Understanding the Concept of Wealth Equivalents By Christopher Music Another frequently asked question for financial advisors is “How much money do I need to be able to retire?” The answer is both simple and complex. To get a real understanding of this question, you need to understand the concept of “wealth equivalents.” What are “wealth equivalents?” A wealth equivalent is the value of investments that, if those investments yield 5% per year, would provide the ...

Why put yourself in a position where you are affected by the roller coaster of market volatility? By Christopher Music With all the volatility of the stock market, have you ever wondered what alternatives are there to the stock market? One alternative to investing in the stock market, especially during times of exceptional volatility is in a Fixed Index Annuity (FIA), a hybrid between a fixed and variable annuity, for long-term growth. What is an annuity? An annuity is an ...

2 Financial Planning Strategies to help protect your assets Would you like more control of your finances? The first thing you'd need to do is to actually create a plan. And then, you need to keep your goals and purposes in mind as you invest. But that's just the beginning. Read on for two more of the six key elements you need to deal with before you can be assured you've covered the basics. These two keys are absolutely essential, yet many people are reluctant to deal with them because doing ...

Are your assets protected? Are you sure? If you're like a lot of people, you may think your assets are safe, but the reality is very different. What is asset protection? Well, it is creating barriers between your assets and anyone who is attacking them. This includes lawsuits and taxes among others. Just know that if you own any assets in your own name they are generally NOT protected. Let's take the subject of lawsuits. Did you know that in the US alone there are more than 50,000 lawsuits filed ...

Revisiting the Debt-to-Income Ratio Rule If you have ever applied for a mortgage, you may well have wondered about where that “28/36 debt-to-income ratio rule” came from that the mortgage broker talked to you about….and whether it even makes any sense. After sometime researching, I discovered some very surprising facts. When you apply for a mortgage, the banks will usually calculate your debt-to-income ratio. The idea is that your total monthly debt repayments shouldn't be above a certain ...

5 months ago when International Business Coach & Entrepreneur, Patrick Valtin, went to speak in Budapest, he was told by event organizers that they were having trouble selling tickets because people were too concerned about the crisis to attend a business seminar. Patrick immediately told the event organizers to promote that he was coming to talk to about the crisis and how to handle it. They promptly sold 1200 tickets for the 3-day seminar and Valtin’s Crisis Buster event was born. Tampa ...

April was another good month for investors. The ASX 200 rose by 5.5%, and is now more than 20% above its 6 March low. The US share market, as represented by the S&P500 index, rose by 9.4% in the month (its best month since early 2000). It is now 29% above its early-March low. The US share market has now risen in seven of the past eight weeks, including a run of six successive weekly rises in the market. Believe it or not, the last time that the US share market rose for six weeks in succession wa ...

Roman, Romania – 20th May 2009: Due to the global economic recession, huge financial problems have arisen for exotic tourist destinations such as Uganda, Brazil and Egypt. Meanwhile, other areas of the tourism industry, such as those offering discounts on high-end holidays, or budget holidays closer to home are thriving. Once thought to be immune to the negative effects of the recession, certain areas of the usually lucrative travel industry have had to cut costs, lose staff and even shut down. ...