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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:

How to Avoid Retirement Woes

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.

It’s official: Money is stressful. Surveys consistently show that money is the top source of stress for American adults. More than a quarter of Americans say they feel stressed about money most or all of the time. Only 30 percent rate their financial security as high, and more than two-thirds believe that more money would make them happier.

When most people think of retirement, fears about financial challenges frequently come up. With so many people not having any retirement savings at all, benefits like Social Security often make up most or all of the income that retirees get.

Since World War II, obesity rates in the United States have skyrocketed, our net national savings rate has plummeted and American adults and kids alike have allocated a rapidly rising proportion of their free time to staring at electrons dancing on screens.

Since 1926, if you invested in the S&P 500 for any 16 year rolling time frame, you experienced a positive return 100% of the time. For all 10 year rolling time frames since 1926, you experienced positive returns 94% of the time. This shows that, historically speaking, if you invest for long enough the possibility of permanent loss is ZERO, AKA zero risk. 

In addition to the flowers, the chocolate, and the good champagne, remember these lasting financial planning ways to say I Love You every day to your dearest Valentine:

Follow the Golden Rule

Be as honest and accountable to your mate as you would like them to be with you about spending decisions and preferences.

The results of research which studies investor behavior and analyzes investor market returns, consistently shows that the average investor earns below-average returns.

For the twenty years ending 12/31/2015, the S&P 500 Index averaged 9.85% a year. A pretty attractive historical return. The average equity fund investor earned a market return of only 5.19%.