Today the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) announced that the cost of living adjustment (“COLA”) for 2020 will be 1.6%. The 2019 and 2018 COLAs were 2.8% and 2.0% respectively marking the 2020 change as a slowing of the rate of increase. Conversely it’s an improvement over years such as 2010, 2011 and 2016 when the [...]
Join host Mike Norton of the Harvard Business School and economist Allison Schrager as they explore the many forces that influence our relationships with money. Episode #1 - Is it Logical to be Irrational About Money?: Why do our brains seem hard-wired to skew our decisions and lead us astray? Host Mike Norton explores how [...]
OK, uninformed is a bit reckless. We don’t mean uninformed in the literal sense. We’re speaking relatively. What we really mean is that advice from people outside of the fields of business, investing and economics is rather helpful when making decisions that have business, economic and societal impacts. In this spirit we queried folks working [...]
Please note all below figures are unadjusted for inflation. Since 1950 the average maximum intra-year low for the S&P 500 has been 13.5%. This means that if you had bought the S&P 500 on January 1st of any given year the S&P 500 would on average be down by 13.5% at some point during the [...]
No need to be honest. Just tell people what they want to hear. Automating tasks saved financial advisors at Merrill Lynch work… More advisors are also choosing to use the model portfolios created by the firm's central investment office. Andy Sieg - President of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management All that marketing capital spent lying to [...]
Nice article from Barry Ritholtz about the importance of a basic financial education, why we're so bad at providing it and what can be done to improve the situation.
Who likes a visit to the doctor’s office? Exactly. In a recent survey conducted by The Harris Poll Americans likened financial planning to a medical exam. Adults aged 18+ were asked how they feel about financial planning. The #1 answer was “not my favorite thing in the world but know it needs to get done [...]
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Excellent work by the folks at Pension Partners. Everything you wanted to know – and then some! Spend some time with the data. Quite eye opening.
Given how touchy people seem to be nowadays we’ll provide some prefacing: The following data is objective and not intended to support any agenda. It isn’t pro/con Trump. It isn’t pro/con tariffs. It isn’t pro/con Wall St. Put down the pitchforks and torches. As Neil Young wrote, “Throw Your Hatred Down.” Whew! OK – with that out [...]