During my high school years, I often found myself straying by First MidAmerica to catch a glimpse of the Dow Jones quote board, which was visible from the street. The index was around 500 when I started paying attention and daily changes were rarely larger than 10 Dow points. As the size of the index grew, its price swings became larger and the sign became…read more

Slow down…low rates at play

As Forrest Gump once said, “Life’s like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re gonna get.” While Forrest was generally right, you DO know what you’re gonna get when you lock in a mortgage rate. And with rates at historic lows…(read more)

Rescue your 401k

Tell us if this sounds familiar. You’ve been contributing to your 401k (or 403b) for years now and have built up a nice nest egg. The only problem is you’re not sure if you’ve picked the right investments from those available, or if you have the proper allocation to each fund. Furthermore, you have no idea whether the investment options in the plan are any good…(read more)

The running of the bulls

During the early 14th century in northeastern Spain, cattle owners transported their product to market by jogging them through the streets. Always looking for a competitive advantage, several daring owners discovered that bulls run faster if they are…(read more)

Allocating cash & brushing your teeth

A question we have received a lot lately is, “what should I do with my excess cash that’s earning nothing at the bank?” The answer is no different than how we learned to brush our teeth…(read more)

Where does all the money go?

With all the sequestration talk of late, we thought it would be a good opportunity to review how the U.S. government allocates our tax dollars plus the money borrowed every year to cover the deficit. In 2012, the federal government took in roughly $2.5 trillion in revenue through various taxes. Income taxes accounted for…(read more)