How do you make investment decisions? Do you look at data? Or look for an interesting opportunity?  Interestingly, most people don't look at facts when making decisions. They prefer a good story.¹

The biggest and most important decision an individual can make when starting retirement is the age they will decide to take social security. I stand by the fact that this is the most crucial decision you will make in your financial life and will have a huge impact on your financial plan depending on the decision that is made.

The majority of Americans are under informed about the rules surrounding social security and how the benefits program works. And we are not alone. If you have ever called the social security office, you may have realized that the workers may even be ill-informed as well.

A common question I receive as a wealth advisor is, "What investments someone can make to get a big return?"

While Creekmur Wealth Advisors spends a substantial amount of time researching, modeling, and planning investment strategies we do not believe that rate of return is the most important rate to focus on when it comes to investing. We do appreciate seeing a high rate of return and strive to achieve that.

However, the most important rate I would encourage clients to focus on and monitor is their savings rate since it is totally under the investors control and is the largest contributor to your final net worth.

Your savings rate is calculated by taking the total amount of your annual savings and dividing it by your gross or net income. I prefer using gross income as this encourages us to find tax-efficient methods of savings to maximize our savings rate.

Learn the 3 R's

to help you prepare for market volatility.

It's impossible to predict when the market will drop or how far it will fall. With this in mind, investors should take steps to position their portfolios against potential risk during times of growth.

Many people in the workforce have a retirement savings vehicle option available through their company benefits program. The most common are the 401(k) or 403(b). These retirement vehicles that allow people to save money in a tax deferred account and receive tax deferred growth throughout the course of their life.

This means that the money going into this account is not taxed at an individual's current income rate, but is deferred until that person decides to remove dollars from the account.

Every few weeks we compile a list of articles and books which we believe would be helpful to investors who want to make wise, informed decisions. All of these are relevant to current events  or the long-term financial planning methodology that we here at Creekmur Wealth practice with our clients every single day.

If you have any questions you can reach out to our team via email or by scheduling a call using the link below. With that in mind, lets dive in!

One of the biggest issues that new investors run into is developing an easy-to-repeat, long-term investing strategy. Below I'm going to discuss three steps you can use to help develop your investing strategy. By having a set strategy every investor is better prepared to weather the inevitable volatility of the market.

What 3 Steps Should You Follow When Investing?

Hello! Before we dive in, I want to take a quick moment to introduce myself as a new Wealth Advisor at Creekmur Wealth Advisors here in Morton Illinois. I started my career in the industry with a company out of Colorado as a mutual fund/ETF wholesaler. From there I transitioned to TD Ameritrade and worked with retail investors in the Illinois.

What Does It Take To Build a Recession Proof Retirement Portfolio?

How can my portfolio and my retirement survive a recession? This is a very common fear for retirees and pre-retirees and considering the movement of the market recently, you may have had this same question yourself.

"While pandemic disruptions remain, 2022 offers hope of greater normalcy"

In 2021 the markets bobbed up and down through a year that had a little bit of everything: politics, bubbles, meme stocks, inflation, runaway rallies and sudden drops.

Although we don't have a crystal ball, we do have a few clues as to what we might look forward to in the first months of 2022.

What Can We Expect 3 - 9 Months Ahead?