The Financial Reality of Living to 100

Jeff Masters
3 May 2015
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100th Birthday

We live in a nation that has become one of the most prosperous in the world. Great advances in medical science and healthcare, extensive social welfare programs to those less fortunate, a military that protects us abroad and domestic, freedom in our capital markets to start a business and work with equality and great opportunity — we are fortunate to live in the U.S. We are also reminded that the success of this country has not come without challenges. Inherent in those are a series of financial challenges that one could argue are the price of success, and the longer […]

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Frugal is Back in Fashion

Jeff Masters
3 Apr 2015
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The Great Recession of 2008 seems to have turned many Americans into lasting coupon-cutters, scrimpers and savers. Consumers dug a debt hole over the past decade from which there’s no easy climb out. This age of frugality seems to be in fashion, and the new normal ushered in by the recession has become the norm. Americans today are even more likely than they were a couple years ago to say that they are saving more and being more frugal. Cost-conscious is now a way of life. The hard financial times apparently taught many Americans a lesson: hope for the best; […]

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frugal is back

Getting Out Of Debt… Really!

Jeff Masters
3 Mar 2015
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Getting Out Of Debt

Forget consolidation loans, extended credit lines or fancy debt relief agencies. The best way to escape debt is the difficult and painstaking road of — hard work!  I know it was easy and sometimes quick to get into debt, but now it is time to get out of the burden of debt. Lets get busy! Stop charging and borrowing If you want to get out of debt fast, you have to stop using debt to fund your lifestyle. This means no more financing furniture, no more signing up for credit cards, no more test driving brand new cars that you […]

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The Value of Using a Financial Advisor

Jeff Masters
3 Feb 2015
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Many people find it difficult to invest on their own, particularly as they face complex financial situations and decisions. That’s when professional financial advice can help. A relationship with a professional Financial Advisor will help you strategically plan, and set up disciplines to work toward your goals and financial success. A good financial advisor will also build a relationship with you that goes beyond traditional financial planning and results in a more valuable financial life-planning approach. I like to tell my clients that I am here to help educate them on appropriate and valuable actions, and to guide them away […]

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financial advisor

Goals and Resolutions

Jeff Masters
31 Dec 2014
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Nearly half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year. Of those, only eight percent are likely to succeed. That’s according to a study conducted by the University of Scranton and published in December in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Losing weight was the number-one commitment reported, followed by getting organized and spending less (or saving more). Others in the top 10 include “enjoying life to the fullest,” quitting smoking and spending more time with family. This dismal success rate might lead some to conclude that making New Year’s resolutions is actually counterproductive. After all, who wants to begin the […]

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Surviving the Holidays Financially

Jeff Masters
9 Dec 2014
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Christmas is the time of year to have fun while enjoying the holiday with family and friends. However, the magic can also be extinguished by the mad rush of stressful shopping, vacation planning and other obligations. It’s no wonder that the holiday season is actually one of the most stressful times, especially from a financial perspective. Smart spending and creating a Christmas budget can reduce the financial burden and alleviate some of that unwanted stress.  It’s way too easy to get caught up in the shopping mania of this season and find yourself in a freshly dug hole in January. […]

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surviving the holidays

Avoid Mistakes with Life Insurance

Jeff Masters
3 Nov 2014
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life insurance

Life insurance may be one of the most important purchases an individual will ever make. An August 2010 study by LIMRA, an insurance research organization, revealed that ownership of individual life insurance has fallen to a 50-year low in the United States: 30 percent of households (35 million) have no life insurance coverage at all. In addition, there are a variety of mistakes made during the process of obtaining life insurance coverage. Procrastinating When you wait too long to buy life insurance, you leave your family vulnerable if something unexpected happens to you. Term life insurance premiums generally increase as […]

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Networking the Church

Jeff Masters
9 Oct 2014
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We have all experienced a time when someone from your church or the Christian community eagerly wants to get to know you, or is insincerely nice to you for some underlying motive of a “business opportunity” or to present directly or indirectly their product or service. We agree to see them because they go to our church or because they are a fellow “believer,” but we wonder what their motives and intentions are. The sales profession can be an honorable and essential component to our economic system, but we must be able to discern the underlying motives and representation of sales and marketing tactics. […]

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Why Most People Never Accumulate Surplus

Jeff Masters
11 Sep 2014
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For years now, Americans have been among the world’s worst savers. This is most astonishing since we live in one of the most prosperous nations in the world. The 2013 Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that Americans on average saved only 3.8 percent of their disposable income. Compare this to the 13.3 percent saved annually back in 1971. What are we doing? The average Chinese household saved 50% of its disposable income last year and in India over 30 percent. Why is there such an enormous discrepancy and why are Americans so consumptive? Proverbs 21:17 states, “Those who love pleasure […]

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Investor Bad Behavior

Jeff Masters
4 Aug 2014
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When it comes to money and investing, we’re not always as rational as we think we are, which is why there’s a whole field of study that explains our sometimes strange investment behavior. It is important to control your emotions and avoid self-destructive investor behavior. We call the gap between general market returns and individual investment performance “investor behavior penalty.” It is possible for investors to negatively affect performance due to their numerous behavioral & emotional flaws. Why is this? Greed and overconfidence People generally overestimate their knowledge and their abilities to make financial decisions, either by overconfidence or by […]

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