The biggest financial fear many people have is that they will run out of money.[i] Not only are returns shabby, at best, but human lifespan has gradually been rising. This is not a good recipe for being able to retire care free on the money you’ve put away during your career. But even with what …

Continue reading “Annual Returns… The Trickiest Illusion of All”

…And How The Boom On Wall Street Affects Your Whole Life Insurance Dividend The stock market has reached historic heights and the Shiller price-to-earnings for the S & P 500 is “currently 34 times compared to the median level of around 16 times.”[i]  Meanwhile, the “US market cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio is the highest among …

Continue reading “The Boom on Wall Street”

Editor Walter Updegrave’s article, entitled Recoup Your Bear Losses?, appeared in CNNMoney.com July 8, 2009. In it he stated that all we needed to do was “keep investing in stocks,” earn “a real rate of 12.8% a year until 2017,” and we’d be right back where we were before the Great Recession cleaned out nearly …

Continue reading “An Automatic Millionaire?”

“The Old Grey Mare, she ain’t what she used to be,” and neither are Money Market Funds (MMFs), sometimes referred to as Money Market Mutual Funds. MMFs used to be considered a low-risk investment, along the lines of a passbook savings account or certificate of deposit, with the opportunity to earn a higher interest yield. …

Continue reading “The 3 Things You Need to Know About Money Market Funds”

2017 has proven to be a winner for US stocks, with a posting of the best run in the past 25 years. In fact, most everyone in the stock market is happy about the huge upturn that has taken place.  “After the first quarter alone the Dow had gained nearly 5% with the Nasdaq gaining …

Continue reading “The Trump Bump”

Markets foundered the night of the election and all the academics and intellectuals predicted they would “never recover Donald Trump’s presidential victory.”[i]  Paul Krugman, the darling economist of the Obama administration, predicted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average 750 drop, was the “new permanent reality in the U.S. economy.”[ii]  In fact, when asked when the …

Continue reading “Predictions and More Predictions”

The first week of 2016 was the worst opening week for the US Stock market in history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 6.2% crushing its historical drop of 5.6% in 1978. And the S&P 500 wasn’t any better giving up 21 points or 6% for the week!  That drop blew through the …

Continue reading “The Importance of Contracts”

Return on investment is typically reported as simple averages rather than compound annual growth rates or internal rates of return.  This is dangerous. And here is why. Take an average rate of return of 5.86%.  This average is the result of multiple returns over multiple time periods where each individual return is added to the …

Continue reading “The Dangers Associated With Anticipating Averages”

Everyone remembers the Beatles belting out about Jojo leaving his home in Tucson, Arizona.  Ludicrously financial advisors seem to get their kicks telling clients where to “get back to” as well. At a Christmas party last weekend we bumped into a financial advisor/CPA who was boastfully bleating about how he told his clients to hold …

Continue reading ““Get Back to Where You Once Belonged””