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We constantly hear that Americans are not saving enough for retirement. In fact, the constancy of the message likely causes worry for even the best of savers. These are the folks who reach their final years with a big portfolio wishing they’d traveled more, retired earlier or given more during their lifetime. Often, savers can find it difficult to spend joyfully.  Here are some reasons why:

The question of whether you should pay off your mortgage is a complex one and everyone has an opinion. Some radio talk show hosts say all debts should be eliminated as fast as possible, including your mortgage. Debt presumes on the future they say. Your ability to pay might be impacted by health, job, or other unforeseen factors.

Efficiency and control are two words not generally associated with the process of active investing, but they should be. The disciplines of saving taxes, keeping expenses low, and ensuring you don’t under-perform the markets in which you invest, offer real and measurable improvements in your returns – in fact, some like Betterment and Wealthfront claim up to 4% or more. Our clients have enjoyed the benefits of control and efficiency for eight years. Here are eight ways we do it.

The latest flap about high frequency trading has everyone talking again about fairness of markets, with some, namely Michael Lewis, calling them 'rigged.' In essence, it's a story about a few trading on information obtained before the public gets the same information. Not surprisingly, the concept is not new.

Persistence, defined as "continuing without change in function or structure," can be a remarkably good force in our lives or a devastatingly bad one; depending upon our track. What we persist in, we generally accomplish; good or bad.

  Janet Yellen's first Federal Open Market Committee policy statement as Fed chair caused a bit of a ruckus in both the Treasury and stock markets. As experts have pointed out, it wasn't so much what she said, but rather what the "dots" portend for future interest rate hikes. There was no surprise when the Fed announced they would continue to reduce their monthly purchases of Treasuries by $10 billion per month to a still very large $55 billion starting in April. The sell-off of short and intermediate Treasuries was triggered, according to Barrons by a chart of projections showing FOMC members' expectations of where the fed funds rate would be at the end of 2015.

As a financial advisor, one of the questions I’m often asked is "how should I plan for Social Security?"  More and more young people today are choosing to plan for their retirement as if it will not be around.  While this approach may seem prudent its implementation can be costly.  Planning for retirement as if Social Security will not play a role requires you to make accommodations for its absence.

One of Wall Street's wisest admonishments is to avoid positioning one's investments contrary to Fed guidance or actions. After all, they are the only buyer or seller in the US with an unlimited supply of money for their purposes. Since the Great Recession our Federal Reserve has been bent and determined to stimulate employment, with few references to the inflation it might cause. In fact, they have been far more concerned with deflation than with the threat of too much money driving up prices.