Images From Portland, ME.

Here are a couple of photos from today's stop in Portland, ME. More on the way:


The next photo is from the SkyCam of Monument Square in Portland on the WMTW 8 (local ABC affiliate) website. The bus is right there behind the statue!

Thoughts From Portland, ME

One of our NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor volunteers here in Portland, ME has an interesting thought they wanted to pass along to those stopping by the blog:

It’s great to join the bus tour for the day and answer financial questions for the people who have passed by. The most important question and the burning question that I got today is: What I should I do now? Although there are many financial techniques that can be used in these times, the most important is to stick to your knitting and be consistent with your investment strategy. Short term comfort may feel good, but it can cost you a fortune in the long term.

Helping People in Portland, ME

The Your Money Bus Tour arrived in Portland, ME this morning to help local residents and their financial concerns. We have been honored to have been joined by the C.A.S.H. Coalition of Greater Portland and Mayor Edward Suslovic. The C.A.S.H. Coalition of Greater Portland is a great organization people should check out. Their work is top notch and they are doing their parts to help people save for their future. You can learn about them at http://www.cashgp.org/ or just click HERE.

NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisors Getting Ready In Manchester, NH

Thoughts From The Manchester Stop.

NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor Faye Doria had some interesting meetings with folks who came by the bus stop in Manchester, NH on October 28th. Here is what she experienced:

My first engagement was with someone who had a variety of questions. One was asking about doing a Roth IRA instead of his 401k, since he thought tax rates would be higher in the future. Since he doesn’t have an employer match on his 401k, I thought he could do the Roth IRA first, but probably should still be saving something in his 401k. Since he’s in a profession where he changes jobs often, he was worried about leaving a lot of small 401ks behind. He did establish a Traditional IRA, and I told him it would be easy to do a 401k rollover each time he left a job now that he has a place to roll to. So he’s going to rethink not adding to his 401k.

Another person was trying to decide when and how to get back into stocks or mutual funds after pulling everything out of the stock market to invest in real estate. We talked about being more diversified, and moving back into mutual funds in baby steps. Since she doesn’t have anything in retirement accounts, I thought that was the place to start for the tax deductions. And it would also be easy to dollar-cost-average into these new investments.

People seem to have come with some specific questions. I’m always impressed with the number of “average” people who pay attention and make really good financial decisions. I think the media spends too much time sensationalizing every issue, and not enough time pointing out what is best for average people. I’m always pleased to see people who are serious about their finances, even if they wish they had done some things differently.

Another advisor had the following to share:

I spoke with several people who had come a considerable distance to visit us on the bus. They were concerned about whether or not their retirement plans were impaired and whether they should continue to invest in their 401(k).

Some who have been recently laid off are planning to use their home equity loan to get through. They wanted to know if this was a good idea.

Next Up...Manchester, NH!

The bus is en route right now for Manchester, NH where it will be tomorrow (October 27th) doing a free advice event at the Center of New Hampshire. To learn more about the event simply click HERE to visit the Tour Schedule section of the Your Money Bus website.