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Money Considerations for Women
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThe gentleman next to me during the opening dinner at a recent conference couldn’t get over the fact that I named my organization Savvy Ladies. Why, he wanted to know, did I find it necessary to focus solely on women? This, of course, is an...
Long-Term Care Insurance: When to Get It and When Not To
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI met with a new client yesterday. While this is not unusual, the reason he had come to see me was: he was in his thirties, healthy, athletic – and extremely anxious about the fact that he didn’t have long-term care insurance. While some...
Tax Breaks for Your Investment Losses
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy girlfriend called me up last night. “So,” she told me, “I was seconds away from selling these bonds I have so that at least I’d get a tax write-off, when I realized that’s not how it works with bonds. If I hold them until maturity, I...
Ex-Couples: How Alimony Works
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA, Founder Savvy Ladies “It is easy to preach financial independence,” a new Savvy Ladies member remarked at a recent seminar, “but I have already spent ten years as a housewife. My husband and I are miserable together, but there’s no way I...
5 Vital Questions for New Parents
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAShopping for my new baby earlier today, I met two very anxious soon-to-be mothers. Talking to them made me realize how much easier it is to be pregnant the second time around. Not only am I more relaxed about everything, but I also know...
Donating to Non-Profits: Good Karma and Even Better Tax Breaks
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFATax season is here! A great time for anyone expecting a refund, and a not-so-great time for those who now have to come up with a chunk of cash for the IRS, on top of all their other bills and financial responsibilities. For the financially...
I Was Planning to Retire in 2009 – Now What?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAFor years, I would run into the same neighbor every time I went down to the corner shop – an incredibly dedicated and brilliant science teacher called Matt. For years, that is, until he realized his dream of retiring and buying a ranch in...
Not the End of the World – The Cyclical Nature of the Economy
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFADuring a recent charity dinner, I ended up at the same table as a successful financial newsletter writer. He is semi-retired now, in his seventies, but the many years he spent studying the financial markets and the economy have provided him...
Money New Year’s Resolution
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThis time of the year, inevitably, conversations gravitate toward the topic of New Year’s resolutions. While the vast majority tend to be not only generic (stop smoking, anyone? Join a gym?), but also difficult to follow (everyone has an...
Retirement Savings Dos and Don’ts
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI had dinner with my best friends last night – a monthly tradition that usually turns into a full night of fun. Not this time, however. It turned out my friends were all in a state over their retirement accounts. Their mutual funds invested...
Real Estate: Reading the Fine Print Before You Commit
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAReading the Fine Print Before You CommitAfter December’s holiday festivities, January can feel like a dreary, lonely month. So you can imagine how delighted I was when I picked up the mail the other week and found an invitation to a...
Job Loss – Now What?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAWe all know someone who lost his or her job last year. For my husband’s friend, though, it seemed to happen out of the blue – he is a news producer at a major news station. But with dwindling demand for advertising time, many stations are...
What Size Mortgage Can You Afford?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAWith real estate prices free falling in many areas, mortgages seem to be the topic on everyone’s minds. It is hard to narrow down all the different concerns people have into a structured format, but my facilitators report that one of the...
Credit Card Myths
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI went for a run in the park this morning, with my favorite workout pal. Thank goodness she is a good friend as I don’t run as fast as I used to now being pregnant. Anyways, she surprised me mid-run by asking whether it was really necessary...
Scoring a Mortgage in Turbulent Times
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA“For years,” a woman said during a recent telephone conference, “I was waiting for the real estate bubble to burst so that I could buy something. Now that it finally has, no one can get a mortgage.”While it is true that it is much more...
Money Making Tips for Tough Times
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAOne of my mom’s friends has a daughter who studied interior design, and then scored an assistant manager position in an upscale furniture store right out of college. She was estatic, loving everything about her job . . . until last week,...
The iPod Issue: How Much Can -and Should- You Spend on Your Children?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI took the subway uptown today, to meet a colleague at a favorite lunch place. Turns out, the subway I was in also had twenty-something ten-year-olds, on a field trip coming back from the New York Stock Exchange. As Sebastian is only three,...
Should You Do Your Own Taxes?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy college friend was red-faced and bursting with anger when we met for after-work cocktails the other day. She arrived straight out of a meeting with her tax accountant, who had failed yet again to get her the tax refund so many people...
Credit Card Overwhelmed: Notes on Debt Consolidation
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA“My credit cards are driving me insane,” a friend complained to me over mochas (bought with cash) yesterday morning. “It’s like I can’t stop thinking about how much debt I’m in, because the minute I’ve sent off one minimum payment, I get a...
Top Financial Fears
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThis weekend, my family and I decided to go for a picnic in the park. So we filled a basket with Dean & Deluca foods and headed outside our door to Battery Park. There, the smell of grass, the sun, and the majestic beauty of the skyline...
Shrinking Your Bills
“The problem with saving,” the woman on the elliptical next to me at the gym the other day told me, upon learning that I am a financial planner, “is that it’s so boring. I feel like I can never do anything fun.”This, fortunately, couldn’t be less true. Try the tips...
