Archive for the ‘Wes Moss’ Category

Our regular Monday blogger, certified financial planner and Sunday morning WSB radio show host Wes Moss, recently offered a few of his perspectives in advance of today’s initial public stock offering on the Nasdaq by Facebook.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

– His initial post on the topic – “Should you buy Facebook?” — was published on this blog in February, but remains relevant because of the long-term view he takes:

You may want to give the stock a few months to find a level reflective of both the company’s future promise and the challenges it faces.

– A follow-up post last month — “Return of the tech bubble?” — posits an even wider view as Wes examines the balance between innovation and fundamentals that tech-sector investors especially need to weigh:

As the tech sector continues to heat up with Instagram-type deals, look for ways to cash-in while maintaining a diverse portfolio that is in line with your long-term goals …

Continue reading Facebook’s IPO: Two long-term views from Wes Moss »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

Ah, just another relaxing Moss family weekend — racing to get my eldest son from T-ball to swimming while estimating how early we need to leave the pool to get to karate on time, and trying to remember the when-and-where of that upcoming birthday party. Is it today? Or is it next Saturday? Wait. It is next Saturday! Oh, no! That conflicts with the karate class graduation ceremony!

I sure don’t remember my parents running around like this when we were kids. But our friends can relate — they are on the same “enrichment” treadmill with their children. We seem to be constantly bouncing from thing to thing — computer class, ballet, martial arts, swim team, soccer, Cub Scouts, T-ball, gymnastics, art classes, tennis, basketball, youth triathlon training …

Continue reading Wes Moss: The cost of overbooking your kid’s life »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

Getting a decent yield these days is like trying to wring wine from a raisin. It ain’t happening. Money markets, CDs, and savings accounts are currently yielding returns in the zero to half-percent range. When you consider inflation, that’s actually a negative return. These “negative real yields” are the result of the Federal Reserve Board’s desire to keep interest rates close to zero in an effort to gin up economic activity. Don’t look for relief any time soon. The Fed has already announced its intention to maintain the current policy at least through 2014.

So which investment vehicle do you choose?

Many investors jumped into U.S. Treasuries in 2011 in search of security. But there’s not much yield to be found here anymore. Thanks again to the …

Continue reading Wes Moss: Take more risk to beat low interest rates »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

Across Atlanta moms and dads are rushing to the mailbox hoping to find something special – an acceptance letter from a prestigious school that will give their child the education they need to survive in this increasingly competitive economy.

“Please, please, please,” those parents pray. “Please let this be the day my little darling gets into the Harvard of kindergartens…”

The competition to get into private preschools and elementary schools can be as grueling as getting into college. And for those accepted, the cost can be well north of $20,000 per year for some schools. A private school education could easily cost more than $300,000 in tuition before the kid even sees a college classroom.

Not many families have that kind of money. But does it matter? …

Continue reading Wes Moss: Is private school worth it? »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

I’m constantly asked, “What about a variable annuity? I buy it and it guarantees me a steady stream of income in retirement, right?”

Yes, I am an advocate of investments that will pay you consistently once your working days are done. But I’m not convinced a variable annuity is the best tool for that job.

An annuity is a product sold by insurance companies designed to invest money from an individual and then pay out a stream of income to that investor over multiple years. A variable annuity promises a minimum return from an “income perspective” plus the possibility of a larger income stream based on how well the annuity’s investments do over time.

Understand the following before buying a variable annuity:

“Real vs. theoretical.” Most variable annuities …

Continue reading Wes Moss: Should I buy a variable annuity for retirement? »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

Innovation drives the American economy. Since the days of Ben Franklin, we have celebrated and handsomely rewarded those who come up with The Next Big Thing. In recent years the creators of “apps,” those small computer programs that perform useful and/or amusing tasks on our mobile devices, have epitomized American inventiveness. In mid-2008 just 500 were apps available. Today there are more than 350,000 on the market with a projected 2013 revenue in excess of $29 billion.

Facebook’s recently announced plan to buy the maker of the Instagram app for a cool $1 billion demonstrates the excitement about the app industry. About a week before the deal was announced, Instagram had secured a loan for $50 million. The terms of that deal valued the company at …

Continue reading Wes Moss: Return of the tech bubble? »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

The soaring cost of higher education has prompted talk about a “college bubble” and raised questions about the value of investing in a college degree.

The debate is legitimate, but it’s still important to get that diploma. On average, college graduates earn $1 million more during their careers than non-college grads. What’s more, those with a college degree are better insulated against job loss. For example, the current jobless rate for college degree holders is 4.2 percent, while those without are suffering an 8.3 percent rate.

Of course, higher education isn’t free — unless you are extremely good at a certain sport. The rising cost of college combined with greater access for more students has pushed total student loan debt to $1 trillion – more …

Continue reading Wes Moss: The truth about paying for college »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

The winners of Friday’s record-busting Mega Millions lottery beat some incredible odds. A lottery player was nine times more likely to be hit by a falling TV than to win that jackpot, according to USAToday. Now those folks face another difficult challenge — holding onto the money.

As a financial planner I’ve worked with several lottery winners and others who have unexpectedly come into life-changing money. Such a windfall can be a blessing or a curse that quickly destroys the winner’s life. One study says more than half of big lottery winners are broke in just a few years. Probably because those winners, like most Americans, didn’t have a plan in place to handle their regular income – let alone a massive influx of cash.

Here are some pointers for …

Continue reading Wes Moss: How would you invest the Mega Millions jackpot? »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

We get some great questions on the Money Matters Facebook page, including this one: “I’m in my 40s. I know I’m getting a late start on saving for retirement. What should I do from here?”

Not many of us have the foresight to open up a Roth IRA at age 20 and the discipline to save 10 or 20 percent a year through our 30s. As we make more money, we typically don’t save more. Instead we spend more – bigger house, nicer car, kids, vacations, iPads – until we wake up in a cold sweat one night at 51 wondering if we’re going to be working until we’re 82.

Even if you are approaching middle age, you can turn around your retirement prospects with a few simple steps.

1. Start. Every day counts. The following advice is worthless unless you actually put it to …

Continue reading Wes Moss: Advice for late-blooming savers »

Certified financial planner Wes Moss provides personal finance advice and accessible investment strategies. His guest post appears here weekly.

Wes Moss hosts 'Money Matters' Sunday mornings on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB

How much do you trust “Wall Street” when it’s defined as the big brokerage houses such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch? If your answer is “not much,” you have a lot of company. A whopping 41 percent of Americans have “little or no faith” in the fairness of large investment firms. Only credit card companies, corporate CEOs, the federal government and lawyers fared worse in a recent Yankelovich Monitor survey.

That lack of faith is justified if we can believe a recent New York Times column by former Goldman Sachs Executive Director Greg Smith, in which he charges that his old firm has lost its moral compass. According to Smith, the once principled and far-sighted Goldman is now concerned only with maximizing its own bottom line and “has zero concern …

Continue reading Wes Moss: Who can you trust with your money? »