And don't forget that all of the equity in a "paid off" house is not accessible without an open line of credit (which are hardest to get when you need them most) or a reverse mortgage (when older than 62).

There are phaseouts, but it's not completely phased out until around $80k of Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) for singles and $160k MAGI for married filing jointly.

When looking at the interest rates, always consider taxes as well. For student loans, you receive a tax deduction for the interest paid, so in the example mentioned the true effective interest rate is 6.8%-tax deduction.

Part of the difference between the 401(k) and IRA is the limit to what you can defer taxes on...$17,500 in 2014 into a 401(k) (plus an extra $5,500 if over age 50) vs. $5,500 into an IRA ($1000 extra if over 50).

The assumption has often been that people will be in lower tax brackets at retirement; however, there are a lot of factors that can put them in the same or higher bracket at retirement.

It's really a trade off between a tax reduction now (using pre-tax dollars for a traditional 401k that taxes withdrawals at ordinary income rates) and a tax reduction later (using post-tax dollars but no taxes on growth).

You can access 401(k) funds in several different ways while still employed, from taking loans to early distributions (that get taxed as ordinary income and face a 10% penalty if you are younger than 59 1/2).

The expense ratio describes how much of the fund's return is "held back" to cover overhead and expenses. So a fund with a 1.03% expense ratio that actually earns 8.03% for the year would actually provide you with a 7.0% return.

Don't forget the growing popularity of Roth 401(k) options at work. For those who cannot contribute to a regular Roth IRA (because their Adjusted Gross Income is too high), it can be a useful tax diversification tool.

You are correct...in a taxable brokerage account, the money for the initial $10k investment has already been taxed (via your paycheck), so the capital gains tax would be applied to the gain - in this case $1000 (assuming you held it for over 1 year).

Even Vanguard will tell you that working with a (good) flesh and blood financial planner can improve your returns by as much as 3%/year vs. DIY.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to see consistency in the adviser's personal philosophy vs. the recommendations. My issue is that I mostly advise people a generation older than me, and their needs, fears, goals, and expectations can be significantly different than my own.

Elbows, your logic is flawed. You would ask the physician what they would do *in your shoes*, which would be the equivalent to asking a financial planner what they would do IN YOUR SHOES, not in their own. That is what proper advice would include.

To address the article and other comments...

Risk tolerance basically = psychological pain tolerance. I can say that I can take a punch on paper, but when the big guy is about to swing, how do I react?

Nice concept, extremely difficult to implement. I've been helping families for 10 years with their finances, and the concept of "risk tolerance" is one of the most ephemeral.

Oh, well, I'm an idiot, now I look and they went public in 2011 (ticker: P). Still, pressures from analysts and other vested interests could be a part, and the proven fact that it's "stickier" for someone to pay monthly automatically (and forget it) then to ask them to "write a check" annually.

Also, the monthly subscription rate smooths out their revenue over the year, making it more predictable. That's good for business, especially if they are considering an IPO at some point!

I noticed that CrashPlan had become a memory hog, but since I had it all set up the way I liked it, I just wrote a small batch file to stop/restart the CrashPlan service 2x/day.

Great list, Captain and 7. The Merkur Chrome Razor with the Feather blades is what I use as well. Tried the Sharp Stainless blades, and those work fine for a 1-day growth, but if I skip a day the Feather blades feel SO much better.