You’ve found your dream home, and you’re feeling both excited and nervous to put in an offer. Then you find out you need a pre-approval letter. But what exactly is a pre-approval letter?

Years ago, when we were first married, Jackie and I sat down together to talk about whose bank we would merge our accounts under. Like any educated, responsible adults about to embark on their first serious decision together, we used a coin flip. I lost, and nearly a decade later, we are still using my wife’s bank.

Let’s talk about the digital envelope system. It’s 2020, so the old-school envelope-full-of-money system doesn’t really make sense anymore. That system can be put in place digitally though, as Jackie and I have done.

I never thought we would see 30-year home loans touching interest rates in the high 2s, but 2020 was a weird year for all sorts of things.

Losing a loved one is an incredibly emotional time, and is often made more difficult by time-sensitive tasks like funeral arrangements or turning off streams of income like Social Security or pensions. Then you may learn you have inherited assets that come with additional taxes for you.

Early on in your efforts toward retirement savings, it’s easier to accept market volatility given the potential for growth over a long period of time. When actually preparing to retire however, your mindset needs to change. You are no longer looking only for the best performing investment, but for the most consistent investment. In retirement, volatility has the potential to accelerate the depletion of your assets, especially during a declining market, and since statistics show most 65 year olds will live to be 85 or 90, you need your savings to go the distance.