Author Archive
Friday, February 5th, 2010 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
The decision to convert Traditional IRA funds (or a 401k) to a Roth IRA can be a difficult decision. In many cases it involves the use of several assumptions. Changing those ...
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Tags: Roth 2010, Roth conversion, Roth conversion calculator, Roth IRA, Roth IRA Conversion
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
Note from the author: This is the first of many blogs dealing with the 2010 tax rule allowing anyone to convert traditional retirement funds into a Roth IRA. The decision whether ...
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Tags: Roth 2010, Roth conversion, Roth conversion calculator, Roth IRA, Roth IRA Conversion
Posted in Financial Planning, Investments | No Comments »
Monday, November 30th, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
In my experience, Mental Accounting is by far the most common bias exhibited by investors. It can also do the most harm to an otherwise well conceived financial plan.
Basically, it works ...
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Tags: mental accounting
Posted in Behavioral Finance, Investments | No Comments »
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
There is a popular indicator of investor sentiment that follows the net inflows and outflows into certain investments. In a nutshell, it goes like this:
o When investor inflows are at their ...
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Tags: Anchoring, Bandwagon Effect, Cognitive Dissonance, Endowment Effect, House Money Effect, Investor Bias, Misdirected Worry, Overconfidence, Representativeness, Snake-bite Effect
Posted in Behavioral Finance, Investments | No Comments »
Monday, November 9th, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
The last two years have exposed a lifetime of emotions for most investors. Plummeting markets brought fear. Those who held the course were rewarded with a strong, rapid recovery bringing a ...
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Tags: Behavioral Finance, kahneman, prospect theory, prospective gains, prospective losses, tversky
Posted in Behavioral Finance, Investments | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
A comparison of popular gifting strategies
Summary:
· If the gift is meant to be used in 18 years (in the case of a college education) or more, I tend to favor strategies ...
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Tags: 529 Plans, 529 Savings Plans, College Planning, College Savings, College Savings Plans, financial aid, generation-skipping gifts, gifting, gifting to minors, investing for college, Life Insurance, multi-generational wealth, newborn baby, Saving for College, UGMA accounts, UTMA, wealth building
Posted in Financial Planning, Investments | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 26th, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
In the 80's and into the early 90's there was a popular theory about life insurance: "Buy term and invest the difference".
Essentially, you would buy a low cost 20 year term ...
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Tags: buy term and invest the difference, Life Insurance, NLPG, no lapse premium guarantee, Term insurance, ul, universal life insurance, variable life insurance, vul
Posted in Insurance, Life Insurance | No Comments »
Monday, October 5th, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
I find myself giving clients this piece of advice more than any other recommendation I make:
"Contribute to your retirement plan...as much as you can afford".
There is a caveat to that statement, ...
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Tags: 2009 maximum contribution, 401k, company match, employer match, optimal contribution, salary deferral, SIMPLE IRA
Posted in Financial Planning, Investments | No Comments »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
Arriving on the scene several years ago, 529 savings plans shoulda, coulda, woulda been the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are hundreds of articles on the web and in magazines ...
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Tags: 529 Plan, 529 Plans, 529 Savings Plan, 529 Savings Plans, Age-based investments, College Planning, College Savings Plans, Investments, Saving for College, Tax-deferred investments
Posted in Investments | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 10th, 2009 by Cass Chappell, CFP®
Note from the author: Other than offering that something needs to be done and that we could go about it in a more constructive manner, I have intentionally attempted to leave ...
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Tags: cobra, Georgia health insurance, Health Insurance, healthcare debate, Healthcare reform, rising healthcare costs, town hall meetings
Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance | No Comments »
