Personal Finance - North Light Financial Services

The Retirement Mindgame

The Retirement Mindgame: Your outlook may influence your financial outcome. What kind of retirement do you think you’ll have? An outstanding one? A depressing one? What if it all starts with your outlook? Qualitatively speaking, what if the success or failure of your retirement begins with your perception of retirement? A whole field of study has emerged on the psychology of saving, spending and investing: behavioral finance. Since retirement saving is a behavior (and since other behaviors influence it), it [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:22-04:00August 29th, 2014|Personal Finance, Retirement|Comments Off

What Beneficiaries Need To Know

What Beneficiaries Need To Know What do you do when an account owner passes away? If your loved ones have invested, saved or insured themselves to any degree, you may be named as a beneficiary to one or more of their accounts, policies or assets in the event of their deaths. While we all hope “that day” never comes, we do need to know what to do financially if and when it does. Legally, just who is a beneficiary? IRAs, [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:22-04:00August 21st, 2014|Estate Planning, Personal Finance|Comments Off

Taking Taxes Into Account When Saving & Investing

Taking Taxes Into Account When Saving & Investing It isn’t always top of mind, but it should be. How many of us save and invest with an eye on tax implications? Not that many of us, according to a recent survey from Russell Investments (the global asset manager overseeing the Russell 2000). In the opening quarter of 2014, Russell polled financial services professionals and asked them how many of their clients had inquired about tax-sensitive investment strategies. Just 35% of [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:22-04:00August 7th, 2014|Income Taxes, Investing, Personal Finance|Comments Off

Coping with College Loans

Coping With College Loans Paying them down, managing their financial impact. Are student loans holding our economy back? Certainly America has recovered from the last recession, but this is an interesting question nonetheless. In a November 2013 address before the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Assistant Director Rohit Chopra expressed that college loan debt “may prove to be one of the more painful aftershocks of the Great Recession.” In fact, outstanding education debt in America [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:25-04:00June 27th, 2014|Personal Finance, Student Loans|Comments Off

Rising Interest Rates

Rising Interest Rates How might they affect investments, housing & retirees? How will Wall Street fare if interest rates climb back to historic norms? Rising interest rates could certainly impact investments, the real estate market and the overall economy – but their influence might not be as negative as some perceive. Why are rates rising? You can cite three factors. The Federal Reserve is gradually reducing its monthly asset purchases. As that has happened, inflation expectations have grown, and perception [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:25-04:00June 11th, 2014|Business/Economic News, Interest Rates, Personal Finance|Comments Off