Investors: What can you learn from Starbucks?
I cringe whenever I hear someone say that they’re, “playing the stock market.” The stock market is not a competitive game, with winners and losers. Instead, it offers the potential for every investor with a globally diversified portfolio and a long-term perspective to win. Here’s why: If you’re “playing” you’re probably doing a lot of buying […]
Saving Investors from Themselves
I was once asked, at a journalism conference, how I defined my job. I said: My job is to write the exact same thing between 50 and 100 times a year in such a way that neither my editors nor my readers will ever think I am repeating myself. That’s because good advice rarely changes, […]
How to handle retiring with Debt?
According to a new survey from BMO Wealth Management, a third of Americans (31%) say reducing or eliminating debt is their number one financial priority. That goal was even more prevalent among Baby Boomers, where 35% selected reducing debt as their number one priority. If nothing else, those survey results point out a problem. For […]
Should you pay off that mortgage before you retire?
Survey after survey indicates that one of our biggest worries in retirement is running out of money. More than a third of retired investors and half who aren’t retired said they worry they will run out of money and be forced to depend on Social Security as their main income source, according to a Wells […]
Making Billions With One Belief: The Markets Can’t Be Beat
The fastest-growing major mutual-fund company in the U.S. isn’t strictly an active or passive investor. It’s both. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, or DFA, is the sixth-largest mutual-fund manager, up from eighth a year ago, according to Morningstar Inc., drawing nearly $2 billion in net assets per month at a time when investors are fleeing many […]
A Geezers Financial Advice to Millennials
Dear Millennials: You’ve no doubt noticed that you’re the financial services industry’s new best friend forever. It seems hardly a day goes by that some investment firm doesn’t release a study or survey purporting to offer keen insights into your financial behavior or suggest astute ways you can improve your prospects (that not-so-coincidentally involves buying […]
How to avoid outliving your retirement savings
The 4% figure you mention comes from studies done in the 1990s to identify safe withdrawal rates that resulted in what’s known today as the 4% rule. Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have a nest egg of $1 million and inflation is running at 2% a year. Basically, the rule says if you […]
How Trump’s First Year Could Impact Your Investments
I woke up yesterday at 5 a.m., fumbled for my iPad, and refreshed CNN. ‘Trump’ in big letters stared back at me. I double checked that I wasn’t on The Onion by mistake, and then shot out of bed to start writing my piece on how a Trump presidency will affect our wallets. As I […]
7 reasons why advisors can help you protect and increase your assets
You’ve picked out the rings, maybe even the venue … things are rolling toward your Big Day. But don’t forget an important element of your new life together: getting your financial lives in sync. Talking about finances with your fiancé or partner may not seem like the most romantic topic, but what better way is […]
Should You Take Early Social Security Retirement Benefits?
Most people are aware that they can begin collecting their Social Security retirement payout at age 62, and, in doing so, they are informed that they will be collecting a reduced benefit. And most people also know that, the longer they wait to collect benefits, they will receive a higher monthly benefit. When they do […]
