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Caught in an extraordinary convergence of unhinged stock market volatility and historically low interest rates on savings, many people are rethinking their plans and their vision for the future, especially as they consider the prospect of having to stretch their retirement income over 25 or 30 years.  A study conducted in 2015 by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found workers of all

The figures out last year show that the average amount of student loan debt a student graduates with is a little more than $35,000.  Most graduates are carrying multiple student loans from multiple sources, and the cost and complexity of managing them can become overwhelming, especially if they are unable to secure steady employment with sufficient cash flow to make the payments.

Yesterday’s vote by the British electorate to end its 43-year membership in the European Union seems to have taken just about everybody by surprise, but the aftermath could not have been more predictable. The uncertainty of how, exactly, Europe and Britain will manage a complex divorce over the coming decade sent global markets reeling.

It’s a presidential election year and with that comes the invariable stock market correlations seeking to predict election results or forecast the market’s direction.  On one hand, the performance of the stock market during the two months leading up to the election has been somewhat of a predictor of who will win the race.

In the realm of financial planning, time is our most valuable asset.  It’s available to all of us, providing each individual with the same opportunity to optimize its value in building wealth. It’s the only resource we all have over which we have some degree of control.

In many respects, people can be their own worst enemies in their quest for financial security. When you consider that our lives are nothing more than a culmination of the decisions we make each day, if we tend to make more bad decisions than good decisions, or worse, if we can’t make decisions at all, it’s should be no surprise when financial security  remains elusive.

The quick answer is “it depends.”  But, for the 33 percent of retirees who now rely more heavily on their Social Security benefits to sustain their lifestyle, the answer takes on even more significance.  Generally, your income from Social Security is not taxable on its own; but when it’s combined with other sources of income for tax reporting purposes, a porti

New legislation will eliminate "file and suspend" and "restricted application" Social Security filing methods that were previously available to married couples.  There is a small window to be grandfathered and file under these methods; however, the deadline to do so is April 29, 2016.  Below, we discuss these two filing strategies and how they may impact you.

We at Beacon Financial Planning of Cape Cod, Inc.

Wow! There’s no diplomatic way to say this: the global stock markets are in panic mode right now. In two weeks of trading, the U.S. S&P 500 index is down 8% on the year, which brings us close to correction territory (a 10% decline), and has some predicting a bear market (a 20% decline).