How much money has the median American workers saved up for retirement? If you answered zero, you’re correct. You may read articles saying that the average American has about $200,000 saved up in a retirement account, or that the average 55-64-year-old household has $374,000 in retirement savings, but those figures are often reporting the average, or mean. Those numbers...
The past week has brought something that investors everywhere had been fearing: an inversion of the yield curve. While the spread between 10-year Treasury bonds and 3-month Treasury bonds had been growing smaller and smaller every month, the yield on the 10-year remained higher. But last week the Fed’s decision to end its balance sheet tightening provided the impetus...
Have you ever had a nagging feeling that you need to do something, but you keep putting it off? And then by the time you get around to doing it, you’re too late and missed the opportunity? That’s how many investors felt during the 2008 financial crisis. Even if they understood that the housing bubble was bursting and that...
Read any articles about the financial well-being of American households and it’s clear that they don’t paint a pretty picture. Nearly 80% of households live paycheck to paycheck, with limited ability to save money for retirement or even for an emergency. Even though the average household has just under $9,000 in the bank, over 60% of households would have...
The financial press seems to be full of stories of those who have retired early. It’s easy to get jealous when we hear stories of those who have retired in their 30s and who plan on never holding a full-time job again. In many cases when you dig deeper you find that these are people who held nice six-figure...
By now it’s no secret that Social Security is in dire straits. According to the latest Social Security Trustees Report, Social Security taxes have long been unable to pay for Social Security benefits. Only because of interest gained on Social Security’s trust fund has the system been able to keep paying benefits without dipping into the trust fund. Now...
More and more Americans feel themselves slipping into financial insecurity today, with nearly 80% of American households living from paycheck to paycheck. But for many of those households it doesn’t have to be that way. Disciplined saving and investment over a period of time can help lift you away from living hand-to-mouth and put you on the path towards...
With the Democratic takeover of Congress calls have come for new taxes on income and wealth. From calls to raise the highest tax bracket to 70% on the ultra-rich to proposals for an annual wealth tax on the wealthy, ideas abound for ways to soak the rich and get more money for various government programs and projects. On the one...
Stock market crashes are easy to see in hindsight, but they’re very difficult to see while they’re occurring. Too many people assume that a stock market crash will manifest itself as a Black Monday or Black Tuesday type of event, with a 10% or 20% loss in a single day. In reality, stock market crashes take far longer to...
While the government shutdown may now be over, its effects will likely still linger for a while. But one thing the shutdown really brought to the fore is the fact that many American households will be unprepared for the next recession. We found out that many government employees weren’t prepared for missing even a single paycheck, and many more...