Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with planning and finance

I'm going to be rich...assemble my staff.

teg4rvn — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:34:14 -0800

I want to be prepared (tongue-in-cheek) for when I win 300+ million dollars in the Powerball lottery. The moment my winning numbers are selected, what kind of staff should I assemble to handle the $$$, protect my family's safety, and maintain the greatest anonymity possible and any other creative suggestions...all before I publicly turn in the winning ticket?

Regrets, I've had a few...

jefficator — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:30:14 -0800

Does anyone remember a blog post (possibly on a personal finance blog) about what people of a certain age wish they had known at a previous age? The post was like a survey. The blogger asked twenty year olds what they worried about or wished they had money for. Then he asked thirty year olds the same thing, but asked also what they wish they had prioritized as twenty year olds.

Results said things like this: twenty year olds wish they had money for travel. Thirty year olds wished they had saved to travel when they were younger, and wished they had money for a house down payment now.

I would be grateful if anyone could link me to this posting!

Thank you!

Are there any retirement calculators that aren't super-simple?

mbatch — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:18:15 -0800

Are there any retirement calculators that aren't super-simple? I'm specifically looking for a retirement calculator that would look sort of like multiple calculators where you could put in an age-range, and then all the normal inputs (starting age, starting retirement principal, income, income increase % year over year, % saved for retirement, etc). I know that retirement calculators are limited at best but how limited they are bugs me sometime. I know I could write up a program or spreadsheet that would do (some) of what I want but, if someone has done the work already, I'd rather not repeat it.

I would like a calculator that is a little more smart about the various phases people go through in their lives. As an example - work till 50, move towards consulting/limited hours semi-retirement from 50-65, living partly on taxable accounts, 65-75 live it up a little, 75-? sustain, maintain.

Or perhaps you want to model a 2 year Buddhist retreat to India into your work-life schedule..

Or perhaps you want to spend 5 years in your 40s sailing all over the world..

Or..

I'm also happy to hear about any retirement calculators that go above and beyond the simple formula in other ways that I may not have mentioned (like handling tax-estimates better, or allowing one to model stock/bond mix changes over time, etc).

Trying to wrangle a creative business into a business plan is tons more difficult than I expected

divabat — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:09:10 -0800

How am I supposed to make financial projections for a business plan when I don't even know how much money I'd earn in a month? I'm in the process of starting up a small creative business aimed at providing services for creative productions & producers - anything from selling merchandise to stage managing to backup singing. From my experience, such people (basically anyone willing to do random grunt work that's necessary for a production to run) are quite in demand and it's something I enjoy doing anyway, so it's a viable idea. It's also going to be the brand/structure for my own performance/creative work.

I've already done a couple of gigs and am getting my name out there in the communities I want to work with. There are some grants and funding I'd like to explore, and they all require a business plan. However, I'm stuck at the financials section of the plan, because I don't know how to project my yearly cashflow or turnover.

The nature of my business means that my income is likely irregular, especially during the first year while I build my reputation. My potential income all depends on the people I work for, my level of experience, their budget, how friendly they are to me, whether they'd give me money or something in-kind, or so on. People tend to be really secretive about this as well.

I have an idea of a base hourly rate, based on previous work, but there's no telling how many of those hours I can fulfill. There's also the option of paid by commission, flat rates, retainers...so many variables!

I asked a well-known accountant in the arts industry this question and he gave me this reply:

I tend to not worry too much about income projections, well not upfront anyway, because, as you say, you have bugger-all idea of how much you’ll make. Instead, I concentrate on getting the costs identified and quantified as well as you can, and even that’s a bit more guessing than anything else. Once I’ve established how much the business is likely to cost on a day-to-day basis, then that tells you how much income you need to cover costs. Add to that your cost of day-to-day living. That tells you how much money you need to be getting to live on and run the business, in total. Subtract from that how much you get, say, from part time wages, and the balance becomes the business income you need to get by one. That’s the starting point and if you think you can make more than that, then that’s the figure you use. Don’t get too hung up on income from a budgeting perspective though; generally you’ll hustle enough to get by on!

I do have an estimated budget of my costs, as well as calculations of how much I'd need from my jobs (not just this one, but regular jobs as well) to get by. However, it still doesn't help my business plan - I'm not sure I can replace the Financial Projections section with "My accountant told me not to bother"!

How do you plan for irregularity in business, particularly a creative one? What do you do when you can't predict exactly how much you'll earn, but you have a pretty good idea why that's the case and how you'll price yourself?

Also, are there any examples of creative and unusual business plans? I know of the Right Brain Business Plan but that's about it really.

An opportunity, or a pig in a poke?

LN — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:21:41 -0800

How do I get the most out of a meeting with a financial advisor I don't particularly trust? I have a meeting this afternoon with a financial advisor at my bank, to discuss investing strategies and wise places to put money in this economy. This meeting was requested by him, not me.

A little background: I dealt with this individual when opening an RRSP for myself eight months ago, and was not at all pleased with how the process was handled. It took a couple of months to get the RRSP set up, because he repeatedly botched the process. Now he wants a meeting with me to discuss my investments (I presume he means the RRSP), but because of past experiences, I am extremely suspicious of him.

Add to this the fact that I am not at all a "numbers person". So much so, the minute he starts talking about the various options the bank offers, my brain ceases to be able to process the information. I might as well be listening to white noise.

I'm prepared to at least talk to the guy, because I understand that it's his job to sell services to the bank's clients, but I want to go in with eyes wide open. I don't want to be sold a pig in a poke!

Financial-savvy Mefites, what are some strategies you recommend for me to get the most out of this meeting?

(This is in Canada, in case that makes any kind of difference)

Allocating my assets between mutual funds in my IRA account

stuehler — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:06:16 -0800

I have four mutual funds in my IRA account - a Total Market index fund, a Small-cap index fund, an International stock index fund, and a Bond index fund, and I'm trying to figure out how to allocate my assets between them. I've read a little bit about "Modern Portfolio Theory" and the "Efficient Frontier", but I'm struggling to understand some of the math. So, is there a simple way I can test whether a particular allocation is on the efficient frontier? Or, see all the possible allocations on the efficient frontier and choose between them? How do I figure this out? Ideally, I'd love to see a simple enough formula that, given the mean and standard deviation (and maybe correlation matrix), of my four funds, would tell me what allocation is on the efficient frontier. Or, some type of online tool, or an Excel spreadsheet or something. As an aside, I'm not interested in using a financial advisor (I don't have nearly enough assets to justify that), nor am I interested in general rules of thumb ("If you're N years old, you should have an allocation of x% stocks, y% bonds, etc.")

Nothing wrong with that - just seems like this is something I should be able to understand myself.

A lot of what I've found on Google is high-level explanation (e.g., what MPT and EF are), but not the tools to actually allocate between N funds. Or, very sophisticated math that I don't understand.

Of course, maybe I'm wrong - maybe the math is intractably hard. But, maybe not!

Many thanks in advance for any advice or insight!

Picking the right solo 401k provider

gsh — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:55:44 -0800

How should I evaluate prospective solo 401k providers? I have recently become an independent contractor and I'm in it for the long haul. I've done the reading about IRAs vs. solo 401k and the latter is for me: it will allow me to contribute much more money for my retirement.

Now, to pick a provider! On what criteria should I compare them?

Selecting a Financial Planner: Fee v. Commission

mshields — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:11:03 -0800

How should I select a financial planner? Should I find a fee-only or commission-based planner? $150-$200/hour seems like a lot of money to me. My husband and I are looking for a financial planner in the Boston, MA-Portland, ME area.
We live and work in Boston right now. He is an internal medicine resident and I am a holistic health professional. He will finish residency in June of '09 and at that point, we plan to move home to Maine and buy our first home. While we both have student loan debt (consolidated at a low rate), we have also been setting money aside so that we can hopefully come up with a 20% downpayment.
We are good savers, but have been very timid about investments. We are looking to find a certified financial advisor who:
a) can help us reach our short-term goals (move, house purchase, pay of student loan debt);
b) help us set up a solid system for when our income increases significantly;
c) won't charge us crazy amounts of money.
I am hoping to establish a long-term relationship with this financial advisor.
Do you use a financial planner? If so, would you recommend using a fee-only professional ($150-$200/hour seems like A LOT of money to me...) or would you recommend a commission-based professional? And lastly, can someone recommend a CFP in the northeast?
Thanks for your suggestions!

Financial planning resources for U.S. expatriates?

armage — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:44:49 -0800

What are some good resources to help an expatriate plan for retirement? I anticipate spending most of my life living outside of my country of citizenship (the United States), specifically in Japan. I'm reaching the point where I need to begin thinking about financial planning, particularly saving for retirement. I'm aware of how to do this if I were resident in the U.S.; however, I'm very unclear on the particulars of doing so as an expatriate. Much of what little I have found on the Internet or in books is grossly out of date or vague.

Can you recommend any books (websites are also okay, but I'd prefer something something well-written and well-sourced) intended for expatriate Americans who want to begin saving for their retirement? First-hand advice or experience would also be welcomed. I realize that I should talk to a financial planner, but at the moment that's putting the cart before the horse; I just want some general advice on my somewhat unique situation.

(FYI: I have read this recent thread as well as many others in the archives. I am not interested in advice about living abroad, only managing my finances and planning for the future while in a foreign country. Personal inquiries or off-topic comments are welcomed via email. Thanks in advance.)

Selling an annuity?

oog — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:10:32 -0800

What advice/information can any of you guys give regarding selling an annuity? I have a six-figure annuity sum due in about 2.5 years, but I could definitely use the money now for moving to NYC for graduate school. I wouldn't need to recieve the entire amount immediately, or, the entire amount minus whatever commission/percentages taken by the agency. I would actually prefer a low 5-figure sum to get on my feet in NYC and establish good credit, pay off loans, etc., and then whatever schedule that was determined to be prudent afterwards. Are there any banks, companies, agencies that would be recommended? Pitfalls I should watch out for? Am I potentially making a financial blunder?

Personal Finance 101

junkbox — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:19:15 -0800

Young married couple, mid-20's, good income: ready to take our finances more seriously. Who do we talk to? My husband and I are not particularly good with money. We earn it, we spend it, and as long as we've got a little in the bank we feel all right about it. This has worked okay for the last few years, but it's not particularly sound fiscal policy.

Together, we realize that we need to learn how to handle our finances more adeptly. How to budget, how to save, how to clean up our somewhat checkered credit history, and how to afford a house without mortgaging ourselves up to our eyeballs. We have a good income -- enough that we're paying down our debt, keeping up with our bills and increasing our savings a little -- but we're not as responsible with money as we should be. We have this sense that if we managed our money better, we could do a lot more with our income.

We're looking for general financial counseling: someone to help us set goals, show us new habits, and teach us about the wide world of personal finance, without giving us a hard sell on investment plans or mortgage rates. Where's the best place to get this kind of help?