Planning for retirement is like putting together a financial puzzle. There are a lot of pieces, considerations and moving parts that you must evaluate. At North Main Financial we work with our clients to help them map out their path to retirement based on their goals, needs and wants. While it may seem daunting, it’s not impossible.

When thinking about your financial universe it’s important not only to think about how to increase your assets, but how you can protect your assets. Asset protection strategies are important for preserving your estate for your loved ones but the only way this can be accomplished is through planning.

Volatility is an intrinsic characteristic of the stock market. When you think about your financial plan, it’s important to have a solid understanding of your goals and situation so you can think through how a volatile market may affect your situation. The volatility of the market over the last few months may have made you take notice but it’s not a time to panic.

The end of the calendar year brings with it some requirements from a financial planning standpoint that are important to remember. At North Main Financial, we sit with our clients between the holidays to take care of things from a planning standpoint.

Technology and investing go hand in hand today. Devices like the Apple iPhone are a part of our everyday lives even though it’s just over 10 years old. (I feel like we’ve had iPhones around forever.) So, how does the intersection of technology and investing affect us now and in the future? Here are a few thoughts.

Where Have We Been

Real estate can certainly be a key factor in your financial future. Do you own, do you want to own, do you want to invest in real estate, the questions go on. At North Main Financial, we help guide our clients with financial planning that includes things like real estate, so we thought it was important to touch on this topic on an episode of the North Main Financial Show.

You may have been watching business shows or the nightly news in recent weeks and seen quite a bit of negative volatility in the stock market for the first time in a collection of months. We had some negative volatility earlier this year, but it seemed to dissipate over the summer. Fast forward to October and we’ve seen the negative volatility pick up in recent weeks.

Planning refers to any method of thinking out acts and purposes beforehand. We plan our daily schedule, we plan for holiday’s, and some of us even plan out our strategy before hitting the mall on black Friday, but what about retirement planning? How do we approach the investment universe from a planning standpoint? What is your risk tolerance?

There are several investments and investing styles to choose from. Mutual funds, ETF’s, stocks, bonds, CD’s, preferred stocks, the list goes on. More than likely you have a variety of investments that combined, make up your investment portfolio. These investments should line up with your risk tolerance and desired goals.

If you’ve been watching the stock market the last few weeks you’re probably asking, “what is going on?” The stock market has had some movement that we haven’t seen for several months and in some cases, years. It’s been a rather tumultuous couple weeks and when that happens, it creates a certain amount of anxiety.