My wife and kids are off visiting our relatives in Tokyo, and so I’m at home alone for the next couple weeks, reliving my bachelor days for a little while. Plenty of cold pizza for breakfast!
In place of the usual ritual of bathtime and bedtime stories with the kids (is there anything cuter than a three-year-old in a tub of bubbles?), I’ve lately had more time in the evening to sit down and noodle at the family finances. This got me to thinking a little bit about the various ways people do this—or don’t—and how it might affect investment behavior.
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The idea that you should have a cash reserve equal to three to six months of your living expenses would almost certainly make any “Ten Commandments” list for personal finance.
It might also be one of the least obeyed commandments, as suggested in a recent post by my colleague Ellen Rinaldi. I wholeheartedly agree with Ellen’s emphasis on having a cash reserve—savings stashed in a bank account or money market fund—before getting too focused on investing.
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Graduation season is upon us. Many of us have children, grandchildren, or acquaintances sailing out of school … and hitting pretty rough seas in the job market.
I had planned to speak to my sons about investing once they graduate. But while investing is undeniably important, I think a better discussion would be around debt management.
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As Americans, we’re accustomed to having options. There’s always another answer, another solution, another way to lick a problem. (Sometimes, though, I think that’s how we got ourselves into the mess we’re in right now. Don’t have the money? Charge it. Can’t afford the bigger house? Leverage yourself beyond sanity.)
But what if you’re retired—not “almost retired” or “newly retired,” but actually well into retirement—and the market downturn has depleted your retirement savings? What are your options?
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Retirement … retirement … retirement. Most of us are painfully aware that the responsibility for providing for ourselves in retirement rests squarely on our own shoulders. If we didn’t fully appreciate this sobering situation before, we certainly do now.
Retirement is very important. But is it the most important reason to save?
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