Take advantage of the Miracle of Compound Interest

How to Win at Gambling

"The greatest advantage from gambling comes from not playing at all." - Girolamo Cardano, 16th Century physician, mathematician, Renaissance Man

Belief in a mutual fund manager's "hot streaks" leads to the mistake of confusing luck and skill.

What is Long-term Care Insurance and Who needs it?

Long-term Care refers to “custodial”care—personal, hands-on assistance to individuals who need help with the activities of daily living, or ADLs. ADLs are routine things that healthy people don’t give a second thought to: bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, getting into and out of bed or a chair. The need for long-term care may be due to physical limitations or disabilities resulting from injury, illness or the normal aging process. It can also be due to a cognitive impairment resulting from a stroke, for example, or Alzheimer’s disease.

While such care is provided in nursing facilities, assisted-living facilities, and adult day care centers, the majority of long-term care takes place in the recipient’s home. Usually, in fact, it is provided by unpaid family members or friends.

Nearly 41% of long-term care is provided to people under age 65 who need help taking care of themselves after an accident or stroke or as a result of chronic illness or debilitating diseases.

It’s clear that the longer you live, the more likely it is that you’ll need help at some point. Overall, at least 70% of people who live to age 65 will require some long-term care services at some point in their lives. That means that only three in ten of us will live out our lives without the need of such assistance.




Clearly the potential need for long-term care is a risk that all Americans face—and one that can take a heavy toll on your family and your bank account.

Study by John Hancock, 2008

Source: Kiplinger's

A free way to track your expenses and stay on top of your personal finances

Mint.com (http://www.mint.com) was purchased for $170 million by Intuit, the maker of Quicken and Quickbooks.  This is a free web site that allows you to track your investments, bank accounts, and expenses from credit cards or debit cards all under one interface. They look for ways to save you money and alert you if you are getting hit with fees and/or when bills are due. One way they earn money is by partnering with vendors such as the credit reporting agencies.

Reasons to Have Cash Reserves

Generally speaking it is a good idea to build and maintain cash reserves of at least 6 to 12 months of non-discretionary expenses if you're working and 2 years or more of cash reserves during retirement years. The more stable your income and the less you spend each month the less you need to have in reserves (and vice versa). Even if you have you have high job security, cash is king and access to liquidity is vital as witnessed in the financial panic of 2008. The cash reserves are there to help keep you from going into debt or dipping into your long-term investments if you run into unexpected emergencies such as medical expenses not covered by insurance, broken home appliances, leaky roof, car trouble,etc or if you lose your job and are having trouble finding another one.

Also, if you know you're going to incur major expenses such as paying for a wedding, buying a home, or buying a new car, save those amounts away in addition to your reserves.

The goal is to maintain a fully-funded cash reserve at all times.