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Dollars & Sense: Financial Advice in a Language You Can Understand®
Episodes
Thursday Jan 04, 2024
Thursday Jan 04, 2024
Happy New Year and thanks for tuning into our first episode of Dollars & Sense in 2024!
At Freedman Financial, our goal has always been to provide financial advice in a language you can understand. We’re starting off the year by crunching some numbers and having a friendly debate about median vs. mean…
Before we begin, we’re going to have a quick math lesson: to find out your net-worth, add up your assets (bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, house, car, and anything else of value that can be liquidated) and then subtract any liabilities (debt, loans against your car or house, credit card debt, student loan debt, etc.). Now back to our point – if you have 10 people and 9 of them make $90,000/annually and 1 person makes $10,000/annually, what is the mean? You’d add up each of their incomes and then divide by the number of people, which in this case would be $82,000/annually. The median, however, would be calculated by lining up those same 10 people, pushing half to one side, half to the other, and what remains in the middle in the median. If the number of data points is even, the median number is the average of the two middle data points in the list. In this case, that would be $90,000. Are you still following? Now let’s apply this same math to the overall median household net-worth which is about $192,000. That’s up from three years ago when this same study was performed and the median net-worth was $121,000. That is an enormous increase of 50%!
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion debate median vs. mean and discuss why there’s been such a large increase in the overall median household net-worth in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 523513
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Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Thanks for joining us for our last episode of Dollars & Sense in 2023! We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas holiday like we did!
With the market being up, we’ll end 2023 on a very positive note, which is great considering what a volatile year it’s been. Morningstar, which is an independent rating service with a heavy focus on mutual funds, put out a story on the type of advice financial advisors are giving to clients as they’re approaching retirement. Once the paychecks stop rolling in, your spending habits generally change to adjust to your new monthly income.
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion answer the three questions posed in the recent Morningstar piece about how they help clients as they near retirement in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 521186
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
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Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Thanks for joining Marc and Marion for the second to last episode of Dollars & Sense in 2023! Christmas shopping is done and we’re ready to enjoy the quality time with our families. Christmas, family, chocolates, and gifts all put smiles on our faces, but that’s not the only thing making us smile right now…
With 2023 coming to an end, we’re ending on a very positive note. The last 7 or so weeks we’ve seen positive performance. Who would have thought that the NASDAQ would end up almost 40% at this point. Since the end of October, the S&P 500 is up about 16% - in less than two months! An interesting statistic shared by Mass Financial Services in Boston was the seven tech stocks (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla), also referred to as the “Magnificent Seven” hit record highs this past month. What’s interesting is that those stocks are on average up 105% as of December 18, 2023. But, in 2022, the average of these stocks was DOWN 46%. See how quickly things change in a year? This is a prime example as to why we don’t chase the wild volatility and why a diversified portfolio is important.
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion discuss the stock market and ending the year on a bright note in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 519513
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
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Wednesday Dec 13, 2023
Wednesday Dec 13, 2023
Marc and Marion are together again for this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense and to wrap up the last few weeks of 2023. Kind of crazy, isn’t it? Every year in December we find ourselves saying the same thing, “the year has just blown by.” Some things never change!
You know what else is for certain? We get older every year. It’s one of those things people don’t want to plan for but it’s a reality of life. Each week when we do these podcasts, we try to put together a topic that would be of interest to our listeners. A few times this year we’ve referenced the book The Psychology of Money written by award-winning author Morgan Housel. Morgan also just published a new book, titled, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes. When you start thinking about your future, it’s filled with hopes, wants, dreams, and expectations. Well, experts tell us, whether it’s those life things or whether it’s projections about the stock market or economics, generally only 25% of those projections come to fruition. That means your surprised 75% of the time. I don’t know about you, but we don’t like surprises!
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion discuss the power of control in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 516865
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
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Thursday Dec 07, 2023
Thursday Dec 07, 2023
You’re in for a treat as Marion and Christian are hosting this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense. As our loyal listeners know, Christian is our Director of Financial Planning so we want to take full advantage of having him as a guest speaker.
So, what’s going on with people as they approach retirement and enter retirement? It’s pretty cliché to say, but it’s the biggest change that will happen in your life. BUT it really is the biggest change - particularly from a money perspective. As you creep closer to retirement age, you get excited to finally have the chance to pull the trigger, retire, and live a carefree retirement the way you envisioned it. But what happens when the paychecks stop all of a sudden?
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marion and Christian discuss making the mental switch when you’re retiring in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 513738
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
PodBean
Thursday Nov 30, 2023
Thursday Nov 30, 2023
Welcome back to another episode of Dollars & Sense with your hosts Marc and Christian. We’re heading into the first week of December with Christmas, Hanukkah, and all festive holidays upon us this month. With holiday shopping in full swing, we can tell you that Marc knows all the Amazon, FedEx, USPS, and UPS drivers by first name now! We’re all feeling holly jolly and wanted to share our advice on whether you should pay for holiday gifts with cash or credit cards.
The days of shopping with cash seem to be a thing of the past. We’ve found it to be one of the more dangerous ways to shop now. Why is that? Well, one of the biggest reasons is you can lose your cash and the likelihood of recovering it before someone else finds it is slim to none…
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Christian discuss smart ways to pay for holiday gifts in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 510886
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
PodBean
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Thanks for tuning it to our special Thanksgiving episode of Dollars & Sense with Marc and Marion. Every week we have a great time hosting the show to provide our listeners with financial advice in a language you can understand. Today’s topic is going to be a bit different – we’re not going to be talking about dollars, stocks, bonds and all other types of monetary items. Today, we’re talking about things! Things? Yes, things!
We’ve all collected stuff over the years and we bet there’s some clutter in your home because of it. As you get older, you may find the need to downsize – so what do you do with all your stuff? More importantly, do YOU do anything with your stuff or wait until your kids need to figure out what to do with it one day? That brings us to a thought-provoking question. Do your children view your sentimental heirlooms the same way you do?
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion discuss what has happened to the notion of sentimental value and some topics you can talk about at Thanksgiving dinner for some good laughs in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 507820
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
PodBean
Thursday Nov 16, 2023
Thursday Nov 16, 2023
Welcome back to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense. If you’ve been following what’s been going on in the world, and certainly from an economic standpoint, you may be excited over what the markets done over the past week. Marc was on vacation the first week of November when the markets started doing really well, so maybe we’ll keep him out of the office for good luck! ;)
We just got back from the Baron’s Conference in NYC where we were among 5,000 other financial professionals, clients, and shareholders who learned valuable information from fund managers and CEOs. Ron Baron shared his 30 year perspective on inflation and how different items have been affected by it. There were a few huge takeaways from the conference, but we have to say, the entertainment was probably the best part. Our main stage surprise entertainment was Justin Timberlake!
If you’re ready to get serious about your financial future, please don’t hesitate to contact our office to see how we can assist you. Our team at Freedman Financial focuses on financial planning and what you can control. We build strategies for the long-term, not just to last through the next few years.
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion discuss the impact of inflation and why investing makes sense in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 506258
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
PodBean
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Marion and Marc are together again to host this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense. It’s the same old song and dance when it comes to market volatility. We find it interesting that the word volatile refers to the markets going down AND up, but you usually only hear the word if the markets are down. If you look at the performance of the major Indexes of the year, they’re actually up.
At Freedman Financial, when we buy stocks for our clients, we buy them for the long-run. It’s important to not focus on the year-to-year volatility or market movement. We look at a 5-10 year horizon, and over that time period, it’s typical that stocks outperform bonds and cash. When we build portfolios for our clients, we use exchange traded funds (low cost professionally managed funds), actively managed mutual funds, index funds, and actively managed bond funds as well. We don’t pick individual securities. So what do we mean by that? When a client comes to us and says, “I want to buy Tesla, Apple, or Disney”, we tell them they already own it because they are a part of a large growth stock index or a large growth mutual fund that’s actively managed. If this topic has sparked any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our office to see how we can assist you.
Tune in to this week’s episode of Dollars & Sense as Marc and Marion discuss managing portfolios in a language you can understand.
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 503331
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
PodBean
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
Marc is on a much-deserved vacation this week, so Marion and Christian have stepped in to host! This week, they are delving into life insurance.
Life insurance can be an important part of your financial plan for both you and your loved ones. But, do you know how much life insurance you need, what policy makes sense for you…or do you even need life insurance?
Listen in as Marion and Christian discuss life insurance in a ‘Language You Can Understand®.’
A full complement of Dollars & Sense broadcasts found here.
DISCLOSURES:
During Dollars & Sense with Freedman Financial, your host, Marc Freedman, may discuss specific financial planning and investment ideas. These discussions are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.
Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Member of FINRA and SIPC.
Always consult a Certified Financial Planner professional, qualified attorney, or tax advisor prior to investing to determine what is appropriate for you.
Tracking #: 499826
Dollars & Sense podcast now streaming on:
Spotify
iHeartRadio
Apple Podcasts, previously known as iTunes
Google Podcasts
TuneIn + Alexa
Pandora
PodBean