How Does the Current Financial Market & Politics Affect You?

This is certainly an interesting time that we live in. With all the turmoils that we've seen in the mortgage industry, the housing market, and the rollercoaster rides in the equity market, everyone is looking at the Federal government to see what it's going to do. Well, there is a new housing bill that was passed by the House and is going to the Senate in the next few days. It is expected that the Senate will pass the bill, and President Bush seems to be willing to sign off on it as well.

This bill addresses issues and concerns for many people. Check out the link below with details of the proposals in the bill and you might find some nuggets:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/25money.html?_r=2&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

How Much Do You Need to Retire?

It's been a long time since I blogged. It's good to be "back".

Lately, I have had quite a few conversations with others about how much do we really need to retire? What I'm finding is that most people don't REALLY know. Some may have vague ideas, and others have no clues. This is pretty concerning given the current economic condition and how it's impacting people in many ways, not only today, but their future.

I attended a dinner presentation last night with the Financial Women's Association group. The topic was "Lessons Learned". The speaker was a well established financial planner who primarily focused on women clients. Some of the points she shared was pretty interesting:

1. Many people confuse "security" with "safety" - for people who have a lot of fear and want "security", they tend to pick "safer" investments. Let's take CDs as an example. The average return on CDs are 3%-4%, which barely keeps up with inflation. If you take taxes into account, you will most likely end up with negative growth.
2. Many women tend to have the attitude of "waiting for that prince charming" - aka have someone else take care of them.
3. Others take the "Alice in Wonderland" approach - finances are just too complicated for me to understand, so I'm going to avoid it as much as I can.

The reality is times have changed, and there is no more pension or social security that we can count on. So, my call to everyone is Take Responsibility for your own finances. The CEO of my company was recently interviewed by The View from the Bay. She's got some messages for you. Check it out:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/consumer_finance&id=6266121