With the demise of pension plans, 401(k) plans have become the most popular employer-sponsored retirement plan in the United States. Employees in the United States have trillions of dollars saved up in 401(k) plans, helping them to get financially prepared for retirement. The major benefit of 401(k) investment plans is their tax-advantaged status. Employees can contribute to their 401(k) plan...
We’ve already gone over why investing in a gold ETF isn’t a great idea. But if you want to invest in gold and realize that an ETF has drawbacks, how do you invest in gold? Investing in gold through a gold IRA is the clear choice, as it offers numerous advantages over ETFs. 1. Tax Advantages The first advantage gold IRAs...
There’s no better way to accumulate wealth than by saving and investing. Merely socking money away into a bank account won’t grow your wealth. That money that you save needs to be put to work for you gaining returns. But many diligent savers don’t know where to invest their money. While stocks and bonds have been traditional investment vehicles in...
If you feel like your cost of living is increasing but your salary isn’t keeping pace, you’re not alone. The median American household’s inflation-adjusted income hasn’t budged in 20 years. But life is getting more expensive, with food, education, and healthcare costs continuing to rise above the rate of inflation. And with Americans terrified of losing their money in...
One of the most confusing and frightening aspects of the current debt bubble is the fact that there is so much negative interest rate debt in the world today. From $12 trillion of negative debt earlier this summer, it peaked at over $17 trillion in late August. That means that investors around the world invested $17 trillion of their...
While investing in gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may not be the best choice for most investors, there’s no doubt that they remain popular with many mainstream investors. And because data on private gold investment remains difficult to come by, investment in gold ETFs can be a useful proxy for overall private demand in the gold market. By that measure,...
A major trend in investing over the past decade has been the tremendous growth of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs have sprouted up to offer investors the ability to invest in a number of different assets, some of which they otherwise would have great difficulty investing in. That has opened up the range of investment options and allowed ordinary investors...
While the mainstream financial media tries to put a rosy spin on the economy and make us believe that everything is going well, under the hood things aren’t looking so good. Forget about mainstream employment numbers such as the unemployment rate or the number of jobs created. The real gauge of the economy’s strength is how much is being...
The time is coming when the dollar will no longer be the world’s reserve currency. In all likelihood it will be the Chinese yuan that replaces the dollar, as China is making moves to internationalize its currency, make it more convertible, and use it in foreign trade with more and more nations. The progress made by the yuan is...
The biggest bubble in the United States today is also the one that hardly anyone knows about, recognizes, or cares about. It’s well known that the response to any financial crisis is to take action to ensure that such a crisis doesn’t occur again. But that means that we’re always fighting the last war. So while the Federal Reserve...