The Unpredictability of Predictions We all make predictions about things in life—some with lesser consequences than others. But if we see or hear something on TV or Radio (or now Podcast), then SURELY that information must be from an expert who knows something, and we should follow their advice. Here are some things I have heard going into 2023: Because of Interest rate hikes, home prices will drop dramatically because the cost of mortgages will be so high. Interest rates will come down by the end of the year. Bitcoin will reach $100,000 in the next year, or another infamous (supposedly exper ..read more

On Wednesday, November 15th, the Department of Education (DOE) announced that the FAFSA will be available by 12/31/2023. If finally gives everyone a firm date to work on. This FAFSA delay is due to the FAFSA Simplification upgrades. October 1st is typically the date that you can begin completing the FAFSA.   This seems likely to be delayed when the Colleges receive the FAFSA information – probably only in late January 2024. Students should expect a delay in their acceptance letter with financial awards.   Here are some thoughts to remember: To clarify the process, your FAFSA submiss ..read more

Before we go through this, let me say that each family’s situation is unique, and I strongly suggest that you talk with a financial advisor before making any decisions. The standard for calculations in communication from the Social Security Administration is an anacronym FRA or “Full Retirement Age” as per the Social Security Administration. For anyone born in 1960 or later, your FRA is 67. Right now, the maximum social security benefit at FRA is $3345 per month. Generally, waiting to take your Social Security benefits will increase those benefits. With 67 being “FRA” that means taking Social ..read more

Seniors – An issue we will all face today or in the future A friend of mine got a call from his Pickleball buddy asking if he wanted to play on Saturday morning. He replied, “Don’t all the old people play on Saturday morning?” His friend retorted, “Joe, we ARE old people!” A subject coming up for discussion frequently with my clients is about elderly parents and how we can assist them to have their best life possible while we still have them in our lives. Both my mom and mother-in-law are still living and are in their 90s, needing some sort of assistance as they age. Obviously, there is no for ..read more

WARNING – This piece includes an opinion that some might not agree with! Well, that is probably true of all the newsletters that I write, but the minute you include something that has a touch of politics, there is always a risk of some not being happy. Usually, I try to steer away from politics, so I am going to try to frame this as FACTS and ADVICE for each family to consider. The subject of Student Loans is huge this month. All of us like receiving free stuff, and many of us like giving away stuff, but not many of us like giving away free stuff if we must pay for it, and if we are not part ..read more

Parents – Have I had a discussion with my spouse as to who is paying for college? Some parents want to pay for everything for college because that is what their parents did for them, or they want their students to be able to focus solely on their studies. Other parents would like their students to have some skin in the game with some loans. Yet other parents want their students to have some loans, and then would be willing to pay them off for the student should they get through college in 4 years. There is no right or wrong answer here. Most importantly, is that you and your spouse are in agre ..read more

Risk /Growth: The main reason that we invest our money is that we want it to grow. If not, we would just leave it alone in cash in the bank. In order to do so, by definition, we usually add some risk. Market Risk is: “The type of risk that arises due to the movement in prices of financial instruments and can be caused due to movement in stock prices, interest rates, and other factors. This is often accompanied by Volatility.”                            Very few peop ..read more

What is one of the hottest and most controversial political topics of today? It is proposed forgiveness of college debt. https://collegeplanningamerica.com/ This letter is not about politics, it’s about finances and decision-making and that’s why I am talking about it. Americans owe nearly $1.75 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 46 million borrowers. That’s about $440 billion more than the total U.S. auto loan debt. So why is this such a hot topic today? Because so many students and parents regret taking on such high college loans. This is a decision that is not forced onto ..read more

Be careful before you make long-term financial decisions based on the possibility of loan forgiveness. Expectations for student loan forgiveness have been high, and they reached fever-pitch in March when President Biden unveiled his $1.8 trillion “American Families Plan.” Given the enormous size of the bill, many Americans anticipated the inclusion of loan forgiveness. However, while the American Families Plan provided over $300 billion in support for higher education, none of the money will be directly applied to student loan forgiveness. Though loan forgiveness remains part of the national c ..read more

One of the questions I get a lot is, “Will there be a correction in the market this year?” The easy answer to this is “Yes, probably.” It might be best to just look at history for an answer rather than it being clouded by current events and our own political views and biases – although we always need to add that Past performance is no guarantee of future results or events. Let us look at this graph that shows 3 things about the S&P 500 over the years: Intra-Year Highs – the highest the market got to in the year – represented by the diamonds. Intra-Year Lows – the lowest the market got to ..read more