Last week I was writing a bit about a new threat in the form of interest rates. Long term rates have been in decline for almost 27 years straight. Things are changing, which will have quite an effect on the economy this time around. Why is this so? Generally if rates were to rise to around 7-10% it would make the cost of borrowing higher and may cause the economy to slow down, but this time it is truly different. The difference is the leverage in the economy. Easy, cheap […]

American men in their 30s today are worse off than their fathers’ generation, a reversal from just a decade ago, when sons generally were better off than their fathers, a new study says. The study, the first in a series on economic mobility undertaken by several prominent think tanks, also says the typical American family’s income has lagged far behind productivity growth since 2000, a departure from most of the post-World War II period. The findings suggest the up escalator that has historically ensured that each generation would do better […]

A growing number of Americans are choosing to spend their golden years abroad. Living overseas offers a sense of adventure and, often, a reduced cost of living. Yet most people–and their advisors–don’t realize how much planning is needed to make the move a success. It’s hard to say how many Americans have retired abroad. The State Department doesn’t keep track of the numbers, and the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t count Americans overseas. The Social Security Administration sends checks to more than 260,000 retired workers abroad, but this represents only a […]

My students ask me all the time what a trust is and “do I need one?” The answer is generally yes but with one caveat, “not yet” What in the world is a trust? Think of a trust as a holding pen, a place where you put your assets before they are released to the people or organizations that you designate to eventually receive them. A trust is a legal entity and so are you. Because you and the trust are separate legal entities, anything you transfer from you to […]