Salient to Investors: Blackrock report the top four retirement regrets of retirees: 36% would have started saving earlier, contributing to 401(k) plans sooner and at maximum levels 32% would have spent less 21% would have worked longer 12% would have hired professional financial advice Read the full article at http://www2.blackrock.com/us/individual-investors/insight-education/investor-pulse/finding-5-learn-from-retirement-lessons?cmp=Investor%20Pulse&chn=ppcsyn&c=dianomi&kw=Finding%205&utm_campaign=Investor%20Pulse&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=dianomi&utm_term=Finding%205 Click here
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Guy Cecala at Inside Mortgage Finance said jumbo loans, mostly adjustable but also fixed-rate, increased by 34 percent in the first 9 months of 2013. Greg McBride at Bankrate said cash-rich banks, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America are using ARMs to hedge the loans’ longer-term
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Wade D. Pfau at The American College and Michael Kitces at Pinnacle Advisory Group said: A U-shaped retirement plan – 20% to 40% in equities, with a gradual increase of 1% per year to a maximum 60% to 80% allocation to stocks by the end – is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller said: People make better decisions with financial advisers. A lack of good financial advice was one of the problems that led to the financial crisis. Many Americans went into unsupportable debt to buy homes, which a good financial adviser would not have let
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ken Fisher at Fisher Investments said: Ending QE would be the most bullish thing we can do because it is not a stimulus – it flattens the yield curve and slows things down. We are doing well despite QE, not because of it. Historically, a steeper yield
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Brunger at PODS Research and Scott Nason at SDN TT&H Consulting said: A single flight often has 20 or more fares with purchase deadlines of 1 to 90 days. Fares booked 21 days in advance generally cost less than fares bought a week or less before
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 30-year mortgage rates were at 4.86 percent last week. Robert Bostrom at Greenberg Traurig said the Fed finally realized that housing is fading in anticipation of the tapering and even higher rates, and could not taper without irreparable damage to the housing recovery. Anish Lohokare and Timi
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Lawrence Summers estimated in December that estate and gift taxes raised only $14 billion in 2102, or 1 percent of the $1.2 trillion passed down in America each year, mostly by the very rich, suggesting our estate tax system is broken. Jerome Hesch at Berger Singerman said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: America’s biggest employers are increasingly moving retirees to insurance exchanges where they select their own health plans, a historic shift that could push more costs onto US taxpayers. Towers Watson said 44% of companies plan to stop administering health plans for their former workers over the next
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Kathryn Keneally at the Justice Department said taxpayers who still believe they can hide secret Swiss bank accounts from the IRS are beyond foolish, and Switzerland is no longer a good place to hide assets for tax reasons. Fourteen firms, including Credit Suisse, HSBC, and are under criminal investigation. A
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