How prepared are you for retirement?
Lately, the economy has looked as volatile as the stock market: up for a few weeks and then back down again. This is generally attributed to the reopening of the country in early May, followed by what looks to be a gradual and sporadic reclosing due to an upswing in outbreaks of the coronavirus. In…
If a large allocation of your retirement portfolio is invested in dividend-paying stocks, you might see your household income reduced this year. During the Great Recession, dividend payouts dropped by 25% and didn’t fully recover for at least four years. Today’s financial crisis brought on by the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak has once again created a…
“When seeking directors, CEOs don’t look for pitbulls. It’s the cocker spaniel that gets taken home.”1 The above quote is one of the ideas Warren Buffett conveyed in his most recent Berkshire Hathaway annual letter to shareholders.1 Buffett drives home the point that people who serve on the boards of public companies are there to represent…
Financial advisors often tell clients to keep an emergency fund of liquid assets, with enough to cover three to six months of living expenses. It makes you wonder why America’s largest companies don’t maintain a similar practice, with three to six months of emergency savings to help keep workers on payroll during difficult times. Unfortunately,…
After making a bunch of gloom-and-doom predictions about the markets in 2019, with fears of a pending recession, Wall Street money managers have a considerably more brightened outlook for 2020. Indeed, recent indicators have heightened expectations for U.S. economic growth this year. For example, the Conference Board is predicting a 2.1% rise in the gross…
Three pivotal economic events of 2019 were: (1) the prolonged trade dispute between the U.S. and China; (2) the series of three interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve; and (3) chatter about a possible 2020 recession. It remains to be seen whether a recession is on the way, but if you’re concerned about market…
Let’s talk a little about famous last words. On Nov. 8, 2007, then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers that the U.S. economy did not appear headed for recession. One month later, the Great Recession of the 21st century began.1 So, on Sept. 6 of this year, when Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced that he…
Index mutual funds are investment vehicles comprising stocks from a wide variety of companies and track the performance of a specific index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Investors are able to spread their assets across many different investments with the convenience of one fund, which can help protect them from market volatility. Index…
There is one predominant reason why retirement portfolio design must be approached differently today than in previous years: There is an infant alive in this world, right now, who is expected to reach age 200.1 That’s the prediction from demographers researching life expectancy trends, according to Olivia Mitchell, a business economics and public policy professor…
In our personal lives, we have a conscience that keeps us from doing not-so-nice things. Sometimes we even get a creepy-crawly feeling when we think someone may be up to no good. Fortunately, there also are some common red flags that warn us about things we should avoid when investing. For example, it’s usually not…
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