Retirement Watch Weekly
The Index Investing War between Index Providers
No, the war isn’t between advocates of index investing and those of active investing. The real war is between the people who construct the indexes. As this article points out, it’s a lucrative business that few investors know about. It’s also ruthlessly competitive and about to become more so. If indexes really are the market, […]
“Stealth Taxes” – How to Avoid Getting Taxed on Social Security Benefits
Have you heard of “stealth taxes?” I call them that because people often don’t know about the taxes before getting bitten by them. One of the worst stealth taxes for retirees is the income tax on Social Security retirement benefits. Some aren’t aware of the tax when they retire. Others are exempt from the tax […]
Giant Company Musical Chairs
The major market indexes are dominated by the largest companies. Usually 50 companies or fewer determine what happens with the indexes. In this post, Bespoke Investment Group shows how the largest companies have changed over the last 10 years. Some have been quite volatile. ExxonMobil, for example, over the years has rotated between being the […]
Understanding Market Indexes
Index investing often is called passive investing, but it is far from passive. An index is not “the market,” as many people believe. Instead, people construct the indexes. Sometimes the index creators are trying to develop a subset of stocks that they believe best reflects the total market. Other times they’re trying to develop an […]
Beware the Jamaican Lottery Scam
Many people, especially senior citizens, are being fleeced by sophisticated con artists. This article reveals in detail how a group of crooks based in Jamaica has been stealing millions from U.S. citizens, and only one FBI agent is assigned to work the case. Jamaicans specialize in the lottery scam. Here’s how it works: Fraudsters trick […]
The Latin American Turnaround
Early in the summer Latin American stocks took a dive. The decline was due to political scandals in Brazil, the largest economy and market in South American by far. I told Retirement Watch readers to hold our positions in Latin American stocks. The fundamentals were fine, I argued, and they soon would assert dominance over […]
All-Time Market Highs and Stock Market Crashes
Many people say they aren’t comfortable buying when the market indexes are near historic highs. Others point out that new highs tend to be followed by even higher levels. This article examines both sides of the issue. It points out that momentum causes new highs to be followed by more new highs, as has happened […]
Talking About Market Bubbles
When will this market bubble finally burst? The question is asked a lot lately. Market indexes set a lot of records during the last couple of years, with the latest being the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 22,000. Some analysts believe the entire market is in a bubble, while others say that only stocks, […]
