Retirement Watch Weekly
The Second Quarter and First Half in Perspective
Most investors and media focus on U.S. stocks but that is not where the important action has been this year. We wrapped up the second quarter of the year on June 30 and stocks did well across the board for the month, the second quarter and the first half of 2017. As seems to have […]
Advice for “Passive Investors”
I’ve long complained about the term “passive investing.” Many people like to say that investing in indexes is passive investing. That’s not the case by a long shot. For one thing, the indexes are constructed by people making choices, and the indexes regularly are changed. Indexes aren’t passive. They aren’t “the market.” This article goes […]
European Central Bankers Rattle the Markets
Do you remember the Taper Tantrum? Europe had its own version this week. Back in 2013, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke caused a panic when he casually stated in a congressional hearing that at some point the Fed would stop its quantitative easing and reduce the assets on its balance sheet. Many investors thought the change […]
Evaluating Health Savings Accounts
The Health Savings Account (HSA) is one of the best retirement planning vehicles available, perhaps the best. It has tax advantages at every phase of the life cycle. It also helps you save for one of teh largest retirement expenses: medical care. Morningstar recently evaluated some of the largest HSA providers. It found only one […]
Index Investing Advocate Changes His Mind – Why?
Burton Malkiel wrote A Random Walk Down Wall Street in which he advocated investing in index funds. He’s maintained that position since, issuing many revised editions of the book and serving on Vanguard’s board. Now, he’s on the board of a new firm and advocates its active investing style. Read the details here. “Even though […]
Expecting Average Historic Returns
This article reports on a new survey conducted for Legg Mason. The survey says most investors expect that in the coming years they expect to earn the average long-term total return of about 8.5% from their portfolios. The article then reports that a large number of investment professionals believe that’s unrealistic and investors are setting […]
The Next Bear Market
It is time to plan for the next bear market and recession. I’m not predicting that either is imminent. In fact, the reliable lead indicators of recessions aren’t issuing any warning signs yet. The best time to plan for bear markets and recessions is when they don’t seem to be on the horizon. Most people […]
Be on the Lookout For the Next Change in Trends
Investors need to be wary of the “recency effect,” which regularly costs people a lot of money. Under the recency effect, people tend to remember best the facts and ideas to which they’ve most recently been exposed. In investing and economics, people believe the future will be very similar to the recent past. It’s a […]
