harold wolfinger: harold’s blog

was looking in the paper this morning and read that despite the gains this week the dow is off approx 35% for the year (third-worst in history). wow.

my dad was actually saying the other day that as he tracked his retirement earnings over the course of his career his bonds have roughly equaled his equities. wow.

so what do you and i do?

well, for one thing start gathering papers. it is once again tax season, which in addition to being a good time to regroup is also a good time to plan a course for the future. i was reading this article on cnet regarding online tax-prep services: apparently, the fee structure for turbotax and taxcut have changed. i think it is a good read.

conventional wisdom says live below your means, max out this or that vehicle, and let compounding make you a gazillionaire when you are old. time will tell.

2008 has shown that even when people have done everything they are “supposed” to do, it does not always work that way. unfortunately.

as you start to pull your papers together take some time out to plot where you are trying to go this year. if you have debt, debt elimination is a perfect goal. if you have begun saving, perhaps this is the year to purchase that property. if you are already there, have you protected your assets? are you ready to build or expand your portfolio? jot down some goals or feel free to drop me a line. as i mentioned on deftmag, the first thing to do is understand yourself.