Hillary Clinton and the two-for-one presidency + MORE May 17th

Q: A little over 3 years ago, I became a widow very unexpectedly with two kids. About five months ago, I had to leave my job due to Parkinson’s disease. I am an owner of a house which I’m trying to downsize without success due to bidding wars. I do have a small CPP pension and a little money from life insurance which I would like to invest somehow. How do I plan for the long term?
—Georgia L.
A: As a financial planner, one of the things I do all day long is build financial plans that show people how long they have to work to retire comfortably at age 62 and fund the rest of their lives through age 95. I often tell people, however, that life is rarely so linear. Yours is a situation that drives that point home, Georgia.
I’m sorry to hear about your misfortune. Life events like this are definitely a time to re-evaluate financially.
Ask a Planner: Leave your question for Jason Heath »
I think it could be helpful for you to build a retirement plan. Based on your current assets, income and expenses, you could use a long-term financial projection to determine things like:

How much of a downsize do you need to do?

How much can you afford to spend each month?

What rate of return do you need on your investments?

How much financial support will you be able to provide for your children, for post-secondary education, for example?

Do you need to plan to return to work at some point?

You mentioned that you left work due to your Parkinson’s…

TORONTO – The Toronto Stock Exchange rose moderately this morning as the major U.S. markets fell.
The S&P/TSX index was up 78.05 points at 13,971.54, led by metals and mining stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 55.41 points at 17,655.30, the broader S&P 500 composite index declined 5.84 points to 2,060.82 and the Nasdaq composite lost 14.87 points to 4,760.59.
The Canadian dollar was at 77.55 cents US, up 0.01 from 77.54 cents US from Monday’s close.
The June crude contract was up 35 cents at US$48.07 per barrel and June natural gas was up four cents at US$2.07.
The June gold contract rose $7.60 to US$1,281.00 an ounce and July copper contracts were largely unchanged, falling 0.4 of a cent to US$2.08 a pound.
The post Toronto stock market gains as New York sees declines; loonie flat appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is met on stage by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during a campaign rally on Roosevelt Island in New York, June 13, 2015. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux)
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. — The notion of a 2-for-1 Clinton presidency is back.
Recalling sunnier days of growth, low unemployment and budget surpluses under her husband, Hillary Clinton is telling Americans that Bill Clinton will be “in charge of revitalizing the economy” if she wins the White House.
What his work would be remains unclear: not a cabinet post, she indicated. But, as she has been saying for months, she expects him to play a leading role.
Bill Clinton reigned over a strong economy, especially in the final years of his presidency, yet his economic legacy is mixed.
The late 1990s were the last period to see sustained income gains for the typical American household. Middle-income wages have stagnated since then.
But his refusal to step up regulation of exotic financial instruments known as derivatives was blamed in large measure for the collapse of the financial sector years later…

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Stocks are mostly falling in midday trading on Tuesday as investors sift through economic reports and company earnings. Six of the 10 sectors of the Standard and Poor’s 500 index are lower. Utilities and consumer goods companies are dropping the most after the market made sizable gains the day before. Consolidated Edison fell 2 per cent and Kraft Heinz lost 3 per cent.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 44 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 17,667 at 12:06 p.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 index fell four points, or 0.2 per cent, to 2,062. The Nasdaq composite index slipped seven points, or 0.2 per cent, to 4,768.
LOSING LENDER: LendingClub plunged another 10 per cent after the Department of Justice opened an investigation into the company, which forced out its founder last week after an internal review found irregularities with the way loans were sold. The stock plunged 41 cents to $3.52.
TECH GAIN: Agilent Technologies rose $1.40, or 3 per cent, to $44…

Don’t get conned into buying more car than you can actually afford the next time you’re at your local auto dealership. Troubling findings from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada show that a growing number of consumers are purchasing bigger vehicles with larger extended auto loans exceeding the standard five years.
This is concerning because monthly payments on longer loans for more expensive vehicles are often roughly the same as those on shorter loans for economy cars. And since most consumers break their auto loans during the fourth year, they’re more likely to refinance debt into their next auto loan—something known as long-term negative equity.
The example below shows how someone who bought a $35,000 car, financed with a 4% interest rate loan over five years, would start accumulating positive equity—in which the car’s value becomes greater than its loan balance—midway in the fourth year. Meanwhile, someone who bought the same vehicle with the same rate over eight years is still $9,000 underwater halfway through year four and won’t start acquiring positive equity until the end of the seventh year…