5 Tips to Help Stop Worrying About Money

By Jay Jandasek | January 5, 2011 |

The following article by Carl Richards at the NYTimes.com made some really good points regarding our propensity to beat ourselves up over past mistakes as well as worrying about the future with respect to money. I have been guilty of this, so this really hit home for me. Simply put, we are all human and make mistakes in many aspects of our lives, including financial decisions.

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Conversations About Money…Even When They Are Not

By Jay Jandasek | December 10, 2010

If you follow this blog at all, you know I am a fan of Carl Richards, who does a fantastic job of simplifying investing concepts but also our behaviors around money. The following post from the New York Times is a fantastic example and advice from which we can all (mostly us men) can benefit from.

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Are You an Investor or a Collector?

By Jay Jandasek | November 8, 2010 |

Our friend Carl Richards of BehaviorGap.com and the NYTimes.com Bucks blog has done a great job of illustrating how the ‘over diversification’ of portfolios can simply be ‘buying more’ instead of ‘buying different.’

Over- or under-diversifying your investments remains one of the classic behavioral mistakes.

Over-diversification happens when we become collectors of investments instead of simply being investors. Think of the people who buy the mutual funds they read about in Smart Money magazine. Next year they buy the Top 10 Funds recommended by Money magazine. A year later they buy two or three new international funds because that’s what’s on the home page of Forbes.

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2011 IRS Contributions Limits for Your 401k/403b

By Jay Jandasek | November 2, 2010

Last week, the IRS released the contribution limits for 401k/403b investors, and the amounts remain unchanged for 2011. Here are the numbers:

Elective Deferral (traditional limits) – $16,500
Catch-up Contribution for Investors 50 yrs and Older – $5,500
The reality is, your contributions to your 401k/403b is the #1 reason for your success as an investor. Here are some strategies for increasing your contributions:

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Market Forecasts, a.k.a. Market Guesses

By Jay Jandasek | September 21, 2010 |

Soothsayer. Prognosticator. The illusory crystal ball. The market forecasts that are lauded by the media…whose goal is to sell advertising…are simply speculation. We have told investors since day one that no one truly knows what the market is going to do by the end of the week, month or year. If you meet someone that claims they do…run…in the oppositive direction. Fast.

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