno Gazette Journal , by Brian Loy. The average American spends four decades dreaming and saving for retirement. Some transition well. Others struggle. Advertisers portray retirement as a life of leisure – endless walks on the beach and rounds of golf. But as Mitch Anthony wrote in “The New Retirementality,” playing golf every [...]
Originally posted at Financial Advisor, by Mitch Anthony. “Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, to that end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.” —Abraham Lincoln I certainly could not have predicted the outpouring of sentiment I received after writing my last article, “Harsh Lessons in Modern [...]
Originally posted at Financial Advisor, by Mitch Anthony. Imagine the feelings that horse traders had 110 years ago upon hearing about the “horseless” carriage. Their sentiments had to range from incredulity (“How can you pull a carriage without a horse?”) to cynicism (“Who’s going to take a chance on this unproven contraption?”) to utter disdain, [...]
by Mitch Anthony “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off." - Abe Lemons, Oklahoma City University basketball coach In a recent New York Times article about planning for retirement, the reporter laid out a year-by-year plan of action for people expecting to retire in about five years. The advice included: Five years [...]
by Mitch Anthony “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt Recently I read that 42 percent of Americans plan to downsize, in part to help stretch their retirement dollars. The article also talked about other reasons for downsizing: less maintenance, smaller utility bills, and lower property taxes. To [...]
by Mitch Anthony “To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education - literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills” -- Alan Greenspan Every so often, we all need to get back to basics. When it comes to your own practice, it pays to [...]
by Mitch Anthony “There are people who have money, and there are people who are rich.” -- Coco Chanel When I first introduced the concept of financial life planning almost 20 years ago and published those ideas in Your Clients for Life, we were at the very beginning of what became a revolution in the financial services [...]
by Mitch Anthony "The shortest period of time lies between the minute you put some money away for a rainy day and the unexpected arrival of rain.”—Jane Bryant Quinn Last month we discussed the importance of goals in financial planning. This month we’ll focus on transitions. A dialogue focused around a client’s transitions is a critical and [...]
by Mitch Anthony “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”—Les Brown According to Alite Group, one of the top ten disruptors in the financial services industry this year is “holistic wealth management”. This means that more and more advisors are realizing that robo advising, fees, and changing client demographics indicate they [...]
by Mitch Anthony I recently read an article bemoaning the fact that financial services professionals aren’t the best communicators. Why? Simply put, advisors don’t always listen to what their clients are telling them. In a Financial Planning article published last month, Alan Boomer talked about why clients dislike their financial advisors. He cited a few reasons, one of which was communication [...]
by Mitch Anthony “Never spend your money before you have it.” -- Thomas Jefferson Successful financial planning involves more than the balance in a client’s portfolio. A strong financial plan represents what is important to an individual—in other words, his or her fiscalosophy. Consider these two scenarios: Mark spends lots of money on trips and entertainment. [...]
by Mitch Anthony "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you"—Exodus 20:12. At this time of the year, we all love to celebrate—at home, at the office, and with friends and family. We give gifts to those we care about [...]
Originally posted at fa-mag.com, by Mitch Anthony. As I sit down to write this article, I know it will likely be the most difficult composition of my writing career—difficult because it dredges up a miasma of regret, embarrassment, sadness and anger like nothing else I’ve experienced in life. I was conned out of almost a [...]
"Financial Life Planning" column by Mitch Anthony at Financial Advisor magazine. WHO: Mitch Anthony WHAT: Author, speaker, and founder and president of Advisor Insights and the Financial Life Planning Institute WHAT'S ON HIS MIND: “For the vast majority, traditional retirement is a really bad idea. So we have an entire industry built around helping people [...]
Originally posted at Yahoo Finance , by Ben Carlson. FILE – In this Wednesday, May 3, 2017, file photo, specialist Anthony Rinaldi works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) This post first appeared on A Wealth of Common Sense. In the U.S., the standard distance between railroad train tracks [...]
by Mitch Anthony "It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich." —Sarah Bernhardt There are only four things you can do with your money: Owe it (taxes and debt) Grow it (investing and saving) Live on it (lifestyle spending) Give it away (philanthropy) The choices you make around Owe-Grow-Live-Give (OGLG) have a direct impact on the [...]
by Mitch Anthony I have been amazed at how few advisors I interact with take their clients through a cash-flow analysis. When I ask them about it, most give one of two reasons for their inaction: Their clients really don't want to know how much they're spending, preferring to live in ignorance. Really? When an advisor [...]
Originally posted at financial-planning.com , by Amanda Schiavo. The decumulation phase is a major life transition for clients, in ways they may not be considering, as well as a new business phase for most advisors. As with any big transition, though, there’s opportunity. Navigating this new phase so both the client and advisor can benefit [...]
by Mitch Anthony In some communities, getting into certain kindergarten programs can be as tough as getting into an Ivy League school. Since 1997, the number of kids taking the ERB (an aptitude test used by many kindergartens and private schools) has grown by about 40 percent. This translates into the pressure starting early for many [...]