The stock market makes the headlines, but nuts-and-bolts spending and savings issues often draw the letters. Here are some recent questions from readers: From Carol in Bellevue, Wash.: Doing some house-cleaning recently, I found an old bank envelope containing some checks that were supposed to be deposited in our bank. They never made it. …
At a time when many Americans seem obsessed with shutting out messages and viewpoints they don’t support and believe in, I found it refreshing last week to chat with a guy who most optimists and long-term investors either disbelieve or hate. Harry S. Dent Jr. has been a soothsayer of sadness and gloom for ages …
I recently congratulated an old friend on the announcement of his impending retirement, and he dropped me a response asking for a chat. Joe had done all of the math on his retirement savings and spending plans – which include some nice travels in the next few years – and was trying to figure out …
The headlines are filled with stories on the potential for inflation, rising interest rates, new government economic and taxation policies, fluctuating currencies – including cryptocurrencies — high-priced stocks and more. Each of those stories, however, represents a different form of risk, and the varied news is the market’s way of suggesting that investors might want …
At the end of National Financial Literacy Month, the one thing we can be sure of is that Americans are more financially savvy and knowledgeable than they were in the past. That’s not some shining statement on the value of the nation’s financial literacy efforts, including the annual April celebration that started more than 20 …
Financial milestones should be celebrated. The question is whether they can be believed, whether savers and investors who pass key numbers on their lifetime financial journeys can trust the point they have gotten to. I’m concerned about it now because the buoyant stock market of the last year has created a bunch of situations with …
At some point in the not-too-distant future, the last year of stock market gains will be a footnote to history. Rebounding from a precipitous drop as the world lurched into the pandemic in March of 2020, the stock market reversed course and gained more than 50 percent, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500, …
One positive side effect of the pandemic is that people stuck at home started investing. According to a recent new survey from Charles Schwab & Co., 15 percent of all current U.S. stock market investors say they first began investing in 2020. Schwab tabbed that group of investors as Generation Investor or Generation I, but …
The guy whose research taught investors to expect a 10 percent annualized average return from the stock market has been trying to teach a different lesson for years, namely that the next quarter century is going to see market returns be more modest. It would be just another market forecast – a forgettable opinion from …
Throughout the pandemic, people who were mostly stuck at home took on burdens and household tasks they had let slide, and accepted challenges to clean up, complete chores and generally stay active and involved. They tackled self-improvement ideas; they made beef jerky and bread and pies (though not at the same time). With Covid vaccinations …
