Every four years, as the Presidential election winds down, Americans let the rhetoric and the headlines make them gloomy about the post-vote economy. Not surprisingly, this year and this election are different, sort of. For years, Bankrate.com has surveyed Americans about the biggest threats to the U.S. economy over the coming six months, and the …
The mailbag is full of notes from people with all-too-common financial dilemmas these days. I’ll try to help some of the letter writers in the hope that the answers help you too. Question from David H. in Short Pump, Va.: When I lost my job early in the pandemic, there seemed to be a lot …
Just like seemingly everything else in 2020, the market has been a place for extremes. From February 20 through March 23 this year, the stock market – as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 – lost 33 percent of its value. It then gained over 60 percent from that March low to the start …
I don’t feel better off right now. I barely know anyone who does. Yet, intuitively, I should feel better. The stock market is way up over the last few months, and it has taken my accounts up with it. Gross domestic product seems to be growing faster than expected, the latest jobs report shows 1.4 …
The stock market has returned to record levels, powered by a few of the world’s biggest and best-known companies. That has spawned talk of how it’s a “stock-picker’s market.” Poppycock. The market observers who say this drivel aren’t particularly observant, or they would have long ago noticed that good stock-picking never goes out of style. …
My father owned ExxonMobil stock. It was his idea of what a blue-chip looked like. He would have been a bit blue himself this week with the news that the company is getting booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and I can’t help think that the conversation and process I would have run through …
Have you seen the reports about how people have been drinking more alcohol than normal during the pandemic? You can find proof of the trend by asking investors what they expect the stock market to be going forward, because it’s clear that they’re drunk on the market’s rally from the February lows and blotto on …
(This column was released to newspapers on August 4, 2020.) I was filled with both nostalgia and loathing last week when Apple Inc. announced plans for a stock split. The nostalgia is because splits have become rare. In the mid-1980s, when I was a 20-something young, fresh investor, you could expect roughly one-fifth of the …
(This column was released to newspapers on July 28, 2020.) I long ago stopped making forecasts of the stock market; I didn’t need to go out of my way to make a fool of myself. Still, I came up with an answer for anyone who asked me where I saw the market headed. “Up,” I …
(This column was released to newspapers on July 14, 2020.) Buyers act differently than owners. That applies to homes, cars, investments and much more. To convince you to buy, something has to meet the right conditions. It must be pristine, perfect, just the right thing, exactly what you are looking for, or some combination …
