Banknotes

A recent article published by In Business magazine called “Working Parents Calling it Quits” shared that a new FlexJobs survey found 40% of working parents had to quit or reduce their hours since the start of the pandemic. It was no surprise when the data highlighted a difference between men and women.

Buying a home can be overwhelming for anyone, but first-time home buyers can be more susceptible to making a mistake that could cost thousands of dollars simply because you have never done this before.

Most people have heard of Pareto’s 80-20 principle on cause and effect, which theorizes that 20% of individual actions are often responsible for 80% of total results. This rule is useful in explaining outcomes in business relationships, economic events, and even social situations.

In the U.S., nearly 10,000 people turn 65 each day, a trend that is expected to continue until 2029. That's 3.65 million people every year, for roughly the next decade. And the scary thing is, most people spend more time planning their next vacation or car purchase than they do preparing for retirement.

Every four years, largely as a result of the impending election, I get the same question from clients and non-clients alike: “Should I move to an all-cash position? I’m worried that XYZ will happen.”

Money transfer and mobile payments apps are becoming increasingly popular, especially as people look to avoid using cash and stay socially distanced during the pandemic. As technology makes transferring funds quicker and easier, scammers have begun devising ways to capitalize.

Have you ever felt like you were being pulled in different directions? That's how many feel today: Do we go out or stay in? Do we spend or not? Will stocks rise or fall? Will the economy continue to recover or collapse? Very good questions, all.

Looming over everything, of course, is the virus, but there are also various ramifications regarding election outcomes to add to the mix. Perhaps the only thing that is certain is, at this point, uncertainty, and that means, at least in investment terms, more volatility on the horizon. When competing data points cause competing outlooks, can those outlooks become self-fulfilling prophecies?

Each month, in this space, we strive to provide you, the customer, with some actionable tips that you can use to safeguard yourself against all types of fraud. This month, I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the recent security-related experiences that we, as a bank, have had, both to show that we are not immune to schemers' tactics, and to illustrate the lengths to which we've gone to keep your money safe and secure. I'll start with the most recent.

Twenty years ago, I left my position at a large New York financial institution to move to a bank in the Midwest. Shortly thereafter, 9/11 happened.

I remember a colleague who was still in New York running operations at another large financial institution at the time telling me they were able to get their international banking operations back up and running in very short order. He confided that it had been difficult to convince people at his bank to run practice drills of their crisis plan leading up to that event. But because of their meticulous preparation, each manager understood his or her critical role in identifying what needed to happen and executing the plan quickly and confidently.

An employer-sponsored retirement plan is among the most valuable fringe benefits – if not the most valuable – afforded to millions of working Americans. For most, it will serve as their primary source of income during their non-working years. But many make some fundamental errors in assuming that, once they've set their contribution percentage, there's nothing else to consider. Here are eight pitfalls to avoid.