Emma, fresh out of college, gets her first job. Instead of opening a 401(k), she buys a

whole life policy, at her mother’s insistence. “You’ll thank me for this one day,” Mom

said.

Six years later, Olivia (Emma’s not-so-nice friend) brags to Emma that she’s been

saving for years for a house. She asks Emma to look at houses with her, and Emma

reluctantly obliges. Soon after, Olivia finds her dream house and puts in an offer.

As you’re enjoying dinner with Paul, Lauren, and John, the idea of opening a new casual restaurant emerges. After getting excited about the idea, they decide to go ahead with it, but you just aren’t ready, and therefore bow out of the opportunity.

After three years, the restaurant is thriving, and your friends invite you in as an investor.

A man walked into a New York City bank and asked a loan officer for $6,000.

“Are you a customer of the bank?” the loan officer asked.

“No.”

“Well, if you’re not a customer of the bank, the rate is 15% for an unsecured loan.”

“But I’m only willing to pay 5%,” the man insisted.

Imagine yourself to be 22 years old, at your new job, and filling out the paperwork in the HR department. The conversation would be something like this: “Now Jan (you’re Jan), we’re going to sign you up for our 401(k) program, unless you opt out. Now, let’s see… When are you going to retire? We’ll assume 65. And how old are you? Okay, you have 43 years to go. And, how much will you be making? Okay…can you put $212 per paycheck into the plan? Because if you can, …wait, yeah, it says here that the stock market, over the last 25 years has returned an average of 7.3%. So, if you put in $212 per paycheck, after 43 years, at 7.3%, you’ll have $1,330,000! How does that sound?”

Your financial advisor says, “Don’t look at your stock market portfolio every day.  It’s not good for your health.  Stocks always go up and down.  Just look at it once a year.” 

Really?  Just once a year?  Why would he say that?  Because even if you looked at it more frequently, you might not know what changes to make anyway.

Also, he knows that too many negative changes in your portfolio may make you nervous and even worse, want to change advisors! 

You’ll hear, “Volatility gives you the opportunity to buy low and sell high! The stock market will recover; it always does.”  Sound familiar?

The number one question...

Life Insurance for Wealth Accumulation?   What’s the rate of return?

That is the most frequently asked question we receive. It’s all about Rate of Return (ROR), isn’t it?  Well, yes, and no.

We’ve all heard of Unclaimed Property, but did you know that there is $12 billion in New York alone?  Of course, there is much more nationwide.