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Indexing is a method of reducing taxes on Capital Gains from asset sales. This idea has been making the rounds again in Washington lately, and this time it may have some legs.

According to a consumer research firm, people who are confronted with daunting financial tasks tend to use the time-tested method of attacking them: running away. This is not an ideal strategy.

Today we ask the age-old question, “What could possibly go wrong?” The road to financial independence is paved with perils, some more controllable than others. Here are a few potential pitfalls for long-term planning.

Everyone has an idea of the income they will need to live throughout retirement. Retirement income planning can be confusing, and we can assist anyone desiring eventual financial independence.

Recently, Charles Schwab & Co. asked investors how much money they thought would be adequate to fund their retirements. The consensus was $1.7 Million. It should come as no surprise to anyone that very few people will ever accumulate that much money prior to retirement. What factors will influence your outcome?

A disgustingly low 2% of surveyed people claimed to trust financial industry professionals. Given slightly more latitude, 15% admitted to trusting financial professionals “a little.” We remain unimpressed with these results, so we decided to look into the reasons why so little faith is evident in our industry. As with so many occupations, this seems to be a case of a minority of practitioners making it more difficult for all of us.

At a time of maximum complexity, young people are weighed down by lack of financial knowledge and insufficient resources. In earlier American generations, financial advisors were mostly stockbrokers and insurance agents; all worked on commissions. ‘Investing” meant buying individual stocks, and brokers earned huge commissions. Only the well-to-do could afford the transaction costs.

Americans “of a certain age” know that their working days, at least in their current jobs, are numbered. Companies have opted for decades to replace older workers with younger, less expensive employees. This happens despite legal protections older workers first received in 1967, with passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

One of the charges given to the Federal Reserve (FED) is to “control” inflation using monetary policy. They have, in an apparent attempt to make us believe them, defined their own measure of inflation, the “Personal Consumption Expenditure,” or PCE. This is, in fact, another way to deceive the public by informing them that they should not believe their own lying eyes.