Montgomery Community Media

With graduation around the corner, high school seniors and their parents are focused on graduation requirements and what will be needed to start their college education off to a great start. But what about their personal finance education requirements? Are financial skills included in a student’s formal education? Not usually. In fact, I am astonished […]

The Markets:   If you still want to participate in the axiom “sell in May and go away” you haven’t missed your chance.  In May, most U.S. stock market indexes were relatively unchanged (see the chart below.) The clear loser in May was the emerging market sector which continues to be plagued by concerns that the […]

This is the second installment of my two-part series on top financial mistakes to avoid in your early 30s. Earlier, I spoke of how detrimental a lack of discipline or to a written financial plan can be. In the final four mistakes below, I address the most common missteps with 401(K) investments, taxes, and insurance. 1. […]

Do April showers bring May flowers or does the April tax filing date bring us face-to-face with our non-flowery tax realities? According to Bloomberg, the average federal income tax rate in 2015 was over 10 percent, but for a family earning over $100,000 that rate can quickly climb. After adding the average 9.5 percent paid […]

If you’re in your 30s, now is the time to save. There are countless articles on the need for Millennials to save, but they tend to target people in their 20s and often overlook the early 30s crowd. I like to call you early-30-somethings “young accumulators.” You have careers and skills that you have sharpened […]

The Markets:  Have you seen the 35% rally? Typically a monstrous 35% price movement in just over three months would grab major headlines if it was for stock prices or even interest rates. But this price movement in oil prices hasn’t created a lot of buzz. While there may not be front page headlines on […]

According to a recent Gallup Poll, about half of Americans believe they do not have enough money on hand to “make a major purchase, such as a car, appliance or furniture, or pay for a significant home repair” if they needed to. As expected, individuals with higher income were more likely to be prepared for […]

The Tax Deadline is quickly approaching and the influx of 2016 tax tips is hitting the newsstands. While it’s a great time to brush up on the tax laws and create a 2016 game plan, it’s also important to take a step back and think about the bigger picture and your long-term tax approach. The […]

Were the wild stock market gyrations of the first quarter a lot of hullabaloo about nothing? In January and early February we witnessed a dramatic drop in stock prices followed by a rapid recovery with significant market breadth (a wide amount of stocks participating). At one point in mid-February, the S&P 500 was down over […]