Are You Stupid?
Chuck Jaffe thinks so. Channeling his inner Forrest Gump the personal finance columnist reflects upon his years of writing about the Stupid Investment of the Week and decides that sometimes it's not the car but the driver.
2013 Retirement Plan Inflation Adjustments
2013 2012 401(k) / 403(b) Elective Deferrals $17,500 $17,000 Catch-up Elective Deferrals $5,500 $5,500 Eligible Compensation $255,000 $250,000 Annual Contribution Plan Limit $51,000 $50,000 IRA Contribution $5,500 $5,000 IRA Catch-up Contribution $1,000 $1,000 Social Security Wage Base $113,700 $110,100
S&P 500 Headed Higher?
Fundamentals be damned. Throw away that lucky rabbit's foot. No need to waste time with that nonsense since stocks are "guaranteed" to go up from their current level. How do we know? Take a look at the following table: 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter 1944 low high 1948 low high 1952 low [...]
Absolute-Return Funds Fail Absolutely
The Wall Street marketing machine is impressively efficient. Given enough time it can churn out a product for "trees grow to the sky" investors, "the sky is falling" investors and everyone in between. One of the latest fads is the absolute-return fund. As the name suggests the funds are designed to provide positive total returns [...]
From Vice Comes Virtue
Have you ever wondered why some scams never seem to go away? It's because they work. I was reminded of this recently when a young woman was accused of bilking an elderly man out of $47,000 with a phony story about a kidney transplant. Gee, was the "need" for a Mercedes not obvious enough that something [...]
Useful/Useless Financial Market Tidbits
Oh the things one sees on TV. Every Sunday morning some loudmouth is screaming at us about the upcoming slate of NFL games. "Call now and I'll give you my lock of the week - absolutely free!" It's inevitably a flip of the coin. If it doesn't hit you never call again. If it hits [...]
Valuing State Income Tax Benefits of §529 Contributions
The folks at Morningstar have taken a stab at quantifying and ranking the upfront tax breaks available at the state level for contributions to §529 college savings plans. The results are based on a hypothetical couple earning $100,000 with two children each receiving a $2,500 contribution over the course of a year. As such the couple's total [...]
How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented
Tom Friedman has teamed with Michael Mandelbaum on a provocative new book. They argue America is failing at what it's always done best: educating its citizens to or above the current level of technology attracting (and retaining) the best and brightest immigrants investing in top notch infrastructure maintaining an atmosphere encouraging capital formation and investment They hypothesize that the [...]
John Wooden isn’t Dead – He Works at Dodge & Cox!
Whether basketball or life The Wizard of Westwood can always be counted on for sage advice. "Patience is the ability to wait and calmly persevere. We all grow impatient but some people have more trouble waiting than others do. We tend to forget that all good things take time." Sadly the investment world and its many attention [...]
Know Thyself
Given last week's market volatility - all but forgotten in our 24/7 information age - many investors are questioning whether they have the "stomach" to be exposed to the financial markets. To understand if we should be invested is to understand why we are invested. This article seeks to create a link between financial and non-financial explanations. Is it legitimate? Nonsense? [...]