This column was released in syndication on April 13. 2022. Here’s some controversial financial advice for current times: Hold more cash. That is not the same as “go to cash,” which would be a call to exit the market. Far from it. And it’s not advice most people are comfortable giving …
Inflation is never a feel-good story. Nothing feels good about items getting more expensive, no matter how inconsequential price hikes were for decades prior to 2022. Gas prices have long been the biggest factor determining whether consumers were confident and happy or nervous and displeased. Elections turn on inflation numbers. “It’s the economy, stupid,” was …
The talking head on my local morning news show was gabbing about how “Inflation is everywhere right now. It’s unavoidable.” He and his co-hosts complained about prices for steak and gasoline, the reduced size of standard packages of bacon that are hiding price increases, and more. It was standard chatter about inflation these days, it …
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 …
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 …
My sixth grade teacher, Mr. Lewis, always said “One reason might make you believe something, but I need three sound judgments to be convinced.” He was teaching us to make intellectual arguments, preparing us for debate – whether with classmates or within our own minds – and hoping the process would give us sound, sensible …
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 …
