Human capital is an important part of the portfolio. A lifetime balance sheet is used to determine budget when planning for the future. Rick Miller discusses the assets and liabilities that go into sustainable life-cycle planning.
Financial IQ
How You Can Apply The Serenity Prayer To Your Financial Life
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. -Reinhold Niebuhr I often see families who could benefit from more serenity in their financial lives. To illustrate this concept, I created a hypothetical [Learn more…]
Estate Plan Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid
Every December I try to attend the Harvard Memorial Church’s Annual Carols Service. This year I was supposed to go with an old friend. I’ll call him Larry. Larry and I had dinner in October to celebrate his 64th birthday. We made plans at the time to attend the Carols Service together. Four days later [Learn more…]
Financial Plans vs Financial Planning
“…Plans Are Useless, But Planning Is Indispensable” — Dwight D Eisenhower All of our financial plans come with caveats (as does every professional financial plan): * The price level in ten years is unknown. The plan can’t reflect future asset prices and amounts accurately. * Your income will change, and probably increase, but it isn’t [Learn more…]
Financial Literacy and the Educated American
In mid-March, I attended “Financial Literacy and the Educated American” at The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It attracted a diverse group of academics, federal and state government officials and interested professionals from business and non-profit organizations. The US Department of Labor and General Accounting Office, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Harvard [Learn more…]
Great Expectations… Dashed
A recent Wall Street Journal article observes that the financial crisis and increasing longevity have combined to alter baby boomers’ inheritance expectations dramatically. Many parents suffered substantial losses in the 2007-2009 market crash. Many parents are living longer than they expected. Greater demands placed upon smaller parental resources are a recipe for smaller inheritances. To add [Learn more…]