Happy Veterans Day to all the brave men and women that served or still serving this country in time of need.

Always talk with your financial advisor first!

Yahoo suggests 5 stocks that pay monthly...

We all have bills to pay. And whether it’s your mortgage, your utilities or just that pesky credit card bill, life’s little expenses tend to recur every month. There’s just one problem with this: If you’re living off of your investments, you normally get paid on a very different timeframe. Dividends are usually paid quarterly, and bond interest is usually paid semi-annuall

STAG Industrial (STAG)

I’ll start with a young REIT that I’ve owned for years, STAG Industrial  (STAG). STAG is a small-cap REIT with a market cap of about $1.3 billion. That makes it large enough to be diversified but still small enough to fly under the radar of most investors. 

STAG switched from a quarterly dividend to a monthly dividend in late 2013. STAG’s business model is simple enough to understand. The REIT invests in single-tenant industrial real estate — things like warehouses and light manufacturing facilities — that tend to require little in the way of maintenance and ongoing expenses. As of the most recent investor presentation, STAG had a portfolio of 253 properties spread across 36 states and 231 tenants, most of which are investment-grade rated. 

Generally, you can take penalty free distribuions from your IRA after you reach 59 1/2.

If you are withdrawing prior to age 59 1/2 for education expenses you'll be able to avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty.  Eligible educational expenses include tuition, fees, books, supplies and equipment and possibly room and board.  These expenses can be for you, your spouse, children and even grandkids.

You won't get the early penalty free witjhdrawal from your 401k or active employer plan.  Move any elegible assets to your IRA first!  Read our Rollover section.

Regular grade gasoline fell to $2.44 per gallon in the Sept. 11 survey from $2.71 on Aug. 21, when the previous survey was taken before the Labor Day holiday.

Since 1998, more than one in five, or 21%, of Fortune 500 companies have frozen their defined-benefit plans, meaning current workers keep their pensions but new hires are put into a 401(k)-style system.

Safe havens were the big winners on the week. Money markets attracted $22 billion while precious metals saw inflows of $1.1 billion. Money market funds have had net inflows for eight consecutive weeks, bolstering cash on the sidelines to just shy of $2.7 trillion, the latter figure according to the Investment Company Institute. That's the highest level since January.

Courtesy of CNBC

Correction?...Bear Market?...Plenty of thrills in the market over the last week.

CNBC's Bob Pisani provides his view:

If you just look at the 300-point rise in the Dow, coupled with yesterday's better-than-600-point rally, you might be tempted to say that we have turned the corner. But the crazy intraday moves do not inspire confidence. We need to see a few boring August days before traders believe the worst is behind us.

After surging more than 440 points early in the day on Tuesday, initial gains on the Dow Jones industrial average disappeared and the index recorded a 205-point loss for the day overall.

The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 530.94 points, or 3.1 percent, to 16,459.75.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 64.84 points, or 3.2 percent, to 1,970.89.

The Nasdaq composite fell 171.45 points, or 3.5 percent, to 4,706.04.

Ask your advisor about buying individual bonds in your IRA account.   Most people use bond funds, however look at this approach too.

CNBC provides info on building your bond ladder:

But there is a fixed income strategy that can provide you with higher yields: laddering. 

Here's how it works: You buy a portfolio of bonds or certificates of deposit at staggering maturities, whether it's over several months or years. As the bonds or CDs mature, you reinvest the proceeds into debt instruments that best fit your income needs. 

For example, if you had $100,000 to invest in a bond ladder, you may put $25,000 in a one-year bond, a two-year bond, a three-year bond and a four-year bond (with each bond being one rung of the ladder). When the one-year bond matures, you'd reinvest in another four-year bond if you wanted to maintain the duration of the ladder, and take advantage of higher yields.

Our Rollover Center goes over this in detail.

The better option is to take the lump sum and roll it over into an IRA. By doing so, you further defer paying taxes on the amount until you withdraw it from the IRA, and you can invest that money in a wider variety of investment choices than you had within the 401(k) account. As long as you're mindful of fees and choose smart investments, the rollover option is one of the most popular and often makes the most sense for those who are willing to do their investing homework.

USA Today 401k article