Showing results by author "Dale C. Maley" in All Categories

This short story explains the basic concepts of financial planning and provides a conceptual roadmap for planning your retirement. By using a conceptual roadmap approach, you can quickly grasp the general concepts of retirement planning in a very short amount of reading time.

This short story explains how you can determine if you have saved enough to retire.

This short story explains how to become a financial planner or Registered Investment Advisor.

American medical doctors face some unique financial planning challenges. They often have to incur student loans in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unlike regular college graduates who start working at age 22, they often can not start working until about age 30. Their relatively high income can also drive the need for huge retirement savings. Because of their high income, doctors are major targets for people selling bad investments. This short story explores these unique challenges. Read this short story if you are a medical doctor who wants to learn how to meet your long-term ...

The most critical decision involved with your retirement portfolio is the correct asset allocation. Asset allocation is the ratio between stocks and bonds in your portfolio. The higher the percentage of stocks versus bonds, the higher your expected return. Unfortunately, your risk level increases also. Financial planners recommend you lower your stock allocation as you age. This short story reveals the actual asset allocation used by Americans as a function of age group. It includes data from six different sources on typical Americans. You can compare your age and your asset allocation with...

Fairbury is a small town located in Central Illinois. It is 100 miles south of Chicago and 60 miles east of Peoria. It was founded in 1857 when the railroad first crossed Central Illinois. The author developed an outline for broadcasting twenty-one short stories about Fairbury history on the local radio station. This short story converts the outline for the radio audio history segments into this written short story. It is hoped this book helps to inform current Fairbury residents about the colorful history of Fairbury. It is hoped this short story will help to educate future historians who ...

Since it's founding in 1857, Fairbury has had eight murders committed. This book reviews the history behind each of these eight murders. If you are interested in Fairbury history, this book contains almost 200 pictures and sketches of Fairbury history.

Many of the 67 million Baby Boomers who turn age 65 in 2011 want to retire. If they have chosen a high-priced financial advisor, their retirement date may be delayed indefinitely. This short story utilizes a real life example of a couple who can never retire due to excessive investment and financial planning fees. After reading this short story, you will be able to make your own well-informed decision on how to optimize investment and financial planning fees so you can retire sooner.

Millions of Americans are saving and investing in an effort to fulfill their long term goals including college education for their children and retirement. One proven method of increasing the probability of achieving your goals is to put them in writing. This short story explores how writing an Investment Policy Statement can help you meet your financial goals.

Young homeowners often wonder if they should pay off their mortgage early. The 76 million Baby Boomers heading into retirement also face the key question on whether or not pay off their mortgage early. Financial experts differ in opinion on the mortgage early pay off decision. This short story explores the many aspects of the mortgage early pay off decision. This story will provide you with enough information to make your own well informed decision regarding your specific early mortage pay off situation.

This short story explains the theory of behavioral finance and helps to explain how you can use these theories to help achieve your financial goals.

Many Americans work hard and live below their means so they can grow their wealth through saving and investing. Unfortunately, the U.S. has 50% of the world's lawyers. Umbrella insurance is an easy way to protect your hard earned wealth from lawsuits. This short story explains umbrella insurance including how much umbrella insurance you should have.

The Jones House is located at 314 E. Madison Street in Pontiac. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. This 1858 home experienced a major fire in 1975 and was ready for the wrecking ball. Two Pontiac gentleman purchased it and donated it to the Livingston County Historical Society. It took about ten years to fully refurbish the house. Members of the public now enjoy free tours of this unique pre-Civil War home that is the oldest brick home in Pontiac, Illinois. This book explores the history of the people that lived in this home and the refurbishment process.

Millions of Americans are stuck with poor 401K plans. These 401K plans have low employer matching ratios and very high annual expenses. At some point, it becomes better to simply invest in low cost index funds in a taxable account versus using the poor 401K. This story explores this problem and the trade-offs between a poor 401K and a taxable account.Hopefully, after reading this short story, you will have enough information to make your own well informed decision regarding your specific situation.

Fairbury is a small town located in Central Illinois. It is 100 miles south of Chicago and 60 miles east of Peoria. It was founded in 1857 when the railroad first crossed Central Illinois. This short story attempts do documents all the Fairbury citizens who have authored books over the years. Several of these book authors are major figures in the history of Fairbury. Additional biographical and historical information for these book authors is included in this short story.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb popularized the term Black Swan through his books and interviews. Taleb’s Black Swan Theory refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences. This short story explores whether or not Black Swan events are really important to Main Street investors versus Wall Street traders.

William Walton and Elizabeth Gehman had a large family of 12 children in Ohio. They both died at relatively young ages, leaving several of their younger children as orphans.Four of these 12 children moved to the Fairbury area. Mary Ann Walton married prominent Belle Prairie Township farmer David Steele Crum. They provided a home for young orphan Isaac Walton after the parents died.Benjamin Walton was a pioneer settler of the Fairbury area. He established a large elevator and grain mill at the southwest corner of First and Locust.Orphan Isaac Walton served in the Civil War, then returned to ...

Circa 1922, the book titled Livingston County, Illinois in the World War was published. It contains the names of all the people from Livingston County who served in World War I. If submitted, it also contains a brief service record for each person. Circa 1947, the book titled Service Record Book of Men and Women of Fairbury, Illinois and Community was published. It contains a photo and short biography of each person that served in World War II. Unfortunately, there is no published book containing the names of the Fairbury area people who served in the Civil War. This book utilizes numerous ...

Sixty-Seven million Baby Boomers have now started to enter their retirement years. One of their biggest challenges is making a retirement portfolio last during retirement. This is a challenge because of the fluctuating nature of future stock market returns. Hoover Dam designers faced a similar issue. They want to maximize flow from the dam while keeping the reservoir full. The amount of river flow replenishing the reservoir is dependent on fluctuating levels of annual snowfall in the mountains. This short story compares Hoover Dam’s design to the retirement portfolio income problem. After...

One of the key decisions an investor has to make is what level of portfolio risk to assume. If the stock allocation is too low, the investor runs the risk of inflation diminishing the portfolio value. If the stock allocation is too high, the investor may panic and sell-out every eight years when we have a Bear stock market. This short story explores the issue of portfolio risk. After reading this short story, you will have enough information to make your own well-informed asset allocation decision.