How to Avoid Taxes on IRA Withdrawals
One thing that every investor wants to avoid is paying taxes. Having to pay taxes takes a tremendous cut out of the value of your investments, eating significantly into your investment returns. That’s why so many investors turn to tax-advantaged retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs, since they allow investors to defer taxation on their investment gains until...
Will the Fed’s Rate Cut Really Do Anything?
While the Federal Reserve’s rate cut last week was fully expected, the reasons behind it are increasingly unclear. At the post-FOMC press conference, Fed Chairman Jay Powell seemed to flip flop on whether this was a one-time deal, “So we do think it will serve all of those goals, but again, we’re thinking of it as essentially in the nature...
Many Americans Plan Never to Retire: Don’t Be One of Them
One aspect of the post-financial crisis recovery that is of particular concern is that people’s attitudes towards their financial well-being seems not to have recovered. Many of the benefits of the recovery accrued to those most connected to the financial sector, those who received the benefit of government bailouts and Federal Reserve liquidity facilities. But for the average family...
Can the Government Take Your IRA or 401(k)?
One of the key concerns most people have when planning for retirement is making sure that their money is safe. Between stock market crashes, Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi schemes, and hackers targeting financial accounts through phishing, there are numerous threats out there that need to be defended against. But while you can protect yourself against most threats when you invest...
A Fed Rate Cut Would Be an Admission That the Economy Is Weak
If the Federal Reserve ends up cutting its target federal funds rate this week, it would be an admission that the economy is in a pretty precarious state. Many analysts are trying to spin a rate cut as an attempt to keep the economic “expansion” of the past ten years going, but that’s merely wishful thinking. A decade out...
Japan Owns a Massive Amount of US Debt: What This Means for You
The current stock market bull market has been fueled by the massive amounts of money pumped into world economies by central banks around the world. All that money had to go somewhere, and it has finally ended up in stock markets. To a large extent the continuing bull run is the result of stock buybacks on the part of...