Managing finances properly is mainly common sense. While we’ve all made financial mistakes, most of those mistakes are easily rectified, particularly when promptly corrected. However, there are some financial decisions that can be much harder to recover from. Here are just a few of them:

If you’ve only just begun your career and are starting to collect a decent paycheck, the last thing on your mind is probably retirement planning. When you’re in your twenties and thirties, retirement can feel light years away, but it will get here much quicker than you can imagine. And when it does, you’ll want to be prepared.

If you’re a beginning investor, it’s likely you’re concentrating on building your portfolio.  But as important as it is to build that portfolio, you should also ensure that it’s diversified.

Why is a diversified portfolio so important?

There are three key reasons why diversifying is important:

The American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA) recently published a list of personal finance trends that we should all be concerned about. These trends highlight the fact that almost 63 percent of Americans today are unable to pass a basic financial literacy test.

Here are the troubling trends, as well as some tips on how to avoid them:

Sometimes simple is best. Many of us tend to complicate our financial situation; overthinking our options while ignoring the basics.

But like anything else, the simplest rules are often the most important ones; and the ones most likely to be ignored. How many of these rules do you follow?

Data breaches, once a fairly rare occurrence, have become more frequent as hackers become more skilled in their ability to extract personal data from popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

In recent years, reverse mortgages have been enthusiastically marketed to homeowners ages 62 and over. Optimally designed for homeowners with at least 50 percent equity in their home, reverse mortgages allow homeowners to tap into that equity, providing them with a regular monthly payment – the complete opposite of a standard mortgage.

There are many ways that we support our favorite charitable causes. However, one of the most beneficial ways to support a favorite charity now and into perpetuity is through planned giving.

For years it was assumed that tax planning was reserved for the wealthy. While wealthy individuals will see the most benefit from tax planning, with the 2018 tax law changes, even middle-income earners can reap the benefits of tax planning.