For several decades now housing prices have appreciated rapidly, mostly due to easy credit policies that have allowed more people to own their own home. The trend accelerated until recently, when problems in the subprime mortgage markets brought the party to an end. But from 1994 to 2005, some 3.2 million households were able to...Read More

In this busy world of ours we all know how important it is to have timely information in order to make wise choices. We gather that information from the Internet (extensive but sometimes a bit complex), newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. But, typically, we just reach for the telephone. There are, however, some contemporary challenges...Read More

I’m not one to dwell on my past much. On the contrary, I’ve sometimes been described as barely living in the present and mostly thinking of the future, which likely reflects my training as a financial planner and investment advisor. In this profession, it’s mostly about the future. Even though I don’t engage much in...Read More

If you haven’t vacationed abroad recently, you might be unaware of the U.S. dollar’s sharp decline against many of the world’s major currencies. Most Americans don’t look at the value of the dollar everyday, as they do the stock and bond markets. It’s typically only when you travel to a foreign country that you realize...Read More

My staff and I were eating lunch together in the office, as we often do. Jeff Roberto, our Director of Portfolio Operations and Administration who is the father of three children, thanked me for giving him an article on how much it costs to raise a child these days: about $1 million, according to the...Read More

I was out of the office at a Board Meeting, when I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket. After the meeting adjourned, I called my voice mail. My son Steve left a message to call him — it was important. I could tell by the tone in his voice (most parents have this...Read More

I recently spotted an article in Barron’s magazine about the Standard & Poor’s 500 index retracing its losses from March 2000, when the index hit a record high, to May 2007, the so-called breakeven date, when it closed at a new record high. This period included the three-year bear market that began in March of...Read More

The current vogue for hedge funds has caused this once arcane corner of the investment world to grow exponentially, doubling its assets under management in the last five years to about $1.4 trillion spread among 9,200 funds. Hedge funds once required you to be rich and put up big bucks to get in. Due to...Read More

Difficult and often agonizing, it’s the crossroad every senior dreads, the time when it’s necessary to consider abandoning the comfort of the familiar for a more practical, age-appropriate living scenario. This transition is often referred to as “downsizing,” but we prefer to call it “Right-Sizing.” For most, it is a difficult process encompassing emotional and...Read More