April is the Financial Literacy Month1 so it only makes sense for me to offer some personal finance advice.  Also as a parent to two very young and beautiful children, and a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner, I am passionate about being financially independent, responsible and literate.  Ask yourself this simple question: which do you prefer, […]

Ever since the Social Security Act was signed into law in August of 1935, the federal insurance program has grown leaps and bounds in terms of the number of beneficiaries and coverage.  According to data from the Social Security Administration, a little over 53,000 people received a total of $1.3 million dollars of benefits in […]

What Can Hong Kong Show China? A Road to True Democracy and Economic Power This quarter, instead of writing about financial planning, I decided to share something very dear to my heart. I am torn and heartbroken, for my hometown’s fate is now at a crossroads.  Many feelings—anger, fear, heartache, sorrow, anxiety, and hope—have struck […]

In my last quarterly letter[1] I discussed life insurance products—term, whole and universal—and their characteristics.  This time, I will take a deeper dive into a strategy that benefits younger people when it comes to insuring their lives. First of all, let us refresh our memory on the cost of various life insurance products (Table 1). […]

2014 seems to have gotten off to a shaky start—and I am not referring to the stock markets!  From the downing of the news station-chartered helicopter in downtown Seattle, to the sweeping landslide in Oso, Washington, to the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian jetliner, one thing we can be sure of is that humans are […]

Could He Have Avoided Breaking Bad? AMC’s award-winning drama Breaking Bad was a huge success as Bryan Cranston’s Walter White theatrically transitions from an underachieving, ordinary high school chemistry teacher to becoming one of the most sought-after methamphetamine producers in the country: milking, laundering, and ultimately losing tens of millions of dollars for the cause […]