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Probate is the court-supervised process of authenticating a last will and testament if the deceased made one. It includes locating and determining the value of the decedent's assets, paying final bills and taxes, and distributing the remainder of the estate to the rightful beneficiaries. Probate can be a costly and time-consuming process, but it can be avoided fairly easily.

What is your exit strategy?

Your company is ripe for sale. Now what? These days, your children or employees may not necessarily want to take over your business, but you still want to sell your business. So, what’s a successful entrepreneur to do?

For young families, the immediate cost of raising a child can be testing financially. Just when you thought you were in the clear from student loan repayments and your never-ending car lease, a hungry mouth appears with countless sleepless nights and a hefty price tag attached. But diapers, baby formula, and stuffed toys aren’t the only financial burdens parents should worry about.

Whether you're a seasoned investor or new to the game, you'll want to make a conscious effort to avoid these three common investment mistakes:

These are the obstacles we all face in trying to achieve our financial goals:

Personal finance, like just about everything else, is mainly common sense. Advice like “don’t spend more than you make; start investing while you’re young; don’t loan money to friends with the expectation of getting it back,” have been around for generations, and most likely will survive the next few generations as well. Even money mistakes that are corrected early enough will have little impact on your wealth going forward.  What you do want to avoid are money mistakes that can be hard to recover from.

Time certainly goes by fast. One day you’re interviewing for your first job and the next thing you know you’re a few short years from applying for Social Security.

While it’s never too early or too late to start planning for retirement, when it comes to retirement savings in the U.S., later seems to be the standard. According to RothIRA.com, only 56% of today’s workers in the U.S. are currently saving money for their retirement, and 38% of those currently saving have less than $10,000 saved. With one-third of Americans admitting that they have no retirement savings at all, it’s clear that many U.S. workers will reach retirement age with little to no resources to count on.

While owning a home is the quintessential American dream, not everyone is able to purchase a home when they desire. If you’re fresh out of school with a boat load of student debt, it’s probably best to wait until you’ve been working for at least a year before you start looking to buy. You’ll also want to make sure that your credit score is where it should be, since the higher your score, the lower your interest rate will be. It’s also important to pull a copy of your credit report prior to contacting any mortgage companies; examining it in minute detail to ensure that everything is correct. If you do find an error, dispute it with the credit bureau immediately and keep the documentation.

 As you approach retirement, it may be time to pay more attention to investment risk.

If you are an experienced investor, you have probably fine-tuned your portfolio through the years in response to market cycles or in pursuit of a better return. As you approach or enter retirement, is another adjustment necessary?

If you’re looking to diversify your investment portfolio, you may want to consider purchasing investment property.

Depending on how hands-on you want to be, you may want to purchase real estate as a short-term investment; fixing up the property and then selling it immediately for profit. For a long-term investment, rental property can provide a steady income stream over the longer term.