The recent market meltdown actually aided the sales of permanent life insurance. Insurance agents are known for promoting permanent life insurance because of its key features such as the savings account supplementing the insurance policy. Safety has been the biggest part of their pitch because of the bond-heavy investing strategy that permanent life provides. Is [...]

Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot about inflation, and the government statistics released on April 15 didn’t do a lot to quiet the chatter.  The government reported that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose to an annualized 2.7% in March, up from 1.6% in February.  Troll through the latest batch of YouTube [...]

According to a website called The Food Timeline, back in 1916, a loaf of break cost 5 cents, a pound of sugar was 8 cents and a 10 pound sack of potatoes was 27 cents?  OK; that was a long time ago, you say?  How about 1962?  A loaf of bread cost 20 cents, a movie ticket [...]

Will U.S. citizens face any danger from the fallout from nuclear reactors?  Over the next week, you’ll hear exaggerated estimates of the danger.  Some news reports are saying that low levels of radiation have been detected as far away as 200 miles from the nuclear plant, but the radioactivity that has been released into the [...]

These statistics are fun thoughts to chew on, but completely anecdotal.  Sound investment decisions should not be made based on just past trends but who knew our ballots affected our wallets in more ways than one. Market Returns from 1940-2008 by Political Party Control (Senate/House/President) 15.3% - R / R / D 10.5% – R / [...]

You’ve drawn up wills.  You have Power of Attorney assigned.  You may even have trust documents.   You’re all set and don’t need to do any more planning, right? Not necessarily.  If the uncertainty of the estate tax laws (set to expire this year unless Congress acts to repeal or change it -again) teaches us anything, it should [...]

Estate tax law has been a hot topic this year for the financial industry, but not many individuals are concerned about it because they assume it is a “rich person’s” problem, not theirs.   Congress let 2009 finish without taking any action to address the expiring estate tax law.  No action in 2010 by Congress would mean [...]

At 1:40 PM (CST), something unusual occurred:  I watched the stock market ticker.  Most of you know that we have a long term perspective and watching the day to day market fluctuations, much less the intraday movements, has little to no appeal to us.  Nevertheless, I happened to be looking up the current price of [...]

Do you know that our CFP certification means we adhere to a strict code of conduct that requires us to put our client’s best interest first and foremost (even above our own)?  Seems simple, right?  However, there are many planners out there who do not adhere to this code of conduct (the fiduciary standard) and some don’t even [...]

Winter always seems to drag long, especially when that pesky groundhog sees his shadow.  But every four years, we have something exciting to look forward and this year’s Olympics are no exception.  Sports are often discussed here at Timothy Financial’s headquarters and the Olympics are especially fun because there’s always such wonderful stories along with the [...]