Retirement Watch Weekly
Markets Recovering from the Winter Gloom
Do you remember the markets of last January and February? How many of you thought at the time that at the end of July almost all markets would have very solid positive returns for the year? That’s what the markets delivered. The S&P 500 as of the end of July had returned 3.65% for the […]
Nine Important Things to Know about Contributing to IRAs
Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) offer a great way for an investor to prepare for the future. However, IRAs also can be potentially confusing, while requiring attention from investors who often may prefer to spend minimal time and effort. The following tips are intended to help you and other investors manage an IRA account successfully. What […]
Evidence-Based Investing: Technical and Fundamental
For most people, there are two types of investing: fundamental and technical. There are subsets within the two categories, but those are the two main categories. This article is an entertaining review of the development of the two categories and argues that they have become like religions with different hard-core followers. It argues for following […]
Troubles at Harvard’s Endowment
The Harvard Endowment has had troubles for a while now. After a long period of success, especially in the 1990s, students and alumni began to regularly complain that the staff of the endowment should be paid dramatically less. That’s led to a lot of turnover and changing strategies at the endowment. The endowment’s also had […]
Why Active Mutual Fund Managers Fail
It’s not because of poor stock picking skills or high costs, the main arguments made by those favoring index investing. In this interview, a leading researcher on the topic says the conventional wisdom about active versus index investing is wrong. He explains why and the factors investors should look for when evaluating mutual funds. There […]
Older Folks Keep Working
It’s no secret that on average people are retiring later than they used to. But what’s the cause? Was it the financial crisis? No, the trend was in place well before that? This article explores several possibilities and concludes that, for most, good health and jobs that aren’t physically demanding keep them in the work […]
Commodities are the Big News in a Quiet Week
It was a quiet week overall. Most investment markets didn’t move a lot. The economic data was consistent with expectations. The politicians have been wrapped up in their conventions this week and much of the major media joined them. For investors, the big news in my opinion has been in commodities. After a substantial rise […]
A Primer on Self-Learning
All learning is self-learning to some extent, but there are more opportunities for self-learning today because of the Internet. This article explains the importance of self-learning and looks at the science behind it to give you a guide for how to be a self-learner today, no matter your age. One good reason to dive head […]
