This weekend we say goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017!  It also means that there's no chance we're doing a live show this weekend...so you get one more holiday best-of from the Jill no Money team, aka me and Mark. Consider it our New Year's gift to you.  P.S. stay tuned for an EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT IN 2017,  which we think you'll enjoy :) Back to this week...

First up you're going to hear from a guy you should be thanking every time you contribute to your 401(k):  Ted Benna, who is more commonly known as the "father of the 401(k)" because he created and gained IRS approval of the first savings plan.  That's right, he's the guy responsible for your 401(k).  Pretty cool, huh?  It's amazing to hear his story and the history of the plan and how the whole thing came about.

In hour two we chat with Rana Foroohar, journalist and author of "Makers and Takers," a book that discusses how the misguided financial practices and philosophies that nearly toppled the global financial system have come to infiltrate all American businesses.  Rana shows how the “financialization of America," the trend by which finance and its way of thinking have come to reign supreme, is perpetuating Wall Street’s reign over Main Street, widening the gap between rich and poor, and threatening the future of the American Dream.

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Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Surprise, surprise...it's Christmas/Hanukkah weekend, which means we get to reinvent ourselves...in other words, you're getting a "best-of" show -- consider it our gift to you! 2016 saw a first for Jill on Money: a single guest for an entire show!  Who would be worthy of such an honor?  The one and only James Altucher.

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I'm guessing by  now that you're at least somewhat familiar with James.  If you're not, this describes him in a nutshell:

• Serial entrepreneur
• Investor
• Author
• Podcast host
• Self-proclaimed minimalist

More than anything else, what initially drew me to James is his ability to continually reinvent himself.  This is a guy who has been down many different career paths, made millions, lost it all more than once, yet somehow always comes out on top.  I really think you'll enjoy his story.

And if you didn't get it as a Christmas gift, I highly recommend you check out his book, Choose Yourself.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Here's a little secret I'll let you in on...this show, #302, is the last "new" show of 2016.  The following two weekends will be Christmas and New Year's...and I've got news for ya...Mark and I won't be working!  So, as the year comes to an end, it's a perfect time to review some year-end financial planning tips.

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For such an occasion there's no one better than Michael Goodman, founder and president of Wealthstream Advisors.  Not only is Michael a dear friend of mine, he's also my advisor.  There's my full disclosure :)

Michael and I discussed a variety of financial planning topics to ponder before you shut down for the holidays:

• Selling assets in your portfolio now versus waiting until next year
• Gifting to charities and family members
• Contributing to traditional and Roth IRAs (and conversions)
• Making last minute 529 plan contributions
• Considering how tax changes could affect you

And Michael has one crucial piece of advice regarding your long-term financial plan.  Come on now, it's not that easy, you're gonna have to listen to the interview for that one!

That's it, that's our last "new" show of 2016...hope you enjoyed it!  We'll whip up some good stuff for you guys over the next couple weekends...stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

On the show this week we dive into the FinTech world, discussing next-generation online brokers with Hardeep Walia, founder and CEO of Motif.

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If you're a regular listener of Jill on Money, then you know we're fans of the FinTech world.  Whether it's Betterment or Rebalance IRA, we're all for the combination of finance and technology.  Now you can add Motif to that list.

Led by founder and CEO Hardeep Walia, Motif is a next-generation online broker whose mission is to simplify complex investment products and make them universally accessible.  The company's flagship product allows individual investors to act intuitively on their insights by turning them into a "motif" of stocks...basically purchasing a basket of stocks based on a theme.  Motif also offers a variety of retirement and non-retirement products, including:

• Traditional IRAs
• Roth IRAs
• SEP IRAs
• Trust Accounts
• Guardian Accounts

Before launching Motif, Hardeep spent more than six years at Microsoft, where he was General Manager of the company's enterprise services business.  He also serves on FINRA's Technology Advisory Committee.

Now here's the deal...Mark and I were promised some Motif gear...a hat, a hoodie, a vest, anything...unless the package was stolen, it still hasn't arrived.  As of now, we're big fans, but if something doesn't arrive soon, that could change :)  Just saying...

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

We talk about President-elect Donald Trump and what it means to you and your money plus some financial planning advice with guest Paul Auslander.

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Whew, what a week.  Trump beat Clinton.  Stocks tanked.  Trump spoke in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  Stocks rallied.  And continued to rally throughout the week.  Which led to me being inundated with questions from readers/listeners/viewers, the most common one being, "what should I do with my retirement account?"  Yes, I have the answer...but come on now, it's not gonna be that easy...you'll have to listen to the show for the answer!

Now, as we near the end of 2016, it's a good time to take a crash course in financial planning.  Who better to teach it than Paul Auslander, Director of Financial Planning at ProVise Management Group.

For nearly 30 years Paul has been designing and implementing strategies for his clients with one goal in mind...to help them worry less about their financial futures.  While trying to help our listeners worry less, Paul touched on a variety of topics, including:

• The implementation of the fiduciary standard for retirement accounts
• Commission based products
• Fee only planners
• Likelihood of the Fed raising rates
• Low return environment for 2017

A little bit of something for everyone!

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

It's that time of the year...when all of your questions need attention! In addition to hearing your voices, we also love your e-mails. Unfortunately, they can start to pile up awfully quickly. That's why from time to time, we need to plough through them. If we went too fast, just nudge us again with another note. We also want to hear about your wedding guest etiquette!

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If you missed the great episode with James Altucher, check it out here.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

We always talk about the importance of working with fiduciary advisors, but who's keeping tabs on them? Guest and current FPA President Ed Gjertsen weighs in on the question. He says that the oversight is conducted by a trio of entities: the CFP Board of Standards, the SEC and FINRA. Ed also discussed why he and the FPA remain "fee-neutral".

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Jack from GA needed advice about his future retirement from the military, we discussed in greater detail why revocable trust may not be necessary for most and reviewed new IRA rollover rules for Marilyn.

In case you missed it, last week was the official start of tax season. Here's last week's CTM segment outlining what you need to know about changes to your tax returns and here's how to stick to your New Year's Financial Resolutions.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Oh sure, I wanted to call this episode, "Islanders Shutout Rangers," but this is a financial, not a sports show...and after all, I can only torture Mark so much. After a brief recap of the game, we spoke with Tom (a Bruins fan), who needed help deciding whether or not he should downsize prior to retirement.

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Vicky and John sought guidance on putting cash to work, which allowed me to explain how hard it is to time the market and why even if you are risk averse, you may want to allocate a small percentage of your portfolio to stocks.

Jennifer had an interesting question about how to treat her rental properties; Rosetta and an anonymous e-mailer had estate questions; Jeff, JD and Mark asked about index funds vs. ETFs vs. Robo-Advisors; Alan asked about scrubbing his credit report of errors; and Vicky asked about ditching whole like policies for her kids.

Here's last week's CTM segment about weak retail sales and the negative impact on stocks.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Forget New Year's resolutions; we're doing New Year REALLOCATIONS! Shane kicked off the conversation with a good problem: What to do with $500K in cash? One easy place to start: A diversified portfolio, that takes into account risk tolerance and time horizon.

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Larry is on the other end of the risk spectrum from Shane, but maybe that's just fine for his situation. Both Carolyn and Jerome asked about how to select a financial advisor.

These questions provided a perfect opportunity for me to explain the different types of advisors and the various ways you can pay for services. For more, you can check out: Protect Against Scams: 10 Questions to Ask Financial Advisors. We also were able to exonerate Brian from his self-described "financial malpractice".

Finally, here's last week's CTM segment about the diving stock and oil markets.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

What better way to celebrate our 200th show -- and the first program of 2015 -- then to have Social Security expert Bill Meyer as our guest! Bill is the founder and Managing Principal of the terrific SS resource, SocialSecuritySolutions.com.

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Bill discusses the Social Security system, how to improve it and then dives into the various strategies available to retirees. With hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, you can't miss this show!

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Retirement expert Mark Miller join the program to explain Social Security basics (which are always confusing!) and to provide an update about what the Affordable Care Act does for retirees who are pre-Medicare age.

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Mark is the editor and publisher of RetirementRevised.com, but as if that were not enough, he is also a journalist and author who writes for Reuters, Morningstar and anywhere else that a retirement guru is needed — that means a lot of places!

We also fielded questions on reverse mortgages, saving money to buy a house and what to do if you think that your advisor has a conflict.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

As you scramble to complete your holiday shopping, listen to the great questions that we field this week. We start with Karen from Iowa, who holds a large nest egg in illiquid investments. We then shift to Karen, who is getting into the holiday spirit by gifting to her children. (Anyone can give up to $14,000 to an individual without worrying about taxation.

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Steve is trying to decide how to manage his rental income and Dennis wanted to know about Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).

With just days to go before 2015, check out these year-end money moves!

• 8 Year-End Tax-Planning Tips
• 5 Year-End Retirement Tips

Our guest Gary Zimmerman of MaxMyInterest.com explains his cool new service is like “Uber for cash” and how it can help you boost your returns with NO RISK!

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

What better way to celebrate my birthday week than to hang with my radio/podcast family! Thanks for all of the warm wishes and the great questions, starting with VJ from CT, who is gearing up to purchase his first house. (Here's the New York Times calculator that I spoke about during the show!) After reviewing details of his financial life, we were able to find the right price tag, without sacrificing other financial obligations.

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Joe is considering whether to move out of a variable annuity and into a portfolio of index and exchange-traded funds. By doing so, he would lose a guarantee of 6 percent return inside the annuity, but he would also likely save $5,000 annually.

What a delight to have my pal Dan Forbes, CFP® join the program. Dan is the owner of Forbes Financial Planning in East Greenwich, RI where he specializes in working with individuals and small businesses. He was named a Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Ambassador in 2011 and you may even recognize him from the Board’s 2014 media campaign in 2014. Dan was my intern back in the day and even then, I knew he was destined for bigger things! We discussed some year-end ideas, what to do about bond investments and why the fiduciary standard is so important. If you would like a copy of Dan’s year-end checklist, send him an e-mail at: dforbes@forbesplanning.com.

Thanks to Jackson, who asked about owning an account as tenants in common, which gave me the chance to draw a distinction between that ownership structure and joint tenants with rights of survivorship.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

The holiday music is back, putting callers into a jolly mood for the first show of December! Thanks to Steve from CA, who asked about whether or not to add a small company stock index to his $825,ooo portfolio. Small stocks are defined as those with market capitalizations (number of shares outstanding, times the stock price) of less than $2 million and while they can be more volatile than larger stocks, over time, investors have been rewarded by owning them.

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Check out this chart from Dimensional Fund Advisors, which shows how lucrative small caps have been over time:

In addition to Steve's allocation question, we also answered investment questions from Alan, Kevin and Diane. Bryan's question about student loans was certainly unique, which "Splashing Around in Debt" was needed a strategy to pay down cheap housing debt as he approaches retirement.

Wade is worried about hyper-inflation, but with oil prices down 30 percent since the summer, it is hard to make the case runaway price increases are coming any time soon.

David was kind of enough to send us more information about Social Security calculators that can be helpful in determining your future benefits. Here is the link: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/anypia/anypia.html

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Have a great Thanksgiving!

• Download the podcast on iTunes
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• Download this week's show (MP3)

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio