Showing results by author "Dale C. Maley" in All Categories

In August of 1887, the TP&W railroad began advertising for a special passenger excursion train that would take Central Illinois citizens on a short vacation trip to Niagara Falls. On August 10, 1887, the train with its 625 total passengers began it trip east across Illinois.Just past midnight, the passenger train encountered a burned out wooden bridge just east of Chatsworth. The second locomotive and several wood passenger cars derailed killing approximately 85 passengers and injuring 372 more. It was one of the worst train wrecks of that era.In 1970, Helen Louise Plaster Stoutemyer ...

Most retirement books assume you have time to save and accumulate money or you already have a significant net worth. Most of the 67 million Baby Boomers who are approaching retirement age have run out of time to save and accumulate more wealth. This short story explores the options available to people reaching retirement age who are broke. After reading this short story, you will be able to make your own well-informed decision on how to optimize your chances of being able to retire.

This short story explains how to become a financial planner or Registered Investment Advisor.

78 million Baby Boomers start to turn age 65 in 2011. Many of these Boomers will be seeking investments that have low risk and high returns. Equity indexed annuities are often promoted as low risk investments with high returns. This short story explores the complexities and hidden costs of equity indexed annuities.

Young homeowners often wonder if they should pay off their mortgage early. The 76 million Baby Boomers heading into retirement also face the key question on whether or not pay off their mortgage early. Financial experts differ in opinion on the mortgage early pay off decision. This short story explores the many aspects of the mortgage early pay off decision. This story will provide you with enough information to make your own well informed decision regarding your specific early mortage pay off situation.

James McDowell (1747-1809) was born in Ireland. He was a soldier under General Wayne in the Revolutionary War and was wounded at Brandywine. He married Sarah Gorrell (1763-1834) and they had nine children in Ohio. Families of three of these nine children moved to Avoca Township in Illinois starting in 1832. Descendants of James and Sarah fought in the War of 1812 and the Civil War.These McDowell family members were pioneers that helped establish the Illinois towns of Avoca, McDowell, Fairbury, and Gibson City. Some of the Fairbury, Illinois McDowells named and helped to establish Fairbury, ...

In 1869, veteran surveyor Nelson Buck recruited five young Pontiac, Illinois, men between the ages of 16 and 20 to accompany him on a surveying expedition to southern Nebraska. When they reached Nebraska, he recruited about another six younger men to join the survey party. Nelson Buck expected the U.S. Army to issue his men guns, ammunition, and an armed escort. His requests were turned down, and he decided to start the survey anyway. Two days from the Army fort, the party ran into members of the Sioux tribe. Buck sent two of the Pontiac boys back to the fort to get help. When the Army ...

In the years immediately preceding 2008, the rage in financial planning was diversification. By not putting all your eggs into one basket, some asset classes would do poorly.......but other asset classes would do well. The theory was that investors should find asset classes which are not correlated to each other. The financial planning industry and Wall Street advocated investing in many asset classes including diversified U.S. stocks, diversified developed international stocks, emerging market stocks, commodities, timber, and bonds. Unfortunately, in the Crash of 2008, all asset classes ...

Unfortunately, our U.S. educational system teaches Americans nothing about investing. Many people struggle for years to develop an optimum investment plan. This short story recounts the author's journey to a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds. I hope the story of my journey to a diversified portfolio of low cost index funds will inspire other investors to further explore the advantages of index fund investing.

Financial bubbles have been occurring for hundreds of years. Most of us have lived through the Tech Wreck of 2000 and the Sub-Prime Crash of 2008. This short story examines and identifies the common characteristics of financial bubbles. Reading this short story might help you identify the next time we find ourselves in a financial bubble.

Sixty-Seven million Baby Boomers have now started to enter their retirement years. One of their biggest challenges is making a retirement portfolio last during retirement. This is a challenge because of the fluctuating nature of future stock market returns. Hoover Dam designers faced a similar issue. They want to maximize flow from the dam while keeping the reservoir full. The amount of river flow replenishing the reservoir is dependent on fluctuating levels of annual snowfall in the mountains. This short story compares Hoover Dam’s design to the retirement portfolio income problem. After...

As the 67 million Baby Boomers enter retirement, they face a key question. What is the optimum method of converting their retirement portfolio into cash during retirement? This short story explores several alternative methods for converting a retirement portfolio into cash. Reading this short story will allow you to make your own well-informed decision on how to optimize the conversion of your retirement portfolio.

Two of Fairbury's most nationally famous citizens were Carl and brother William Goudy. They both raced nationally and held world records in early motorcycle racing between 1911 and 1916.Carl won the big Chicago motorcycle race held in September 1915. Carl loaned his fast Excelsior motorcycle to his brother William. In January of 1916, William was killed in an accident on a Bakersfield, California, track while doing practice laps.Carl's grade-school girlfriend told him that she would not marry him unless he gave up the dangerous sport of motorcycle racing. Carl gave up motorcycle racing in ...

American medical doctors face some unique financial planning challenges. They often have to incur student loans in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unlike regular college graduates who start working at age 22, they often can not start working until about age 30. Their relatively high income can also drive the need for huge retirement savings. Because of their high income, doctors are major targets for people selling bad investments. This short story explores these unique challenges. Read this short story if you are a medical doctor who wants to learn how to meet your long-term ...

This short story explores how to find a good financial planner. After reading this short story, you will know how to find a good financial planner who meets your needs.

Although Wall Street tries to convince us that financial planning is too complicated for an ordinary Main Street citizen to understand, financial planning is not rocket science. This story provides a process map or flow chart for the entire financial planning process. Each process step in the flow chart then becomes a separate chapter. For each chapter, a list of the best books, best articles, and best short stories are given so you can explore each step in more detail. You can select the process steps that you are most interested in and then read the supporting books, articles, and short ...

Fairbury is a small town located in Central Illinois. It is 100 miles south of Chicago and 60 miles east of Peoria. It was founded in 1857 when the railroad first crossed Central Illinois. In 1861, John Marsh, and son Henry Marsh, dug 180 feet down just west of Fairbury and found coal. Their discovery of coal in the Illinois prairie, prompted the discovery of more coal through-out Central Illinois. Fairbury quickly had three main operating coal mines. These mines created jobs that attracted miners all the way from Europe. The population of Fairbury exploded from 269 in 1860 to 2,324 in 1890...

Many new investors are shocked to discover there are over 8,000 different mutual funds to choose from! How do you know which fund to pick? Once you pick a fund, how do you know how well it is performing? Do you have to spend a lot of time learning about investing? This book answers all of these questions and more. It shows how regular people can simplify their investment life and beat the pro's results. Jill is a new investor who knows she must start investing for her daughter's education and her retirement. Jill turns to her nephew, a Business Major, and to William the friendly Finance ...

Many Americans work hard and live below their means so they can grow their wealth through saving and investing. Unfortunately, the U.S. has 50% of the world's lawyers. Umbrella insurance is an easy way to protect your hard earned wealth from lawsuits. This short story explains umbrella insurance including how much umbrella insurance you should have.

The first settlers in the Fairbury area was Major Darnell south of town in 1829 and the McDowells north of town in 1832. In 1857, the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad installed new tracks which helped to create the village of Fairbury. This book is a collection of over 70 different carefully researched stories about various aspects of Fairbury history. These stories run the range from the pioneer settlers to modern efforts to preserve Fairbury history. It is hoped this book will help people better understand the almost 200 years of rich history that helped to define the community of Fairbury.