Category: Debt

Life Insurance and the Elderly: Leveraged, Already-Bought Assets that Should Not be Wasted

I just caught the tail end of a Dave Ramsey segment (he of AM radio financial advice call-in show) during which Dave, hater of all things debt, recommended that a son tell his 80-something year old parents to surrender a life insurance policy that had a death benefit of $150k […]

Top 10 Financial Don’ts

Here I am, doing Top 10 lists this week, and in my morning reading I come across this in the Washington Post: Group releases list of 90 medical ‘don’ts’ Don’t use feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia. Don’t use drugs to aggressively treat diabetes in those older than 65. […]

The Heartbreak of Student Debt

As a financial planner, I sometimes hear really sad stories. And sometimes I hear stories that are so . . . repugnant, let’s say . . . that I feel them in my gut and it takes my breath away and leaves a big pit in my stomach. On the […]

15-Year vs. 30-Year Mortgages (Part 1): Fun with Pix and Historic Data

A few days ago I wrote about the difference between tax-deferred retirement accounts and tax-paid retirement accounts, and commented about how the difference between the two is akin to a choice between instant gratification (for TDAs) and delayed gratification (for TPAs). So how about taking that same framework to mortgages? […]

On Shelter Comings and Goings, and Refinancings: The Certainty of Uncertainty

One week off from writing, and I felt at a loss for a topic, until listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio this morning and then . . . I listened to Dave answer an emailed question along the lines of, “Dave, I can re-fi my mortgage, which is at 5.125%, […]

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