Are forecasts related to the markets and economy useful?

Or are they useless?

You could even argue (persuasively) that predictions and forecasts are more a source of risk rather than a tool to help you avoid risk.

Looking at your insurance picture?

Wondering what to consider, what to prioritize, what to do?

Let’s go through 15 quick ideas.

“If she’s being abused by her partner, why doesn’t she just leave?”

This is a common question about survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).

In this guest blog post, Kimberly Klein outlines some basics about IPV and economic abuse, and discusses a few connections to financial planning and long-term economic stability in the lives of IPV survivors.

Has your home insurance premium skyrocketed lately? Has your insurance company stopped writing policies in your area? Is the home insurance market broken?

Welcome to the crazy world of getting your home insured against disaster. In particular in the great state of California.

What happens if the U.S. doesn’t raise the debt ceiling and then defaults on its debts?

What about a different type of crisis?

Are our investments in danger? Should we sell?

How much did we spend on our Emergency Planning supplies?

This post also has a downloadable copy of the Emergency Planning Top 10 Checklist, which is a one-page summary that consolidates much of what we covered in this blog series.

What can we learn from the recent bank failures?

Here are three major takeaways:

1) Transfer cash over FDIC limits
2) Match investments with your time horizon
3) Importance of diversification

Figuring out your emergency supplies is important. But this post is about something that is just as – if not even more – important: having an emergency PLAN.

The emergency plan we came up with is a compilation of the best ideas and suggestions we found in our research. We felt like it was much more approachable for us as a family than many plans or forms we found online, and we hope you find it helpful.

And the best part? The only cost to put it together is our time.

So, we had gathered all our emergency supplies! It was both exciting and overwhelming when we actually laid them all out.

Wow! Look at all this great stuff! Um…what in the world are we going to do with all of it?

Emergencies happen. Including while in a car.

Having a Car Emergency Kit helps us prepare for a wide variety of unexpected events that could happen on the road or away from home.

We can’t know when we might be stuck somewhere for an extended period of time, or when our car might break down, or when another kind of emergency might delay our plans, but a good car emergency kit can help us stay safe while we get where we need to go. With the right tools and supplies, it could even save our lives (or maybe our sanity?).

“We should have an emergency kit.”

We’ve been married for 20 years now and we’ve been saying that for…about 20 years now.

Natural disasters seem to be happening more and more often. A cyberattack causing a disruption to the power grid and/or other essential systems is more likely than ever. Even a nuclear attack doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore. Any of these happening is out of our control.

But what IS in our control is putting together an emergency kit and plan so we aren’t completely unprepared if/when an emergency happens.

This is Part 1, which deals with how we decided what to include in our kit.

The stock market has taken us for a bit of a rough ride recently.

You might be wondering whether you should sell everything. To stop the bleeding.

The answer is fairly simple: Stick to your plan, as long as you have a well-balanced portfolio that’s appropriate for you.

Stock downturns are painful, but you still need to let stocks play their appropriate role in your portfolio.

How should you be invested during retirement? Where will your spending money come from? What happens if the stock markets go down? Are your investments safe enough? Let’s take a look at the concept of Investment Buckets.

The experience of getting evacuated from our home recently due to a nearby fire got me thinking about the importance of homeowners insurance. What should you look out for when getting home insurance? What's important vs. what's not? Let’s dig in.