Articles written by Cosmo P DeStefano - Benzinga

Finish Strong: Your 2024 Year-End Financial Tune-Up

Planning for prosperity With 2025 just around the corner, now is the perfect time to hit “pause” and take stock of your financial journey. Think about where your money went this year and how it aligned with your values and goals. Did your spending reflect what truly matters to you?

10 Habits For A Richer, Happier Life

I traveled the road to financial freedom, but it wasn’t a weekend trip. I didn’t get here by winning the lottery, selling books, or writing viral posts. Nope, I did it walking the same long, winding, and sometimes dimly lit path you’re on. Here’s my flashlight. 1. Take stock or stay stuck.

Four Signs It's Time To Sell A Stock

When it comes to investing, much of the focus is often placed on finding the right stocks to buy. However, knowing when and why to sell a stock is just as critical to achieving long-term financial success.

Four Steps To Secure Your Retirement Income

Note: This is part three of a three-part series that takes a look at planning for retirement during the “fragile decade” — the five years before you retire plus the first five years of your retirement. Part one is In Retirement Planning, Consider the Entire Journey.

Goals-Based Retirement Planning Is All About You

Note: This is part two of a three-part series that takes a look at planning for retirement during the “fragile decade” — the five years before you retire plus the first five years of your retirement.

In Retirement Planning, Consider The Entire Journey

Note: This is part one of a three-part series that takes a look at planning for retirement during the “fragile decade.” The fragile decade is the wonderfully exhilarating time that spans the last five years of working and the first five years of retirement. It’s also the period that could blow up your whole retirement plan.

Winning The Long Game: Investing Requires Patience

Imagine achieving a 10% annual return on your investments, only to discover you’re actually earning a mere 3.6%. This staggering gap is the reality for many investors who fall victim to short-termism: focusing on near-term results to the detriment of long-term growth.

For Richer Or Poorer: Joint Vs. Separate Finances

Newlyweds make a litany of decisions that will affect the trajectory of their lives together: where to live, how to divide chores, whether to have children, toilet seat up or down.

Income Has No Limit. Or Does It?

While the prospect of boundless earning potential is undoubtedly enticing, it’s not a free pass to become a spendthrift. Wealth isn’t just about what you make; it’s about what you don’t spend. Recently I’ve noticed several financial commentators posting on this topic. Here are two examples:

Leverage Is A Powerful Tool

Leverage (borrowed money) is a simple strategy so you can use a small amount of your capital (combined with the borrowed cash) to make a larger investment.

From Reflection To Action: A Financial Tune-Up

Planning Is Everything With 2024 fast approaching, it’s an opportune time to revisit and reassess your financial goals and your strategy to reach them. Take a moment to reflect on where you spent money this year, and how much. Consider jotting down the details for a clearer perspective.

Is It Your Income Or Spending Calling The Shots?

The paycheck-to-paycheck tango is familiar to many, and it has a common refrain: ‘If only I made more money.’ But is this dance a result of an income shortfall or spending habits gone astray?

Generalization In A Specialized World

Opening your mind to thinking outside the box begins by acknowledging that you are inside a box. Our experiences shape our ideas, beliefs, and our world view. The narrower our experiences, the smaller the box and the more confined that view remains.

Life Is Expensive: How Do People Do It?

It all begins with understanding this simple and absolute truth: You will not accumulate any measure of wealth or even get your head above water if you don’t spend less than you earn. To reach financial security you first need to become a savvy saver.

Weathering Financial Storms: Navigating Tail Risk With Confidence

We spent the better part of a decade discussing whether the Fed and world banks would move interest rates to 0% or even negative to keep economies chugging along. But then a virus quite literally shut down the global economy with 114 million job losses worldwide. The shock of those lost working hours was four times greater than that of the global financial crisis.

The 4% Rule: How Reliable Is It?

There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going. —Beverly Sills

Interest: The Reward And Risk Of Time

Few concepts are as fundamental and powerful as interest. Widely recognized as the bedrock of economic growth and wealth accumulation, interest is a force that shapes our financial decisions and long-term prospects. But at its core, interest embodies the paradox of being a reward and a risk—a duality that underscores its significance.

Does Residential Real Estate Belong In Your Portfolio?

He is not a full man who does not own a piece of land. —Hebrew Proverb

5 Investing Concepts That Are Counterintuitive

The Greater Your Skill, The More Luck Matters In any activity that involves both skill and luck, such as investing, as skill increases the vagaries of luck play an increasing role in the outcome. Financial author Michael Mauboussin describes this challenge as the Paradox of Skill.

Inflation Is Simply One More Expense

Inflation is the parent of unemployment and the unseen robber of those who have saved. −Margaret Thatcher