September 2018
Early Retirement Is All the Rage, But Is It the Right Choice for Everyone?
Read any financial news site today and it will be full of accounts of people who worked hard to retire early. Whereas most Americans hope to retire around 65 and think of retiring at 50 as retiring early, some of these accounts feature people who have retired as early as 35. It’s pretty impressive to think that people have...
A Strong Stock Market Doesn’t Mean a Strong Economy
For decades stock markets have been viewed as proxies for the strength of the economy. The higher stock market indexes go, the stronger the economy is deemed to be. The most famous index, of course, is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which in recent days has pushed back to record new highs. But while many people, President Trump included,...
The American Dream Is Becoming Less and Less Attainable for More and More Americans
We’re all familiar with the concept of the American Dream, the idea of having a small family, a house, a car, and leading an idyllic lifestyle. But for more and more Americans that dream is becoming further and further away from reality. With a rising cost of living, more expensive housing, food, and education, it seems that each generation...
Social Security Continues to Disappoint
Although the Social Security system was originally intended only to provide a backstop to retirees who may not have had enough money saved up for retirement, the initial benefits received by Social Security recipients lured many people into a false sense of security, leading them to believe that they could survive in retirement solely on their checks from the...
Don’t Be Mistaken About the Cause of the Next Crisis
One thing that’s almost universally true of the financial media is that they are ignorant of economics. Read just about any financial commentator and you’ll find articles chock full of bad economics and debunked fallacies. Whether it’s the “benefit” of higher government spending contributing to GDP growth, the necessity of the Fed to stimulate demand, or the broken window...
Do You Know Why Stock Prices Are So High?
To millions of American investors, the bull market in stocks of the past few years has added billions of dollars to their 401(k), IRA, and other retirement accounts. Most investors don’t know or care why stock markets have shot up so much, but they certainly enjoy benefiting from that run. If you take a look at the underlying causes...
5 Dangers to the Near-Term Value of Your Investments
With stock markets near all-time highs and economic data such as GDP and the unemployment rate looking rosy, many investors have been lulled into a false sense of security, believing that the economy is going strong and that they’ll continue to make gains well into the future. But that feeling is dangerous, as there are numerous issues lurking about...
Europe’s Attempt at Divergence Will Be Bad News for the Dollar
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States was not just a military superpower but also an economic superpower. As the world’s largest economy and with the dollar being established as the world’s reserve currency, the US government had no qualms about taking advantage of that position. Even in the aftermath of the breakdown of the Bretton...