It wasn’t long ago that financial planning was thought of as a discipline that only applied to the very wealthy.

With rising retirement costs, longer life spans, and the need to rely almost exclusively on one’s own assets for income, there is little margin for error in investing for retirement. When we’re talking about securing a comfortable income that needs to last as many as 25 or 30 years, mistakes made early on can be magnified to tragic proportions.

After costs, the return on the average actively managed dollar will be less than the return on the average passively managed dollar for any time period.
—William F. Sharpe, 1990 Nobel Laureate

Social Security was never intended to be an income source that could support you in retirement. Rather, its sole purpose was to provide a safety net for people who were unable to accumulate sufficient retirement savings.

Sadly, more than 55% of Americans die each year without a will; and while it’s understandable why the subject of death is not one people like to contemplate, if they actually knew what happens to their estate when they die “intestate” (without a will), they might reconsider their reluctance.

After market-risk and inflation-risk, which investors take great strides to mitigate through sound investment practices, taxation-risk presents the biggest obstacle to building wealth. A sound investment strategy not only seeks to generate returns on your capital, it also seeks to preserve as much of your capital as possible to keep it working for you.

For many Americans, building true wealth might seem elusive, even illusory considering that many people, who very recently were sitting on six and seven figure 401k plans and home equity values, now feel unprepared for retirement. The lessons learned from the financial crisis is that wealth can be fleeting.

The one aspect of personal finance that most Americans share in common is debt accumulation. Average household credit card debt exceeds $7,000. But then, controlling debt becomes a truly subjective issue. Some people might think that having a few hundred dollars of debt is a major problem while others are can barely survive under the weight of their out-of-control debt.

When it comes to working with an investment advisor representative, the value you receive is based in the quality of the relationship you establish and his or her ability to meet, or even exceed, your expectations.

With interest rates still hovering near historic lows and the credit crisis a fading memory, the stars may be aligned for auto buyers. However, few things can cause more angst than trying to find the best deal on a new car and securing the best auto financing which, next to house, can combine to become the most expensive purchase people make.