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Savvy Senior: How to pick a financial advisor Savvy Senior How to Pick a Financial Advisor Dear Savvy Senior, Can you give me some tips on how to choose a good financial planner or advisor? My wife and I are five or six years away from retiring and could use some professional help to get us on track. * Seeking Advice Dear Seeking, With all the different financial advisers and services available today, choosing a trusted professional that can meet your needs can be a bit confusing. Here are some suggestions that can help.

Spotify UK drop into the red last year, since subscription revenue fell and the music streaming service invested more in growth here. When compared to 2011's profit of £21 million, accounts reveal Spotify's British arm made a loss of £10.1 million in 2012. Down from £96.5 million a year earlier in 2012 it fell to £92.6 million, the online music streaming platform saw this revenue fall. The decrease in revenue was partially down to its decline in subscription, which fell from £72.4 million to £64.7 million because of the alteration in the way subscriptions were booked. A minimal increase was seen by UK advertising on the platform, rising from £8.1 million to £9.1 million to the year ending December 31. Sources say that subscription numbers have been growing strongly in 2013 thanks in part to partnerships with the likes of Vodafone. Spotify UK declined to comment on its accounts but earlier in the year parent company Spotify Group said: "In 2012 the business focused on driving user growth, international expansion and product development, resulting in soaring user numbers and increased market penetration. "Our key priority throughout 2013 and beyond remains bringing our unrivalled music experience to even more people while continuing to build for long-term growth - both for our company and for the music industry as a whole." With its operations in the thirty two countries around the world, Spotify lets users stream 10 hours of music a month for free with advertising or pay a subscription fee for unlimited, advertising-free listening. Naming Sony, Universal and EMI, and to date has paid out $500 million in royalties to artists, the company has signed deals with major record labels with the said records. With 5 million paying subscribers Globally Spotify saw users leap from 11 million to 20 million in the year. UK numbers were not disclosed. From March this year figures demonstrate this has augmented to 24 million users and 6 million subscribe

Is there anything that big government does well? I mean sure, our military is really pretty practiced at breaking things and shooting people; which (I guess) explains why they are being sent to fight Ebola. (If that logic escapes you, don't worry… I think a lot of us feel that way.) And yeah, the IRS is pretty good at separating me from my hard-earned money; but, then again, so is liberals. We on the right have been asking it for decades… And we still haven't been able to solicit a single honest answer from defenders of of the state. In fact, satire, sarcasm, and a little incredulity, is the general response from our esteemed colleagues on the other side of the ideological divide.

Democratic presidents tend to preside over better economies than Republican ones, but that may be down to pure luck, according to a recent paper from Alan Blinder and Mark Watson at Princeton. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. economy has grown at an average real rate of 4.35% under Democratic presidents and only 2.54% under Republicans. So what gives? "Democrats would no doubt like to attribute the large D-R growth gap to better macroeconomic policies, but the data do not support such a claim," they write. "It seems we must look instead to several variables that are mostly 'good luck.'" Three factors can explain 46-62% of the growth gap, according to the paper. Here are the reasons (via James Hamilton): Oil shocks. With the exception of Jimmy Carter, oil price shocks tend to dog Republican administrations more. The 1956-57 Suez Crisis, early-70s OPEC embargo, 1980 Iran-Iraq War, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 all happened during Republican administrations. Productivity. It's hard to say that a U.S. president is responsible here, but Democrats tend to see bigger gains in productivity. Bill Clinton, for example, enjoyed a big boost in U.S. productivity during the 1990s. Consumer confidence. Consumers tend to have a rosier outlook on the U.S. economy in the first year a Democrat is in the White House. "Yet the superior growth record under Democrats is not forecastable by standard techniques, which means it cannot be attributed to superior initial conditions," they write. Chalk this one up to luck again, but it does come "tantalizingly close to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which consumers correctly expect the economy to do better under Democrats, then make that happen by purchasing more consumer durables."

Large banks and trading firms are frantically trying to determine whether they have fallen victim to a suspected commodities fraud emanating from the giant Qingdao Port in northeast China. Citigroup and several other large Western banks are concerned that their loans may lack the appropriate collateral, big stockpiles of copper and aluminum at the port. The banks have inspectors on the ground who are trying to assess whether enough of the metals are there. The worry stems from suspicions that a Chinese companies pledged the same collateral for multiple loans. Chinese authorities are investigating the matter. The case could have broad repercussions for the commodities market and the Chinese economy. Banks have funneled billions of dollars into the Chinese economy through these murky transactions, and commodities prices have been falling over concerns that such lending will dry up. Western banks, including Citigroup, are bracing for any potential fallout. Just months ago, Citigroup fell victim to a multimillion-dollar fraud in Mexico. If the Qingdao developments harm the bank, regulators and shareholders are likely to press it to explain why its controls had failed again. Chinese companies are at risk, too.

Förbereda för pensionering är svårt nog när två människor i det tillsammans. När du är på din egen, kan det vara ännu svårare. Många amerikaner kommer att leda till pensionering solo av olika anledningar, naturligtvis inklusive döden av en make, skilsmässa och förändrade livsstilar. I den 2013 US Census var cirka 54% av kvinnorna 65 eller över ogifta, och 27% av männen. Det är en massa människor, och deras situationer varierar kraftigt. Men något äldre singlar tenderar att ha gemensamma finansiella rådgivare säga, är att deras pensionering planering behov kan vara mycket olika från de av gift kamrater - och att många av dem är oförberedd. I själva verket säger en studie av Rand Corp att enstaka personer är mycket större risk att inte spara tillräckligt för Pension än gifta par. Studien av forskare Michael Hurd och Susann Rohwedder, funnit att 20% av gifta par kommer inte att spara tillräckligt för pensionering, men att vissa 35 procent av ensamstående män och 49 procent av ensamstående kvinnor kommer in pension ekonomiskt oförberedda. Fortsätt läsa

Spain's economic crisis, the government's response to it, and pervasive corruption have inspired a flowering of the black market economy. FORTUNE -- Outside the front door of an IKEA in the Barcelona suburb of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a group of men -- mostly immigrants from Ecuador -- offer shoppers informal delivery services. In Spain's crisis economy, it's a competitive business -- to cut down on conflict, the drivers pick numbered balls to set a queue -- and with some negotiating, a shopper can get immediate delivery for less than what IKEA's official drivers charge.

Flipping houses in the Temecula/Murrieta Valley and across the Inland Empire has been a lucrative venture for investors for many years. Many think it is a quick way to a fast buck. Many have tried and many have failed. Flipping houses is serious business and should not be taken lightly by the novice real estate investor. Before you begin down this path, prepare yourself. Here are five quick tips to help you understand what you're in for, before you actually start investing your money. For more related topic: http://corlissonlinegroup.com/ http://corlissonlinegroup.com/blog/ http://corlissonlinefinancialmag.tumblr.com/

How the Government Botched Its Effort to Hold Wall Street Accountable After the Crisis The Department of Justice (DOJ) fell down on many of its efforts to hold Wall Street accountable for mortgage fraud after the crisis, according to a new audit from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The DOJ promised the public that it would place a priority on going after mortgage fraud. But the report finds that "DOJ did not uniformly ensure that mortgage fraud was prioritized at a level commensurate with its public statements." One telling example is that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ranked mortgage fraud as the lowest threat in its lowest crime category. The OIG also visited FBI field offices in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York and found that either it was a low priority or not even listed as a priority. Meanwhile, the FBI got $196 million in funding to investigate mortgage fraud between 2009 and 2011, yet the number of agents doing the investigation decreased in the same time, as did the pending investigations. More related issue from Corliss: http://corlissonlinegroup.com/ http://corlissonlinegroup.com/blog/ http://corlissonlinefinancialmag.blogspot.co.uk/ http://www.pinterest.com/geraldhussen/corliss-online-financial-mag/

Do you can see it coming? The return on 10-year U.S. Treasuries skyrockets, the S&P 500 remains down for 9 out of the last 11 trading days and disturbing economic reports pour in from all throughout the globe. The much expected "financial correction" approaches rapidly, and investors start heading for the exits. We have not experienced so many foreboding financial signs all converge at one time like this since just before the last major financial disaster. It appears as though a "perfect storm" is brewing, and so much "smart money" has already abandoned stocks and bonds. Could we possibly be headed toward another frightening financial crisis? Will we see a replay of 2008 or prospectively an even worse crisis? Naturally, so many people believe that we will never again experience another major financial catastrophe like the one in 2008. So many people think that this kind of "doom and gloom" talk is idiotic. Those types of people are those who did not see the last financial crash coming and who choose not to prepare for the coming one in spite of the extremely clear warning signs. Let us expect the best; but let us also get ready for the worst - and, right now, things do not look bright at all. The following 18 signs give strong support that global financial markets are headed toward a horrendous death spiral...