If you spent December reading or listening to the financial experts making forecasts for the year ahead, you could draw five conclusions about what to expect in 2022. We’ll see heightened inflation, higher interest rates, increased volatility, slower growth and lower investment returns. The specific predictions weren’t uniform or in complete agreement – it’s hard …
Our wallets have a tendency to bleed cash. It’s how you put 20 bucks in there, and when it’s gone, you only can remember what roughly three-quarters of those dollars were spent on. Two years ago, I decided to bank that blood from my wallet, changing how I “keep the change.” It paid off bigger …
Wander through a cemetery and you’ll frequently see phrases like “forever in our hearts” or “You will always be remembered.” The cemetery of mutual funds is devoid of such loving reminiscences, but if you look at the latest monuments – to funds that passed in 2021 – you will see a number of recurring descriptions, …
If New Year’s resolutions were called what they really are – self-improvement chores or promises to do something differently – no one would ever make them. The problem is that most of these promises for personal change never get accomplished. Typically, resolutions are forgotten by the time February rolls around. Self-improvement, however, is an ongoing, …
I don’t remember the last time I celebrated one of my “half birthdays,” but it was almost certainly over a half century ago. Yet I couldn’t help but notice my most-recent half-birthday when it passed this week because for the first time since I was a youngster, it was noteworthy. I turned 59-and-a-half this week, …
Walking my dog through the neighborhood last week, I came upon a friend who gave me his standard greeting for these occasional chance walk-bys: “What do you like in the market right now?” He knows I’m not handing out stock tips, but he usually follows it up by name-dropping, or we’ll spend a few moments …
Janet, a grandmother from New Orleans, wants to give a little something extra this year for the holidays, but doesn’t want to go to the mall to get it. She’s not shopping online for it either. She wants to buy her six grandchildren stock. “I saw something that said that a gift of stock is …
There’s a difference between complaining about inflation and responding to it. With the inflation rate surging to 6.2 percent in October – its highest level since Thanksgiving 1990 — holiday shoppers are about to feel a pinch harder than anything they may have faced in their lifetime as a consumer. The signs of it are …
I confess to “not feeling it” this year when it comes to the winter holidays. I’m always in the mood for a good celebration, but whether it is because circumstances prevent family visits this year or the pandemic’s spirit-sapping hangover or that inflation and supply-chain issues appear ready to suck a lot of the joy …
My oldest daughter turned 30 years old last month. So did the first of her United States Savings Bonds. Since my children often turn to me for financial counsel, it prompted me to take a fresh look at a stale investment. And right now, there’s a lot more reason to consider the lowly savings bond …
