“Know what you own, and know why you own it.” –Peter Lynch The last few articles in this column have discussed the importance of investing in bonds. Retirees particularly like bonds as they are not as risky as stocks and they provide a flexible vehicle for generating needed income. In light of very low yields [...]
Last month’s column presented an intuitive concept for financial planning before and during retirement—that of goal-based investing. This month’s column presents a case study of how a couple, Bob (66) and Sue (60), can use goal-based investing when planning their future. What is goal-based investing? Goal-based investing employs the simple idea of investing in a [...]
Two stock market crashes over the past decade have not been encouraging news to investors thinking about retiring or retirees trying to stretch precious dollars coming from fixed incomes. Still, the hype continues. We are constantly bombarded with brokerage firms promoting discount trades that encourage you to move in and out of the market (as [...]
If you are teaching your child (or grandchild) how to drive, would you simply tell the child to start the car, put it in gear, and press the accelerator? Of course not. You would give much more than such a simple explanation. You would teach the child how to use all the various instruments available [...]
If you were to peek into your crystal ball when deciding on an investment strategy, it would be to see if the market has efficiently priced all stocks trading up to that moment. If the market is efficient, current stock prices fully reflect all information available from every possible source. If important information is not [...]
If your career was your identity, facing 24-hours-a-day for the rest of your life could seem daunting. If you were anxiously awaiting the day you could retire, anticipating 24-hours-a-day to do anything you want could be exhilarating. The issue is, we don’t know how it’s going to feel until we each experience retirement for the [...]
We’ve all heard the term “trust-fund baby” and may have ascribed varying notions to it, from the “spoiled rotten kid” kind to the “born-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time kid.” There is another type of trust-fund kid, however, that describes a person who is differently labled and falls under the Social Security Administration’s definition of disabled. For these individuals, a [...]
“They (gold bugs) want everybody to get so scared they run to a cave with gold.” -Warren Buffett Fear sells everything, from questionable investments and scary books to fortified bunkers and survival kits. Telemarketers and certain promoters on Wall Street are having a field day preying on investor fear. Dire headlines like the U.S. [...]
We have all heard the rhetoric coming from each political party: the name-calling, the innuendo, the blame game. What we have not heard, at least not yet, is a cogent debate on the size and proper role of the federal government. After all, this most basic issue is the linchpin to each party’s economic approach [...]
The stock market plays a crucial role in our capitalistic system. Its purpose is to provide a mechanism for corporations to raise needed growth capital. Without the stock market, corporations would have to depend upon private investors for equity capital and the debt market (bank loans and bonds) for financing growth. Unfortunately, this straightforward role [...]