Year: 2021

Although we may know of various scams and how to avoid them, we can’t know them all because they are changing all the time. Sometimes we can spot these changes as they happen. When the Nigerian prince scam changed from being mailed to being emailed, it wasn’t that hard to tell it was the same…

Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. Although one might have expected charitable giving to have decreased in uncertain times during a global pandemic, Americans donated a record $471 billion dollars to charity in 2020, according to a recent report in Giving USA. One wealth management strategy for a substantial gift…

Social Security may be about to experience one of its largest increases for cost of living since the 1980s, due to the recent increases in inflation. Some estimates show an increase as high as 6%, and the actual numbers will be released later in October. Although Social Security is for all workers, it is complicated.…

A recently proposed bill in California is geared toward helping people stay sober by providing financial incentives to so. Although it might seem as though financial incentives would not be substantial enough to change behavior in terms of healthcare, we recently saw that incentives increased the likelihood of people getting a vaccine when they were…

For many of us, the first time we talk about money with our kids (aka “ the money talk”) is when they are younger and we explain the benefits of saving some of their allowance. As they get older, we talk about the danger of credit card debt and understanding the value of delayed gratification…

According to a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, reported at thehill.com, 85% of respondents are concerned about inflation, and 45% are very concerned. Beyond polling data, we can tell from looking at Google trend graphs that searches for information on inflation more than doubled in May, and that keyword search continues to be above average. Google’s…

I am always receiving e-mails soliciting my attendance at seminars on a myriad of topics related to the financial services industry. In early May, one solicitation really piqued my interest, not because I was going to attend, but rather it was the subject matter I found interesting, How Offering “High Touch” Bill Pay Services Can…