4 Minute Money

How To Break Your Bad Habits And Get Rich By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Money woes are generally not due to a market gone awry or a low salary. The number one cause of most money problems is bad financial habits. Do you spend without tracking what is leaving your wallet, neglect to make regular deposits in savings, and overlook regular financial reviews and discussion of financial goals with your par...

Are Bonds a Good Investment for You? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Bonds are a very popular investment, but before you buy any, let me tell you what I share with my clients about them. Think of a bond as a loan between you and a company or government. Assuming all goes normally, here’s how it looks: You lend them a sum of money They pay you interest periodically until “maturity.” They return the prin...

Problems With Your U.S. Brokerage Account? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP®   Many readers have recently contacted me because they received a letter from their U.S. brokerage firm informing them that either “You can no longer purchase additional shares of mutual funds in your account,” or “We will no longer provide investment advisory services to you and/or you may only enter liquidating orders or non-s...

How Quickly Should You Invest The Money You Inherit? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Though I often advise people to wait before investing an inheritance, sometimes you must take quick action. When do you need to act quickly? If you inherited a risky position, you should consider liquidating it. For example, the grandfather who always managed the stock portfolio passes away, leaving large amounts of mo...

Are You Getting The Social Security You Deserve? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® The “Greenberg Settlement,” the resolution of a class-action lawsuit brought against the Social Security Administration (SSA), changes the way American olim receive their American Social Security payments. Under the SSA’s Windfall Elimination Provision, if you receive a foreign earnings-based pension, your American benefit...

When Should You Give Trading Authority to Your Children? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Recently, one of my clients had a serious fall at home, breaking his hip, and ended up in the hospital. As a result of his injuries, it was clear that he could not deal with his finances for the foreseeable future and had to hand over trading authority to his daughter.  As this all happened suddenly, decisions had...

What You Need to Do After You Inherit an IRA By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® If you receive an inheritance, it might come in the form of property, a bank account, or brokerage account. But what if you receive an inheritance from someone’s individual retirement account (often called an “IRA”)? IRAs are different from regular brokerage accounts A regular brokerage account is normally structured as either...

By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® Regardless of the more modern way people look at gender, there are significant differences in how men and women should invest their money. Here’s why: Women’s pensions tend to be smaller Women’s pension payouts tend to be lower than men’s payouts, because most women work fewer hours and have lower salaries than their male counterparts. Even though “paternity leave” is be...

Non-Americans who want to invest internationally often use U.S. brokerage accounts. While it may seem counter-intuitive for a non-American to open an American brokerage account from overseas, there are several reasons why this is a good move. 2 reasons why non-U.S. folks use American accounts Efficiency – U.S. securities markets may be the most efficient and individual-investor friendly in the wor...

Are bonds safe as an investment? Explore how they can provide safety and increase diversification in an investment portfolio.