Money Wisdom & Musings

New Year; New Goal

The start of the New Year generally breeds great energy and enthusiasm for tackling ones goals. How about getting your estate documents in order for 2016? The term “Estate planning” sounds big and complicated and probably for rich people, right? Actually estate planning is applicable for everyone including college students, young families and on through the ages. It merely means that you have…

New Maine Law to Combat Identity Theft

With the holidays upon us and online shopping in full force it is good to remember one step that can help protect your identity – freeze your credit. A credit freeze prevents companies or individuals from accessing your credit report. This prevents new lines of credit from being issued in your name i.e. loans or credit cards. Any consumer can place a freeze on their credit by contacting each of…

Year-end Planning

With only 2 months remaining in 2015, anyone participating in an employer-sponsored retirement plan should evaluate their contributions year to date and confirm 1 or 2 items. First, if you intend to fully maximize the amount you can defer to your 401k, 403b or SIMPLE IRA, check that deductions from your wages over the next 8 weeks are sufficient to meet this goal.  2nd, be sure to space out…

You can’t get there from here

As a financial planner I am often asked ‘Any hot stock tips’? The answer most days is no. This encourages me to remind people ‘why’ they are investing and to put less focus on the actual investment or the daily market activities.  Carl Richards depicts this quite nicely. Investments are important but first you need to figure out where you want to go (the plan): what is most important to…

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The Value of A Financial Advisor

Great article posted today on Marketwatch.com on the value of using a financial adviser. When the market gets tough we're here to hang on to!

US Markets are Bracing For a Downturn

Written by Jill Boynton August 24, 2015 As you may be aware, US markets are bracing for another downturn this morning, following last week’s steep losses. “Corrections,” defined as a loss of 10% in the broad stock index, generally occur about once every 18 months or so; the last time we experienced this was 4 years ago! The primary culprit is the Chinese stock market, which has been in a…

Car Buyers are Taking Longer Loans

A recent article in the Wall St Journal pointed out that auto loans with a term of 73 to 84 months (6-7 years) made up about 30% of all new vehicles financed in the first quarter of 2015 according to a report by Experian Automotive. Just 5 years ago they made up only 9% of auto purchases. That helped bring up the average term for new car loans to 67 months. Five years ago that number was 62 months…

An Afternoon with Purses with Purpose

Last week we took an opportunity to step away from our desks, enjoy a sunny afternoon and attend the 10th annual Purses with Purpose event. If you aren’t familiar with the organization, Purses with Purpose is a charity auction event primarily consisting of donated purses from which proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House. This year the event was held at the Woodlands Club in Falmouth, Maine and…

Sell In May and Go Away?

There is an old saying in the stock market, “Sell in May and go away”. This adage implies that the markets underperform during the summer and you will have better long-term returns if you stay out of the stock market. There is some merit to the saying, according to the website Seeking Alpha (www.seekingalpha.com). The stock market has declined from May to October in many years. But when they…

Another Way to ‘Buy Local’

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending the 37th Annual Meeting for Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI). CEI, located in Wiscasset Maine, lends money and support to businesses in Maine and New England. Their philosophy was inspired by the civil rights movement and their mission is “to help create economically and environmentally healthy communities in which all people, especially those with low…