If there’s a lesson we seem to learn the hard way every holiday season, it’s the insidious effect of compound calories. A taste here, a nibble there … hey, somebody’s got to lick that bowl. The next thing you know, those numbers have taken on an exponential life of their own, and you’re going to have to put your Fitbit into overdrive to get back on track. Fortunately, compounding has its...

Perhaps I should have known on that day more than 18 years ago, when I caught my own breath listening to my son Devon’s beating heart for the first time: I was about to give birth to a talented and enthusiastic drummer. Regardless of where the future takes him, I hope Devon will always march to his own beautiful rhythm – the one that we celebrated recently at his Seniors...

  Todays post is written by SAGEbroadview Principal, Larry Annello. A few months ago, I introduced our adorable puppy Colbie to the SAGEbroadview community. While our affection for her has grown with her paw size, Colbie is lucky that she is so darn cute, given her talent for sniffing out trouble. This reminds me of one way that investing does NOT parallel our beguiling girl: During turbulent markets, mutual fund investors can...

We don’t know when the Fed might begin to increase short-term interest rates. We don’t know by how much, nor how rapidly it might occur. Come what may, you can best protect your own financial interests in the face of rising interest rates by understanding how the Federal Reserve’s actions interplays with the rest of our global capital economy. In our last post, we looked at the connections between short-term...

Part One: Savings & Debt Similar to that saying about the weather, it seems everyone has been talking about the likelihood of rising interest rates, but nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Are interest rates going to go up soon? When? How much? These questions pale in comparison to what most investors really want to know: How will rising rates affect me (and can I do anything about it)? If...

“How do you pick the funds you use?” This is a frequently asked question, and a fair one. Out of the thousands of contenders, how do we pick the right funds for you and your investment portfolio? Our selection process is a bit like a highly personalized, sudden-death tournament. We still consider the entire mutual fund universe of possibilities, but it’s relatively easy to eliminate the vast majority of them in...

October,  2015 Which Hat Are You Wearing? By Jim Parker Vice President  “Most of us have multiple roles—as business owners, professionals, workers, consumers, citizens, students, parents and investors. So our views of the world can differ according to whatever hat we’re wearing at any one time. This complexity of people and their range of motivations, depending on their circumstances, highlight the inadequacy of cookie-cutter or automated investment solutions." To read more: OPEN PDF  ...

As my niece Jessica and many of her peers get up and running in their new careers, they face one more important financial challenge. In school, there are the three Rs: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Post-graduation, most young adults must manage one or more of the three Cs: College loans, car payments and credit cards. This can get in the way of your otherwise-solid head start on saving and investing...

When my niece Jessica arrived home recently from her first day in her first career as a journalist, she brought a bounteous stack of “homework” along with her. Nope, this wasn’t her first writing assignment. It was the enrollment forms for a variety of employee-sponsored insurance plans. Let’s review some of the advice I offered her on how to make the most of the benefits now available to her. HEALTH INSURANCE: Resources:...