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Schulz Wealth Blog

Do You Need Long Term Care and Life Insurance in Retirement?

Do You Need Long Term Care and Life Insurance in Retirement?

As we get older and enter retirement, some decisions need to be made regarding insurance coverage. We know from our own experiences with elderly parents – and from what we read – t...

Maximizing the Benefits of Health Savings Accounts

Maximizing the Benefits of Health Savings Accounts

At this point, just about everyone seems to be enrolled in a high deductible Health Savings Account (HSA) compatible health plan. The escalating costs of healthcare are astounding....

Saturday Morning Silliness: Financial Advice via your Radio

Saturday Morning Silliness: Financial Advice via your Radio

From time to time, clients ask me to comment on what they hear from financial advisors on the radio. The first thing I try to explain is these are paid advertisements. Local adviso...

Equifax Breach Important Information

Equifax Breach Important Information

Unfortunately, the recent Equifax data breach affected almost any American who has ever used credit; so that probably includes you and me. After a little bit of research and though...

Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief

Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief

I am sure many of you have experienced a similar moment in the last few days. For me, it was a picture posted on Facebook by one of my old college buddies. A picture of the house h...

Align Spending with Values

Align Spending with Values

I have the opportunity to review client spending patterns regularly, and it’s one of the most important exercises in our client process. Very few of us voluntarily want to discuss ...

Making Good Housing Choices

Making Good Housing Choices

For many of us, our house represents a significant portion of our net worth and mortgage payments dominate our monthly cash flow obligations. Therefore, the way we purchase and fin...

CFP Board’s Proposed Changes - What You Need to Know

CFP Board’s Proposed Changes - What You Need to Know

In June, the CFP Board released proposed revisions to its Standards of Professional Conduct, for public comment. The public forums on these proposed changes just wrapped up last we...

Protecting your Downside in an Up-Market

Protecting your Downside in an Up-Market

Wow, the market is pretty hot right now with valuations at all time highs. Data suggests small investors are jumping in with both feet. A recent WSJ article quoted Martin Small, he...

Automatic Saving May Be Better Than Intentional Budgeting

Automatic Saving May Be Better Than Intentional Budgeting

We’ve had some great budgeting discussions with some our clients recently. If you work with us, you know we regularly update cash flow statements. Knowing your “burn rate”, as we l...

A Simple Estate Plan Review is Worthwhile

A Simple Estate Plan Review is Worthwhile

We tend to believe once our estate documents are signed, we can lock them away only to be seen again when we are gone from this world. The sense of peace in knowing our wishes have...

The More We Make, the Tougher It Becomes to Retire

The More We Make, the Tougher It Becomes to Retire

In this final quarter of the year, I had the opportunity to run retirement plans on quite a few 401(k) plan participants. Whenever possible, I enjoy sitting one-on-one with employe...

Finally....A Fiduciary Standard that Makes Sense

Finally....A Fiduciary Standard that Makes Sense

With regard to a fiduciary standard for my industry, it’s been a long road so I won’t bore you with the historical details. From the lawsuits (see End of “Merrill Lynch” Rule Leave...

Lessons and Insight into Dallas Police & Fire Pension Debacle

Lessons and Insight into Dallas Police & Fire Pension Debacle

For the last week, our local news in the DFW area has been all abuzz about problems within the DPFP (Dallas Police & Fire Pension). A great MarketWatch article came out yesterd...

Kid Allowance Do's and Don'ts

Kid Allowance Do's and Don'ts

Putting your child on an allowance is a critical step towards their eventual financial independence. It’s important to keep this future goal in mind when devising an allowance stra...

Disposable Income is a Dangerous Concept

Disposable Income is a Dangerous Concept

Disposable is a terrible descriptor for excess income. If we’re not careful, the excess income we earn over what we need can become a trap. More often than not, we’re going to spen...

In Investing As In Golf Instincts Can Lead Us Astray

In Investing As In Golf Instincts Can Lead Us Astray

At the urging of a friend I scheduled a golf lesson last weekend. The instructor patiently watched as balls ricocheted left and right off my 8 iron. With a grunt, he disappeared. I...

Need Help Prioritizing Debt for Payoff? Let Me Help

Need Help Prioritizing Debt for Payoff? Let Me Help

In America, paying down debt is a rite of passage. Most of us at one point or another have felt the suffocating effects of too much debt. Deleveraging can be a long and complicated...

Retirement Planning Can Be More Complicated Than It Seems: 4 Traps

Retirement Planning Can Be More Complicated Than It Seems: 4 Traps

Consumers and practitioners alike often fall into a trap. In lieu of calculating a retirement plan, we instead rely too heavily on oversimplified rules of thumb and general advice....

It's Tax Planning Season: 6 Things to Consider Now

It's Tax Planning Season: 6 Things to Consider Now

It’s tax planning season at Schulz Wealth. From now until Thanksgiving, we’ll have our eyeshades on, reviewing accounts and client files to make sure we close out the year in a tax...

Two Critical Problems with Conventional Mutual Funds

Two Critical Problems with Conventional Mutual Funds

The Wall Street Journal did a whole series of articles last week on the big shift major mutual fund companies are seeing away from active management. See: Wall Street’s ‘Do-Nothing...

A Fire Safe is a Great Investment: Why You Should Have One

A Fire Safe is a Great Investment: Why You Should Have One

Do you have a fire safe at home? If you don’t, you should. It’s an important piece of any Estate plan, and too often overlooked. Some people prefer safe deposit boxes, but I like t...

Indexing vs Low Cost Investing: There's a difference

Indexing vs Low Cost Investing: There's a difference

Indexing is not the same as smart, low cost investing. With indexing, you accept the market performance of an index designed to measure market performance. A key point here: market...

Investment Returns and Presidential Elections

Investment Returns and Presidential Elections

One month away from the general election, everyone is talking about how the next President will affect the stock market. Opinions vary based upon political leanings, but most belie...

3 Reasons to Get Serious about Your Finances

3 Reasons to Get Serious about Your Finances

updated May 1, 2018 For many people, there is a point where things change financially. It’s at different stages of life for different people, but at that point, it’s time to get se...