(This column was released for publication on Dec. 16, 2020.) In ordinary times, the New Year is when people evaluate themselves, making resolves – many of them financial – to improve their daily lives and/or to reach goals. These aren’t ordinary times. Setting goals and making resolutions feels hollow this year, as better times clearly …
(This column was released for publication on Dec. 9, 2020.) The hottest thing this holiday season isn’t the latest video game, cool gadget, best-selling book or popular gift card. It’s “buy now, pay later.” Now part of the check-out process on seemingly every commerce site, buy now, pay later was becoming a movement before the …
Last week, in describing gifts of stock as “the ultimate 2020 holiday gift,” I acted as if shares are a kind of one-size-fits-all item. Yes, you pick individual companies, but that’s not much different from selecting the color on a more conventional gift. But the questions I got prove that giving stocks for the holidays …
You’ve heard a lot this year about how hard it can be for youngsters to get a good education when they’re not in the classroom. But this year also has brought investors what amounts to the greatest home-teaching tool the stock market has ever seen, and the perfect gift to give your favorite young investor …
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 …
I make a lot of plans and try to do a lot, but having a heart attack in my 40s was not part of any plan. With terrible family cardiac history and my own weight problem, I can’t say I never foresaw the possibility – even, perhaps, the probability – but it was the last …
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 …
(This column was released for publication on Sept. 16, 2020.) Darren in Brusly, La., is worried for his job in the coronavirus pandemic and is hoping to “protect” his credit score “in case anything bad happens” at work. He wrote me asking if there was any way to pay the keepers of credit scores …
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. …
