Should a financial relationship be about doing what’s right or feeling good? The former, right? Not so fast. A survey by index zealots DFA found the #1 thing valued in receiving financial guidance is a “sense of security / peace of mind.” Not that that’s a bad thing of course but at 35% of respondents [...]
The outlay for long-term care services increased an average of 4.5% from 2016 to 2017. That’s more than double the 1.7% U.S. inflation rate. The primary culprit was increased labor costs due to a shortage of caregivers. For example home health aids charged an average of $21.50/hr – an increase of 6.17% year-over-year. The 2017 [...]
As summer wanes and we power towards Labor Day we’re left with a couple of realities: the days are hot the news cycle is slow Hot days find us seeking A/C and a cool drink. Slow news cycles make us overreact as the insignificant suddenly seems anything but. Lately we’ve been bombarded with the usual. [...]
Although investors claim to accept market fluctuation as normal we find precipitous selloffs overwhelming. Why? . . . because they happen rapidly and randomly. Lost in the sea of emotion is that equity market annual returns have been mostly positive despite significant market declines in each year. Since 1980 the average intra-year pullback in the [...]
Semantics? No! Bull markets end when the smart money (i.e. buying based upon fundamentals) changes its perception of earnings growth. Markets “crash” when the dumb money (i.e. buying based upon recent performance) will no longer chase prices higher than already inflated levels. Where has the smart money been? It’s followed businesses benefiting from increasing earnings, [...]
Back in 2015 we introduced you to myRA. Well, OK, Treasury under the Obama Administration introduced myRA but we sat down with "her" for this exclusive, in-depth interview. Well, myRA is no more. The program intended for people who did not have access to workplace savings plans is being discontinued. The program has been far [...]
Telephone. A game many of us played when we were kids. The message starts out as “today is my birthday” and by the time it is communicated to the last in line ends up as “purple monkey dishwasher.” It’s a comical game when we’re children but, as adults, we find the wide chasm between sender [...]
As companies shift away from defined-benefit retirement plans (i.e. we’ll pay you $x per year for the rest of your life) towards defined-contribution plans (i.e. you contribute x% per year) an inducement for employee participation is the company match. It’s that free money 100% ROR of which we’d be foolish not to take advantage. One [...]
In early June the first wave of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary standard went into effect. The rule requires professionals providing advice on retirement accounts to act in the best interests of their clients. In theory it sounds great but for it to be effective the public must know who is/isn’t a fiduciary . . [...]
The flowers sure do smelly lovely. Will they lead to an unpleasant financial odor? Passive investing (i.e. indexing) is all the rage. Academics preach its virtue. They justify their existence by cranking out study after study concluding most managers don’t outperform the indexes all of the time. Massive mutual fund complexes (we’re lookin’ at you [...]