Archive for February 2017

The proverbial “three-legged stool” of retirement funding traditionally comprised Social Security, a company pension and personal savings, but that stool has been wobbly for quite some time. In fact, the traditional pension has been replaced largely by employer-sponsored 401(k) plans. This development firmly places the responsibility of two of the three stool legs on individual…

When you hear something repeated enough times, doubts may start to slip away, and eventually it’s accepted as a fact. Believing the things that are imbedded in our psyche because we’ve heard them before is known as an “availability bias.”1 This may partially explain why blue-chip stocks are popular, as more investors tend to be…

Turns out marriage can do more for your heart than fill it with love. A recent study found that, among other health benefits, married people have a higher probability of surviving a stroke.1 They are also more likely to survive major surgery, have fewer heart attacks, be less likely to have advanced cancer when diagnosed…

The traditional retirement model was based on a rigid assumption that people worked 40 years until they were 65, and then enjoyed a retirement supported by a company pension plan. That model doesn’t exist anymore, at least not for the average worker. Social Security data shows that the average career span is only 38 years…