Most people can remember exactly where they were when the stock market suffered its biggest one-day point decline ever. That’s not because the day was particularly memorable but more because it happened about a year ago, on March 16, 2020, early in the coronavirus pandemic when almost everyone had shut things down at home. Were …
As the election results were tallied past midnight Tuesday, I was struck by how the results really would not make much difference for my investments over the next four years, the next decade or the rest of my life. That’s not because the president can’t do good things or that the election results won’t impact …
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 …
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 …
Jack Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group, used to suggest that investors think of Social Security as if it was a bond they had bought and paid for. The idea, he said, was to act as if that money was in your bond portfolio, generating income in the future, and to base your planning …
(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 21, 2020.) Chances are, you missed the message that the Securities and Exchange Commission recently sent to all investors. It went something like this: Nobody is protecting you, except for you. Oh, regulators weren’t that open and plain-spoken about it, but in finalizing their new “best …
These days, “Don’t look” is an actual investment strategy. It’s not just espoused by plenty of experts, but it is being followed by millions of investors whose portfolios were swamped under the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic shutdown. It’s not a terrible strategy either, at least for investors who had a …
It’s all about the acronym. That’s why a 20-something member of the “FIRE movement” – which stands for Financial Independence Retire Early – told me last week at FinCon 2019 that I “don’t qualify as FIRE.” Mind you, this young blogger is working a corporate job, driving an Uber on the side and is anxious …
