As entrepreneurs are not wont to give up control of their finances, they're ultimately looking for someone they feel completely comfortable with handing the reigns over to. Before jumping into anything, make sure you and your potential client have coinciding needs and expectations.
As this Entrepreneur article advises those seeking financial advisor teams, clients should trust their gut and utilize referrals. This just goes to show that current, and even potential, client relationships are the crux of one's business. But be careful and don't get too comfortable. "If a member of your financial team isn't working out, make a substitution," the article writes.
The task might seem arduous, but in this Kiplinger's article, retiring rich seems easier than you think. Stuart Ritter, a financial planner for T. Rowe Price recommends saving 15% of your salary for retirement.
Putting it in perspective, if you actually did put $200 of your paycheck each month into a savings account from the time you land your first job, as Kiplinger's editor Sandy Bock suggests, you could have over $1 million in your retirement fund when retirement comes.
Amongst the obvious (and easier things to get your retirement fund going) like enrolling in a 401(k) or Roth IRA, are the not-so-obvious tasks, like paying off your federal student loans only as quickly as necessary.
Ritter says investors shouldn't pay off federal loans any faster than necessary. You might even catch a $2,500 tax break on interest.
But the hardest? Avoid "cashing out" your 401(k) when switching employers. Don't give in to having your employer cut you a check. According to Kiplinger's, "cashing out" your 401(k) when switching jobs can knock your savings down by up to 67%.
With new changes to federal laws, more senior citizens are being forced to examine new documents such as power of attorney, living wills and healthcare proxies. For seniors in this situation, old wills stashed away in drawers are "worthless at best."
With advance-planning documents becoming not just more important, but necessary, planners can expect a more seniors looking for advance-planning specialists, expanding that sector of the financial planning market.
While the Fed's newest quantitative easing might be old news, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher isn't as optimistic as others. In fact, he believes it'll risk inflation while putting employment in jeopardy. Despite some economist's belief that inflation will accelerate the U.S. economy, Fisher thinks this is something that's going to have to be monitored closely, especially on the consumer and trading side.
"The gauge of trader expectations for consumer prices over the life of the debt, widened to 2.67 percentage points on Sept. 14, a four-year high."
Since retirees are part of the market that are looking for higher yield in lower-interest markets, it only makes sense that they're investing more money in riskier ventures. But when quantitative easing comes into play, findings from this SmartMoney piece calculate a 2.98% difference in treasury earnings for retirees between today and five years ago.
As SmartMoney concludes, retirees feel like they have to take more risks and invest in riskier assets just to keep their heads above water.
Investors socked away the most money in exchange traded funds this past year with junk bonds coming in a close second. According to Bloomberg data, even though junk-bond ETFs is an industry only five years young, it's jumped 57% in the past year, making up $32 billion in assets. But according to Bloomberg, buyers of junk-bonds are being hit with low yields because of the Fed's recent quantitative easing.
While many investors have pulled their assets from the market in exchange for cash security, the experts in this SmartMoney article are of the mentality "You gotta risk it to get the biscuit."
These experts believe that while yields are at a record low, investors need to be riskier if they want to keep up with risings costs of everyday necessities like food and energy.
Planners like Heidi Schmidt, USAA Financial Services in Dallas say that making tailored strategies to meet both long-term and short-term financial goals is the key to fiscal success right now. Of these goals mainly being saving for retirement or college, or even just saving up emergency cash.
