Deborah Bell

 The New Year is a customary time to speculate.  In a digital age, when past forecasts are available online, market and media professionals find it harder to hide their blushes when their financial predictions go awry.  But there are ways around that.

Have you ever made yourself suffer through a bad movie because, having paid the ticket, you felt you had to get your money's worth? Some people treat investment the same way.

Behavioral economists have a name for this tendency to stick with a losing strategy.  It's called the "sunk cost fallacy".

Global markets are providing investors a rough ride at the moment, as the focus turns to China's economic outlook.  But while falling markets can be  worrisome, maintaining a longer term perspective makes the volatility easier to handle

Dimensional brings great academic research to life.  Since their founding, they have forged lasting relationships  with the best academics in the field, gaining insights and inspiration from their work.  This expansive body of research is in the public domain and well  known to financial professionals.

American workers forfeit an estimated $24 Billion a year by not contributing enough money to their company 401(k) plans to capture their employer's full matching contribution, according to a newly released research project.

What is a financial advisor for?  One view is that advisors have unique insights into market direction that give their clients an advantage.  But of the many roles a professional advisor should play, soothsayer is not one of them.

The Financial World makes a big deal of the market being up 250 points or down a similar amount daily. The question should be what was the percentage of increase or decrease. This is the number that really counts since depending on the Dow Jones S&P or NASDAQ levels it can be a big deal or not..

Mr. Kahneman, an eminent Princeton University psychologist, Nobel laureate says advisors must recognize the cost and futility of betting against the market.

Identity theft cases tend to peak during tax-filing season as thieves snatch taxpayers’ IDs to file fraudulent returns and claim refunds so now is a good time to talk about steps you should be taking to avoid having your IDs filched.

Marlena Lee, PhD, explains that the answer should be customized based on each individual’s lifestyle and income prior to retirement. 

I highly recommend that you watch this video.

Retirement