Posts by Curt Lyman

How to Have a Happy Retirement

How to Have a Happy Retirement

May 16, 2018

The most important thing you can do when you retire is have a clear plan for how you want to spend your days. Scheduling is essential so that you don’t begin spending too much time in front of the television instead of living your best life. Here are some ideas for you to consider. You may want to start with a transition period You may want to take a year off when you first retire to get adjusted, decompress and gain perspective, especially if you’ve spent your life engaged in a hectic or stressful career. This is your chance to
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Riding the Rockies, Trading Update, April 25, 2018

Riding the Rockies, Trading Update, April 25, 2018

April 27, 2018

I’ve been spending a significant amount of time over the past several weeks pondering the following: Which of the two interest rate scenarios do I think are most likely to play out over the coming months: A ‘benign’ Federal Reserve with gradually rising interest rates along the curve over an extended period?  A ‘slow walk’ higher in a leisurely, controlled fashion? Interest rates rising gradually on the short end of the yield curve and long term rates remaining stable resulting in a flattening of the yield curve. A rapid rise in the yield curve with long rates moving higher as
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May and June are big wedding months. Is the price tag too high?

May and June are big wedding months. Is the price tag too high?

April 24, 2018

How can you plan a wonderful celebration for the most important day in a couple’s life—without overspending? It used to be that parents paid for a daughter’s wedding as a matter of course. But for better or worse—or richer or poorer—families and cultural norms have changed. Maybe that’s partly due to the high price tag for a ceremony with all the trimmings; now couples often pay for their wedding themselves while other family members chip in. It’s no surprise that weddings aren’t cheap, but they’ve gotten exorbitantly expensive in the last couple of decades. In fact, the average cost of
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5 Ways to Give Your Finances a $pring Cleaning

5 Ways to Give Your Finances a $pring Cleaning

March 26, 2018

Spring is coming! Time to get your finances in shipshape condition. Here are five ideas to get you started.   Check your credit reports. While you’re reviewing your expenses and debts in order to see how you fared last year in terms of staying within your personal budget, make sure that there aren’t any expenses or debts on your credit report that aren’t yours. It’s free to check your credit reports once a year to ensure no one has used your name or identity to make unauthorized purchases. And with the Equifax data breach making headlines last year, we do
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Long-term care—what are your options?

Long-term care—what are your options?

February 20, 2018

  No one wants to think about the fact that they may become unable to care for themselves someday, but the truth is that more than 50%1 of people 65 or older are estimated to need long-term or nursing care at some point. Costs for long-term care vary by state. The average cost2 of a semi-private room in a nursing care facility was more than $7,000 per month in 2017; in Florida it’s closer to $8,000. Nursing home care for just two years could be upwards of $190,000. Multiply that out by realistic longevity projections.3 If you have already reached
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