Money Wisdom & Musings

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…

Celebrating our 11th Year Anniversary

Cornerstone Financial Planning, a fee-only financial planning and investment management firm, announced that today marks their 11th year of helping people achieve their financial goals. Susan Veligor and Jill Boynton joined forces back in February 2004 to found Cornerstone Financial Planning. Since then the company has grown to five employees over their two offices in Portland, Maine and…

Heavy snow could mean financial trouble

Its winter and we should all be prepared for snow, but this winter has been a record-breaker!  And it isn’t over yet. While you’re shoveling your walkway for the hundredth time keep in mind that the heavy amounts of snow that have fallen over the past couple of months could be damaging to homes and cause financial trouble.  Ice dams prevent proper drainage of snow and water from the roof. …