With the federal government shutdown already record-breaking at over one month in duration, more and more stories are circulating about the harm federal employees and their families are facing. Having already missed one paycheck, federal employees are about to miss a second. And while they will receive back pay once the government reopens, that doesn’t do much to help...
By now it’s clear to many people that stock markets are on the verge of a major decline. But what is scaring many investors is the prospect of a severe crash. While the financial crisis of 2008 was bad, stock markets “only” lost a little over 50% of their value. Were we to experience another market crash like the...
When most people think of dividend investing they think of blue-haired old ladies who bought stock in GE, GM, or 3M back when those companies were better known as General Electric, General Motors, and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. It’s a conservative approach to investing and wealth creation that has largely gone overlooked over the past 20 years as the...
A new year means a new start in many ways for investors. Most investors would probably hope to forget about 2018 which, after a tremendous start, ended the year with most assets in the red. Those who bought heavily into stock markets in the hopes that the bull market would continue its magnificent run were sorely disappointed by the...
The actions of stock markets over the past several months have likely contributed to a number of near heart attacks among anxious investors. With unprecedented volatility roiling markets, they’re just as likely to end a trading day down 600 points as they are to end up 600 points. And with the trend tending ever downwards and well off all-time...
Investing orthodoxy likes to state that investors can’t time markets. In one sense that’s true, in that the likelihood of an individual investor being able to sell right at the top of a market and buy right at the bottom of a market is incredibly slim, if not impossible. That’s why buy and hold has become such an important...
If you’re like many Americans with a 401(k), IRA, or other type of retirement account, the last few years of stock market gains may have sent your paper wealth soaring. There are more 401(k) millionaires in the United States today than ever before. But with the sums in retirement accounts piling up ever higher, and American households more indebted...
Building up a nest egg for retirement is only one half of retirement planning. The other half consists of planning to safeguard and maintain that wealth well into the future. Business cycles have been a regular part of the economy for over a century. The booms and busts that occur with regularity are something that need to be taken...
For nearly 80 years the Social Security system in the United States has been paying benefits to retirees. Generations of Americans have grown up and gone to work in the expectation that the Social Security taxes they paid throughout their careers will be repaid with interest once they retire. But as demographic changes alter the makeup of American society...
It’s that time of the year again, time to get together with family, eat turkey, watch football, and think of all the things to be thankful for. As Americans, we often don’t realize how fortunate we are to live in such a prosperous country. We often complain about “First World problems” that people in less developed problems would kill...