Sensible Perspectives
Medicare Part B: A great health care companion, but it doesn’t like to be kept waiting
Posted by Rick Fine on April 25, 2017
In this article, I discuss Medicare Part B – sometimes referred to as retiree “Medical Insurance”. Part B purportedly focuses on the services, diagnostic tests, and medical equipment that doctors provide or prescribe, as opposed to those services that hospitals and skilled nursing facilities provide (i.e., Part A, or “Hospital Insurance” – described in […]How Does Prepaying your Mortgage Actually Work?
Posted by Jay Abolofia on April 25, 2017
When you make an extra payment on your mortgage, that money goes directly toward reducing the balance on your loan. Because of how the loan is structured, the extra payment triggers a cascade effect that speeds up the repayment of the loan. In what follows, I discuss the mechanics of your mortgage and illustrate exactly […]Wall Street Journal Article Highlights Sensible Financial Transparency
Posted by Rick Miller on April 17, 2017
In researching his recent Intelligent Investor column in the Wall Street Journal, Jason Zweig found that many financial advisors claim to be “conflict free”, either because they have fiduciary status or because they operate on a fee-only basis. Zweig argues that no matter how sincerely some advisors may believe it, they can’t be conflict free. […]Medicare Part A – Is it Really Free?
Posted by Rick Fine on March 24, 2017
In last month’s newsletter, I gave a summary of Medicare, the Federal government insurance program that covers a large portion of health care expenses for seniors and people with certain disabilities. In that article, I said that Parts A and B form the core of Medicare, with other parts supplementing these two programs. In this […]Health Savings Accounts: A sensible way to save for health-related expenses
Posted by Josh Trubow on March 23, 2017
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were signed into law in 2003 by George W. Bush. HSAs are bank or brokerage accounts that allow you to save for qualified medical expenses. Many people do not fully understand how these accounts function or how they may be beneficial, even though they have been available for nearly […]Sensible Tops in San Diego
Posted by Frank Napolitano on March 22, 2017
Sensible Financial was recently named one of the 2017 Top Ten Best Financial Advisors in San Diego by AdvisoryHQ News. AdvisoryHQ News has over five million readers and provides extensive research, reviews, and rankings on financial firms and products for consumers across the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia. Their reviews and rankings are independently researched […]Will Trump abolish the DOL fiduciary rule? Does it matter?
Posted by Frank Napolitano on February 23, 2017
Only a few months ago I wrote How the DOL’s New Fiduciary Rule Will Affect Retirement Advice. In doing so, I threw three years of law school education out the window and broke one of the profession’s cardinal rules: Never speak in absolutes! (As if “never” weren’t an absolute!). I’d like to take this opportunity […]Digesting the Alphabet Soup of Medicare
Posted by Rick Fine on February 22, 2017
This article is the first in a series on Medicare, the Federal government insurance program that provides health care to seniors and people with certain disabilities. In this article, I provide an overview of Medicare and its component Parts. Future articles will describe various aspects of Medicare in more detail. Medicare is a health […]My Dinner with Ben Bernanke
Posted by Rick Miller on February 14, 2017
On February 2nd, I had dinner with former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke. I hasten to add, lest I give you the wrong impression, that the occasion was the CFA Society Boston Market Dinner, and there were approximately 1,100 guests in all. Bernanke’s remarks highlighted the event, followed by Society President George Hoguet’s extended Question and […]The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
Posted by Rick Miller on January 27, 2017
In The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis brings life to the friendship and working relationship between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. (Kahneman is still working – at Princeton. Unfortunately, Tversky has died.) Kahneman and Tversky were two smart guys. They thought differently about how people make judgments and decide. Their work changed economic and financial thinking. […]