The Bienvenue Blog covers global economic and market topics that impact your personal finances. Click here to receive the latest news and information via email.
At one point or another, you’ve probably opened an email only to find it was full of negative comments or even hate. The person on the other end was clearly angry or upset, and now you’re bearing the brunt of their frustration in the form of this ‘nastygram.’ It’s incredibly hard not to […]
Dreaming of the days you can sit on the beach, tropical drink in hand and not a thing on your to-do list? Ready to call it quits at your job and walk out to an endless vacation where you never have to check a single email or attend a meeting again? It’s nice to […]
Owning a home is a quintessential part of the American Dream. It’s what you do once you secure a stable career, get married, and settle down. Right? That might have been something that felt written in stone in the past. In our culture, homeownership became one of the boxes you felt obligated to check on […]
Over 44 million Americans walked away from their time in higher education with some amount of college debt. The total amount of student loan debt collectively carried by college students and grads today is $1.45 trillion, and the average 20-something-year-old borrower pays $350 per month on their loans. There’s no question about it: […]
Most people invest in order to grow wealth over time. It’s only natural to want the biggest returns possible as part of that process. But focusing on returns isn’t necessarily a sound investment strategy — and it could be part of what leads average investors to perform so poorly. In fact, average investors don’t just […]
Ask most people who watch TV and cable news if they think the world is safer now than it was 30 years ago, and they’ll tell you no. But if we look at the data, it’s clear that in most parts of the world — and certainly in America — we’re safer now than we […]
Most of us have something that we absolutely love to do — and it’s usually a passion that allows us to express ourselves and our creative sides. Whether it’s music, art, writing, volunteering, or consistently picking up something novel and learning something new, we all have a passion or two that’s important to us. But […]
Yes, it sounds harsh. But this is an important financial reality to understand: you should prioritize your retirement savings over saving for your kids’ college expenses. This isn’t about loving your kids less. It’s about knowing how to prioritize your financial goals in the best possible way for both your sake and theirs. And […]
A vacation home works for some people and can provide a lot of benefits. It’s wonderful to have your own place to escape to when you’re ready to relax and unwind. And if you make good decisions about where and what you buy — and get a little lucky in the process — a […]
Trying to cut back on your spending gets tedious when you focus on minute details. Yes, it’s important to track every dollar — but to feel anxious about spending on small purchases that you value because you’re trying to save more and spend less? That can quickly lead to budget burnout. Preparing for and […]
No one can guarantee when the markets will go up or down. Lots of talking heads and so-called “experts” like to claim they know when factors like news items or current events will impact how the stock market behaves, but it’s all guesswork. It’s extremely easy to get caught up in a 24/7 news cycle […]
Photo credit: Philip Taylor We’ve all heard the mantra: “Location, location, location!” When buying investment property, a great location is often considered the #1 rule for success. But as we’ve all seen in that late night, drag-out game of Monopoly, […]
Generation X has some problems—and not just their own. Perhaps the biggest one of all is that this group has everyone else’s problems too! On one hand, they’re dealing with aging parents. On the other hand, they have young kids, college-aged kids, or adult kids who are moving back home or need financial support because they can’t […]
The following content originally appeared in an article by Liz Skinner on Investment News on Nov 8, 2015. Forget boomers and millennials, Gen Xers need advisers’ help the most Even though they are in their peak earning years, they have the poorest financial habits Armando Castellano: Gen Xer turned to financial adviser for help with budgeting. Despite […]
Change may be a given, but even when we know it’s for the better, shifting our own thinking can be quite a challenge. Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times is a classic—not only because it’s Chaplin at his most brilliant, but because it does such an amazing job at contrasting the positive and negative […]
The financial journalists have been in their glory these last few weeks. Greece was a great headline grabber, as was the exciting reaction to the craziness by the US and global markets. It was better than football, basketball, and baseball seasons all wrapped into one. Why? Because it got people tuned in and […]
For most couples, dividing up the chores is one of the first items of business when they start a life together. Taking out the trash, doing the laundry, cutting the grass, scrubbing the toilets. We all know the list. And paying the bills, which is on there too, is typically handed off to the […]
I have the same conversation with my Gen X clients all the time. We start digging into the details of their finances, and we see the debt piling up. And while certain debt is reasonable—particularly for appreciating assets like a home or business—racking up debt for depreciating assets does something most people don’t even realize: […]
How did we get here? In 2008, at the height of the recession, the dollar was sitting at an historic low. And while we’re still fighting our way uphill in many areas of the economy, the dollar is surging higher by the minute. In 2014, the US Dollar Index (DXY) jumped 12.8%. And it doesn’t […]
Even if online shopping isn’t really your thing, it’s the time of year when many people turn to the internet for some serious help from the new “North Pole.” The web is a great way to stay out of the mall, out of long lines, and happily shopping away in your slippers. Better yet, the […]
