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Before claiming social security there are some things you should know. When do you meet your full retirement age because that impacts how much you collect. Take a look at your longevity, your Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) and your spousal benefits. Lastly, keep in mind that there may be taxes and penalties that come with claiming too soon. We realize that this is a complex subject and encourage you to work with a financial planner, CFP® or ChFC® who is proficient in retirement planning.

There are a number of ways to describe the stock market when it is down. Bear Market, Correction, Bubble Bursting, Oversold, Downward Volatility, but rarely do you hear the word “opportunity” in unison with the former. Of course, what I am talking about is Tax Loss Harvesting.

Anyone can seem like a good financial advisor when markets are doing well. The expectation investors have when investing in capital markets is to make money, so when expectations are easy to meet, the bar tends to be set pretty low. However, it’s downturns in the markets that separate great financial advisors from mediocre ones. It’s times like these when people may wonder what their financial advisor is doing during this bear market.

Asset ownership or debt reduction? A common question considered, yet a question frequently simplified down to determination by simple interest rate differentials (the separation between interest charged on debt and the rate of return expected on your investment portfolio). Life, especially the interrelationships of economics and the underlying mathematics, is not so simple.

It all started when a project on my honey-do list required me to dust off the circular saw. I discovered an interest in woodworking... Most people start their research on Google but fail to realize that everyone has a unique set of circumstances and goals, so general advice isn’t going to get you where you need to be, at least not efficiently. The same goes for financial advice. There are a lot of different ways to save and invest, but making sure you are using the right investments and saving your money in the right places will have a huge impact on the quality and success of your goals.

Instinctively investors know they should diversify their portfolio and most do this. Having looked at hundreds, if not thousands, of portfolios, I can tell you that diversification amounts to more than just owning multiple funds. A common mistake that investors make when trying to diversify their IRA or 401k is that they, inadvertently, create a portfolio that has the illusion of diversification...

Many moons ago, I was a Personal Finance Planning major at Central Michigan University. I distinctly remember in the Spring of 2012, my finance class had a competition amongst my peers to see who could make the most money in a trading simulation system. At the time, gold was trading at all-time highs. It was the “hot” asset class that was outperforming everything else. The code was cracked (buy gold), and I was destined to be the top performer. Alas, it was not to be, but it got me thinking. With all of the recent headlines of gold hitting all-time highs and the infatuation from the consumer: Is gold really an asset class for the long term?

The single most important investment in the global financial system is the U.S. Treasury Security. In my first investing class in college, I remember the professor explaining that our entire investing and financial system is built upon the premise that treasuries are the safest investment and that the U.S. always pays its debts. That statement might sound strange to those who are not a fan of the way we as a country run a deficit or to those who have paid close attention to the budget ceiling fights in recent years. Despite those factors, the premise is true, and that is why treasuries are the single most important investment in the U.S. financial system.