As a long-time Certified Financial Planner, I have always believed that having a written retirement income (cash-flow) plan is critical to enjoying a long and prosperous retirement. Unless one has many millions of dollars or plans to spend well under their means (perhaps to leave more of a financial legacy to family and/or charities), having a real plan in place can allow you to fully enjoy the rewards of a long career – without worry or undo stress. You’ll know how much you can reasonably … Continue reading

I made a quick video about the four S’s in my retirement planning practice. Can you guess what each “S” stands for? CLICK BELOW to watch the 60 second video right now: all the best… Mark

Well, I did it! I just signed up for a one-year long course to earn the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) designation. At about $2,000 (for the 3-course advanced curriculum), this will mean about two hundred hours of coursework/studying plus passing 3 two-hour exams (with additional continuing education requirements for the rest of my career too). This is a big commitment, but one I am excited to make in order to better serve my existing and future clients for years to come. Since its launch three years ago by the … Continue reading

Does making your charitable donations do the most good as possible make as much sense to you as it does to me? CLICK BELOW to watch a one minute video that reveals how I check out potential charities to give my hard-earned money to! all the best… Mark

As of Friday January 8th, 2016 started off with the worst stock market returns (S&P 500) since 1923… and this week (down 2.5% today alone) is not much better so far. But lets review 2015. To do that, I made the chart below from Yahoo Finance. It goes from 1/01/2015 through 12/31/2015. The market did not have it’s traditional Santa Claus rally at the end of this past year. The market dropped instead of it’s “usual” ending the year on a … Continue reading