Category Archives: Financial Planning

Don’t just Speak to Your Parents, Do your own Planning

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As young people, a.k.a. “Millennials,” graduate, become employed, start businesses and have families, their finances change. With increasing complexity come many options they must evaluate, as well as new responsibilities. Millennials are more educated that prior generations, but they are also saddled with greater student loan debt than any prior generation. And, despite their higher level of education, they get low marks for financial literacy according to a recent U.S. Treasury Department and Department of Education assessment.

What are they doing about their finances? Sources like Pew Research Center tell us that many Millennials seek advice from their parents. Unlike Boomers who did not want to speak to their parents, Millennials often share interests with their parents and correspondingly seek their counsel.

However, taking financial advice from their parents may not a good approach because many of their parents lack sufficient savings to fund their retirement needs. Mark Grimaldi, co-author of “The Money Compass: Where Your Money Went and How to Get It Back” says “never take advice from someone less successful than you are.” He continues: “With almost 30 years investment experience, I can say with complete confidence that many baby boomers, the parents of Gen Yers, are in a financial mess.”

What, then, should Millennials do then? Talking to their parents is not inherently bad, so long as that is not their sole source. “Of course, there’s a difference between receiving [parental] advice and relying solely on the advice given,” says Kristen Robinson, senior vice president of Fidelity Investments’ women and young investors’ products. “Gen Y should listen to what parents have to say. But at the end of the day, financial decisions are personal matters and best made after carefully considering a number of factors and doing research.” From Millennials: Stop Taking Financial Advice From Mom and Dad. She concludes that Millennials really need to do is find ethical professionals for help.

So, how do they do this? They search the internet of things, of course! But, wait, is that how to find truly ethical professionals? Yes, if you search with care.

Look for:
Credentials – check out their bio, are they CFP, JD, or CPA? these help validate the advisor;
Content – are they providing original advice that is sound, helpful?
Website design – professional, kept up-to-date?
Clients – who is using them for advice?;
References – who is willing to put their own reputation at stake for this website?;
Community – who are their partners and advisors?;
 followers, fans, subscribers and user testimonials – more validation;
Website design – professional, kept up-to-date?
Avoid:
Tacky websites that don’t pass the “smell test” – if it “smells bad,” then it probably is;
Old content and closed comments;
Too many ads and pop up ads directing you to buy life insurance, etc.; and
No links to anyone you have ever heard of.

For example, companies like LearnVest and Workable Wealth provide general advice to educate before you pay. Workable Wealth has stated in blog posts the hope that educating will lessen the stress of handling your finances.

Don’t Rush to Pay off Your Student Loan – make a plan first

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This may surprise you: you should worry more about saving for retirement than paying off your student loan. Yes, there are many bloggers testifying to how they paid off their loans, and many trying to tell you that you need to too. The frequency of such posts does not mean that they are right, or that they have factored in all that you need to for a “best use of cash flow over time” plan. In fact, paying off student loans that have relatively low interest rather than investing will be a costly mistake.

Compare student loan payoff blog posts to the many advisors who encourage paying off your mortgage. The urgency to retire your mortgage belongs to the Silent Generation, who survived the Great Depression and are risk adverse. Paying off a mortgage is usually not the way to maximize your net worth. (Watch for a post on “rent vs. buy” discussing investing and use of mortgage debt.) Furthermore, tying up so much capital in a house lacks for diversification and liquidity – you cannot sell your daughter’s room to cover tuition when she goes off to college.

How do you decide what loan to pay off when? Start with this rule:

Whenever the interest rate on debt is less than the annualized return on investments, only pay the minimum on the loans

because the investments will grow faster than using the same cash to pay off debts

The term “annualized” returns is key here, as one good year is not a good measure, nor is a recent bad year; you want the 5 or better 10 year average return.

Next, when applying this general rule to yourself, be sure to use after-tax values. You can deduct home mortgage interest in most cases, a portion of student loans in some cases, and credit card debt in almost no cases, while you can deduct your investment in your retirement plan and what you invest grows tax-free until withdrawn. Roth IRAs do not give you a deduction now, but do grow tax free and withdrawals are tax-free.

Here is a quick example: say your retirement plan is all in ETFs, so it grows at about 7% per year over time, say you have a student loan with an interest rate of 3%, because you consolidated all your undergrad loans, and it has a minimum payment of $500 per month, and say you have $1,000 per month for which you want to devise the best plan. Apply no more than the required minimum to student loan and invest all the rest, maxing out your 401(k) or 403(b) plan first, and then investing in a Roth IRA next. In 10 years, you will be so much better off than the person who used the full $1,000 to pay her student loan. What if you had a loan with an interest rate of 8%? Tough call. However, because the loan is compounding over time at a higher rate, that persuades me to apply more to the loan, provided that doing so did not give up an employer match on a 401(k) plan.

These examples are overly simple, I realize. Many of you face the quandary of student loan vs. retirement funding vs. rent or buy a home and more. I am working on that …. (Watch for a post on integrating decisions on buying a home, paying off student loans, investing for retirement and all the other issues you are likely to face.)

Steve Jobs said: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” – so how does that help your career path?

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Michael Simmons recalled the impact of Steve Jobs last January in Top predictor of career success 2015.

Simmons then says: “We think we understand what caused his success. We don’t. We dismiss usable principles of success by labeling them as personality quirks. What’s often missed is the paradoxical interplay of two of his seemingly opposite qualities; maniacal focus and insatiable curiosity. These weren’t just two random strengths. They may have been his most important as they helped lead to everything else … Jobs’ curiosity fueled his passion and provided him with access to unique insights, skills, values, and world-class people who complemented his own skill set. Jobs’ focus brought those to bear in the world of personal electronics.”

In the post, he quotes Steve Jobs form 1995: “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.”

How does any of this relate to you and your career? Simmons reports from his 2013 interview of an expert on networks that a key indicator is being in “open networks.” He then indicates how that is beneficial:

• More accurate view of the world. It provides them with the ability to pull information from diverse clusters so errors cancel themselves out. Research by Philip Tetlock shows that people with open networks are better forecasters than people with closed networks.

• Ability to control the timing of information sharing. While they may not be the first to hear information, they can be the first to introduce information to another cluster. As a result, they can leverage the first move advantage.

• Ability to serve as a translator / connector between groups. They can create value by serving as an intermediary and connecting two people or organizations who can help each other who wouldn’t normally run into each other.

 • More breakthrough ideas. Brian Uzzi, professor of leadership and organizational change at the Kellogg School of Management, performed a landmark study where he delved into the tens of millions of academic studies throughout history. He compared their results by the number of citations (links from other research papers) they received and the other papers they referenced. A fascinating pattern emerged. The top performing studies had references that were 90% conventional and 10% atypical (i.e., pulling from other fields). This rule has held constant over time and across fields. People with open networks are more easily able to create atypical combinations.

Here is a quote that I find interesting (and can relate to):

This is challenging in that it can lead to feeling like an outsider as a result of being misunderstood and under-appreciated because few people understand why you think the way you do. It is also challenging, because it requires assimilating different and conflicting perspectives into one worldview.

And this really does ultimately get back to Steve Jobs, who said “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” If you have not read, or better yet, watched this, find time to do so: The 2005 Stanford commencement address Jobs – “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Michael Simmons is a bestselling author and the co-founder of Empact, a global entrepreneurship education organization that has held 500+ entrepreneurship events including Summits at the White House, US Chamber of Commerce, and United Nations.

5 Things Every Young Person Should Know About Retirement – You’ve got time, so use that time well!

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If you are young, you’ve got time, and if you use that time well, you may even make up for the possibility of no pension and no Social Security benefits.

1. You won’t have what your parents had – no pension and no social security. Millennials are the first post-war generation to face retirement with virtually no pension. Fewer than 7% of Fortune 500 companies offer pension plans to new hires. Also, the way that the Social Security system is currently funded, there will be no reserves by 2033. Social security benefits are paid to retirees from the tax withholdings of the current workforce and also from the Social Security Reserves. Once the reserves are depleted, it is estimated the tax revenues the collected at that time will only be enough to pay out three quarters of the scheduled benefits. There are measures Congress could take to head off this eventual depletion, like changing the benefit formulas, raising payroll taxes or increasing the cap on taxable wage income. Until any changes are actually implemented, don’t count on any benefits!

2. Learn how to save and spend – now! It’s never too late to adopt good spending and saving habits, and the sooner you do it, the better. The more you can set aside that is invested now, the better off you will be. Also, avoid accruing any high interest rate debts. You can make your coffee at home if that is what allows you to max-out contributions to your 401(k) plan, especially if your employer matches what you contribute. If you do not have employer-sponsored plan, open a Roth IRA or even a traditional IRA. It’s a lot easier to put money aside now than it is to play catch-up in your 40s. And you can set up auto-debits so the investments are made as soon as your paycheck hits your bank account – keeping it out of your shopping slush fund!

3. We’re living longer, healthier lives. Longer, healthier lives are good, but they also require more investments at retirement. If you hit the Social Security full retirement of 67 now, the Center for Disease Control estimates you will live to around 86. That’s 19 years of retirement that you need to fund. But, if you are younger, living a longer, healthier life, then you will likely live longer, requiring more funds, unless you choose to work later in your life.

4. The good news is you have time. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College suggests that, by setting aside money at age 25, you will need to save only about 10% of your annual income to retire at 65. If you wait to save, the percentage you need each year increases. If you wait ten years, starting at age 35, your target savings increases to 15%. Wait until you’re 45 and you’ll need to save 27% of your annual income. Imagine if you were 55 today and wanted to retire at age 67? The message is: don’t wait!

5. You also have great resources. With smartphone apps and do-it-yourself trading services, investing is more accessible and less costly than ever. Also, there are more affordable investment products available like ETFs (see our post), so you avoid high fund manager fees. Saving on fees means more to grow for your retirement. Over the course of 40 years, those fund manager fees add up to real money.

In sum, start saving now. Set up a simple portfolio and adjust it as you go along. The time you’ve got now will reward you later!

Achieving a Better Life Experience Act – first look

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President Barack Obama recently signed the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act (ABLE Act). The ABLE Act allows individuals and families to open tax-free savings accounts to save for long-term needs associated with an individual’s disability.

These accounts are modeled after 529 college savings accounts. To qualify, a person must be diagnosed with a disability resulting in “marked and severe functional limitations” by the age of 26. An account can be established for an individual without jeopardizing that person’s eligibility for federal programs such as Medicaid. The funds saved in these accounts can be used for a variety of expenses including transportation, housing, employment support and health care.

Like 529 plans, earnings in these accounts grow tax-free, but contributions are made with after-tax dollars. Accounts can be set up at financial institutions and the annual contribution limit is $14,000. ABLE accounts are allowed to accrue up to $100,000 in savings without affecting a person’s eligibility for government aid such as Social Security. This is a great improvement for ABLE account holders over the current asset limit of $2,000. Medicaid coverage would continue no matter how much money is in the accounts.

These accounts can be a useful planning tool for those living with or caring for someone with a physical or developmental disability.