During President Obama's State of the Union speech, he offered up a new kind of retirement account called “MyRA.” While details are somewhat limited right now, here is what Obama said, It's a new saving bond that encourages folks to build a nest egg. MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in.
New York Fed Announces New Service Sector Survey
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York this month began publishing the Business Leaders Survey covering service firms in New York, northern New Jersey, and southwestern Connecticut. The new survey makes sense for a region of the U.S. that is more closely connected to finance, tourism, and media than it is to manufacturing.
An impartial review of the Transamerica Variable Annuity X-Shares with Retirement Income Max Rider
Warning: this is an in-depth review of the Transamerica Variable Annuities series. Many annuity critics point to complexity as being a major negative for this asset class and Transamerica doesn’t dispel this criticism. The prospectus totals a massive 480 pages which is …
Is the stock market going to kill you?
When people talk about the keys to good health, they always talk about balancing mind, body and spirit. However I believe they are missing the key ingredient of financial health. Health and wealth are interconnected and if any of the pillars of health are disturbed, it can cause sickness and even death.
Double Your Pleasure at BrokerCheck With Two Types of Advisor Searches
Many investors feel the need to perform due diligence when hiring an advisor. However, few actually go beyond a quick “google search” or asking for feedback among friends. Completing a check on your advisor is especially important in the wake of massive ponzi schemes like Bernie Madoff. Even institutional investors, such as the board of trustees of a pension fund, should regularly review the professional backgrounds of the brokerage firm and individuals which serve as its financial advisors.
5 simple steps to protect yourself from the Target data breach
This past month has been an unwelcome reminder that identity theft is on the rise. Target and Neiman Marcus are the two high profile retailers whose networks were breached over the holiday season; however at least three other well-known smaller US retailers were breached. Target has already reported that 70 million to 110 million of its customers had their information stolen including credit card numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers and PIN numbers. That is a staggering figure as that represents a third of all American adults on the low end, and is nearly three times as great as the company's original estimate at the high end. Fraud experts said that information stolen from Target's systems quickly flooded the black market.
According to Javelin Strategy, 1 in 4 data breach notification recipients became a victim of identity fraud in 2012. This isn't good news for those affected by the holiday data breaches. Therefore, it is imperative to be proactive to protect yourself. You don't want to spend hours, weeks or even months trying to resolve problems.