What should we do in a bear market? That’s the question we’ve been hearing a lot these last few days. Here are five ideas for things you can do right now to set yourself up for success in the days ahead.

Our feelings and finances are often intertwined. As advisors, when we meet with clients, most of the time we spend more time discussing the personal side of finance than the dollars and cents.

Here are our thoughts on a few factors that may impact your wealth. 

Changes in how your credit score is calculated are coming this summer, and they may impact your access to different types of loans and the interest rate on those loans. Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) will introduce its FICO Score 10 Suite in the coming months for use by the three primary credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

So many people ask, “how much should I have saved for retirement?” Well, there are many retirement savings “rules of thumb” out there. In this article, we will share some of the common recommendations and even debunk a few.

NOTE: Be sure to read to the end where we share our real answer for the question of how much retirement savings you should have at age 30, 40, 50 and beyond. 

How to choose the best financial advisor for you

Looking for a female financial advisor? At Carnegie Investment Counsel, we asked three of our female financial advisors for tips about how to find the best investment advisor for you. They emphasized that team members at Carnegie, male or female, focus on providing a customized and hands-on approach to services from financial planning to portfolio management. The point is to assess any advisor for the best fit when choosing a long-term financial partner.

As 2019 was ending, I was reading a few articles and blog posts recapping the last decade of stock market returns.

Throughout this period, there were many instances where you could have been scared out of the market or sought signals that would indicate a “top” in the market.

For example, remember in 2013 when actress Mila Kunis said she was going from cash into stocks? The S&P 500 is up about 140 percent since she made that announcement.

Or how about in 2016 when the cover of Barron’s (a popular financial magazine) boasted “Get Ready for Dow 20,000?” The Dow Jones Industrial Average is in shouting distance of 30,000 or about 57 percent higher from the date of publication.

How the new SECURE ACT rules may change how you save for retirement

In mid-December 2019, the “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” (SECURE) Act was included as part of a massive spending bill approved by Congress.

Notably, this may be one of the most significant pieces of retirement legislation in years.  

How to care for others by caring for yourself first financially

Ongoing changes to the structure of the typical American family unit have created a new designation known as the “sandwich generation.”

The sandwich generation is defined as those Americans who are simultaneously responsible for their own children and their aging parents. Across the country, these middle-aged adults are finding themselves increasingly compelled to manage a multi-generational extended family, effectively “sandwiched” between their children and elderly parents.

The Big S-Curve

The most common things that typical market observers are currently worried about (partially fueled by the media) revolve around politics, the trade war, interest rates and the timing/depth of the next recession.

It is much less common to hear someone talking about the potential positives. Fears like this are nothing new, and in fact, I cannot remember a time in my career when there wasn't a slew of fears to worry about.