Financial Symmetry News & Views

Archive for ‘Take Charge of your Finances’

Watch out for scammers trying to take advantage of the current confusion on the new health care law.  They are banking on folks not knowing enough of the details in order to con them into buying bogus policies.  If you are contacted by anyone trying to sell you a health insurance policy by saying it [...]

With the end of the first quarter of 2010 behind us, now is a great time to review your budget.
When checking up on your budget, it is important to look over a specific amount of time for comparisons to actual expenses. Comparing expenses on a monthly basis can be a source of frustration as there [...]

If you invest in your employer sponsored retirement plan you have probably heard of Target-Date funds.  These funds are characterized as investments that change the allocation of stocks, bonds, and cash according to your specified retirement date.  In theory, these funds should progressively reduce risk exposure as the target date approaches.  However, there are no [...]

When Congress left town on Christmas Eve, it failed to address a major issue – the repeal of the federal estate tax…

In response to the many fears and uncertainties that arose during the recent economic crisis, The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) Consumer Education Foundation sponsored multiple financial advice events around the country as part of the “Your Money Bus” tour.  On Tuesday January 19th, the “Your Money Bus” rolled in to downtown Raleigh, [...]

Have you made your 2009 Roth IRA contribution?
If you have not yet made the maximum contribution, you still have time!  Tax payers have until April 15th of 2010 to make their Roth contributions for the 2009 tax year.  If you are within the income limitations to make contributions, a Roth IRA is an excellent investment [...]

There’s no better time than the beginning of a new year to implement a new budget in order to gain control of your spending. In the final installment of our series on Quicken, we provide a few pointers to make using Quicken more meaningful so that you can better track where your money goes.

Even though 2010 is almost here, you still have time to take advantage of some 2009 tax planning strategies.  Here are some suggestions to consider before ringing in the New Year.

Should you take losses or pull in capital gains?  It depends on your likely tax bracket…Take a look at [...]

As many of you know, it can be hard to create a budget and even harder to stick to it. To do so, we generally recommend using software like Quicken that is designed specifically for expense tracking.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is offering as much as 330% of a brokers annual production to join the firm.

Click here to view the article from Investment News: “Morgan Stanley Smith Barney pumps up recruiting packages to lure top producers.”

With all the problems that big Wall Street firms caused for the global economy, it is absolutely [...]