What’s Bugging Charles

Charles tackles the impending debt crisis facing college students and their parents.

50 Shades Of Gray Area

Not everything in financial planning is black and white. In fact, most things aren’t black and white — there’s usually a lot of gray area. Let’s identify some of the issues that usually require a nuanced discussion…

Top Distractions Throwing You Off Your Financial Game

It’s easy to get distracted by “shiny objects” of the financial world. Let’s cover some of the distractions for which we should be on the lookout.

Risk Tolerance

Any advisor worth his or her salt is going to have a conversation with you about risk. But what in the world is “risk tolerance”? It’s a buzzword that gets used a lot in meetings with financial advisors, but we’ve found that a lot of people don’t have a great understanding of how their risk tolerance truly impacts their financial and retirement plans. Let’s fix that and give you the 411 on risk tolerance.

Are You Asking The Wrong Financial Questions?

A lot of people have questions about their retirement plan, but we find that they’re often asking the wrong questions. We’ll cover some of these common questions and learn about the different questions you should be asking instead.

Real Financial Advising Is Solving Problems

Most people think that a financial advisor’s primary job is picking investments. That’s only a small part of it. The reality is that the primary job is solving problems. Let’s look at some situations that have happened over the years where the financial planning became less about picking investments and more about solving problems.

Settle The Debate - Right Or Wrong

Depending on who you ask, you could get very different answers to some of retirement planning’s most important questions. Let’s see where our opinions all stand on issues like insurance, mutual funds & annuities. And we’ll try to answer why there are so many different opinions on these concepts.

Winding Back The Debt Clock

We won't be getting political about this, but the national debt is skyrocketing faster than you can imagine. At some point, it could become a huge issue for the economy if it isn't already. How could our increasing national debt impact your retirement? Charles explains.

Important Financial Terms You Should Know

A lot of financial terms can get confusing, even if you’ve heard them talked about a lot in the news or in a financial meeting at work or even around the dinner table with family. Let’s explore some important terms you might have heard before, but also might need a better understanding of what they mean.

Retirement Planning: More Than Just Investments

There’s a lot more to retirement planning than just picking investments. Is your advisor helping you navigate all the other essential areas?

Sales Pitches Versus True Planning

It’s important to be able to recognize the difference between an advisor who actually has a planning process
and one who just gives sales pitches all day. Let’s go over how you can identify the difference.

Fuzzy Math

A lot of investors (and quite frankly a lot of advisors) fall victim to fuzzy math when it comes to their retirement planning. Let’s explore some of the areas where someone might be employing fuzzy math.

Dealing With Divorce

Some folks feel shell-shocked after seeing their assets get cut in half from a divorce. Charles will share with us some ways that he helps clients navigate through tough life events like divorce. And we'll answer a listener question about fee-only advisors. Are they really the "best" kind of financial advisor to work with?

Unique Planning Challenges

Creating a customized retirement plan for any individual can mean addressing some unique challenges. With each of these scenarios, let’s discuss the challenges presented, as well as the solutions you might come up with…

Making Bad Financial Assumptions

Be careful of making assumptions about certain areas of retirement planning before you really know the facts. Some of these assumptions could be correct, but they could just as likely be wrong… We'll also ask Charles to tell us about a time someone didn't follow his advice and they came back later and admitted that they should have.

Risky, But Popular, Investments

It’s probably common sense when you think about human nature, but some of the riskiest investments are also the most popular. At least the risky ones generate a lot of interest, even if most folks don’t end up actually making an investment. Let’s look at some of these popular and risky investments because, after all, your financial choices matter.

Counterintuitive Pieces Of Financial Guidance

Some advice just makes good sense. But sometimes the guidance we get doesn’t align with our expectations. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Let’s talk about some of the counterintuitive financial advice you may, or may not, receive. We'll answer some questions from the "mailbag" and bust up some "rules of thumb" along the way. Plus, we'll see what's buggin' Charles this week.

The Important Things You Should Know About 401(k) Rollovers

We often talk about the importance of not leaving a 401(k) with your old company after you no longer work there. Let’s explore some of the benefits of a 401(k) rollover, why you might want to move it to an IRA, what the tax implications are and some of the other essential things to consider.

To get the guide, "To Rollover, Or Not To Rollover", call 480-513-1830 or e-mail charles@pelletoncapital.com.

Mailbag: The 4% Rule, Ex-Husband’s SS, & Big vs. Small Companies… Plus, What’s Buggin’ Charles?

Do you know what the 4% rule is? That's what  Lisa wants to know on this week's edition of Financial Choices Matter. We'll answer her question and also field concerns about getting benefits from an ex-husband's Social Security, what it's like to work with big companies vs. smaller ones, and we'll see what's buggin' Charles.

The Silent Killer (of Retirement): Inflation

Have you ever put on a lot of weight at some point in your life? It’s frustrating because you don’t really notice it at first. Even the people you see every day might not notice for a while. Then all the sudden someone you haven’t seen in several months notices. And then you all the sudden can tell in the mirror. “Whoa,” you realize, “I need to do something about this.” That slow creep of weight was hard to notice day-to-day, but before you even noticed it, it had already made a significant change in your body. The same thing happens to financial plans exposed to inflation. You might not notice it for a while, but after many years, an illprepared might get ravaged by the subtle, long-term increases of the prices of things all around us. Let’s explore some ways we can guard against that creep of inflation. Plus, we'll introduce a segment of the show we like to call "Storytime". This week, we'll ask Charles to tell us a story about someone who was getting ripped off by another financial advisor. We'll see how Charles helped solve the problem.