Expert Articles on Financial Planning

Everyone is scared of dentists, medical tests, and financial planning. I get the first two. But financial planning? Done right, it can uncover a gold mind.

Student loans total a colossal $1.74 trillion with 43 million Americans owing, on average, $38,000. The loans swamp the $1.14 trillion in outstanding credit card debt, whose average balance is a far smaller $6,864.

Mortgage rates are up to 5%, and some fear a valuation bubble. Even so, it's a good time to buy.

“House poor” is a common expression used to describe people who are wasting too much money on housing, leaving them with too little to spend on everything else. But it can also refer to those who are getting too little housing bang for their buck.

Laurence Kotlikoff shares 5 key insights from his new book, Money Magic: An Economist's Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life.

The risk premium on stocks has rarely been higher. Yes, there are investors who think that stocks are safe in the long run. If this were the case, no one would be buying bonds guaranteeing negative real returns.

The safest investment these days is paying off your debts, including your mortgage.

The best way to hedge this risk used to be to purchase not a nominal, but a real annuity - one whose payment would be adjusted upward each year in light of that year's inflation.

Investing these days is really tough. Fortunately, economics-based financial planning offers clear ways to invest at risk while limiting or, indeed, eliminating your living standard downside.

In sum, Wall Street's Bucketing Strategy is a bad joke. Its focus on the market's high average cumulative return or the high chance of doing well, on average, is akin to basing your financial plan on dying precisely at your life expectancy -- at the date at which people like you will, on average, die.

Upside Investing lets you set a base living standard floor and experience only upside risk from investing in the stock market.