Retirement Watch Weekly
The Accuracy of Annual Stock Market Forecasts
Each December and January I make fun of the annual forecasts that emerge from the major investment firms. They usually cluster around the 8% to 10% average annual return, the the return in any year rarely is near the long-term average annual return. This article takes stock of how those forecasts are looking some far, […]
Retirement Confidence Spikes
Each year Americans are asked questions about their retirement plans in the Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefits Research Institute. They also are asked about their retirement plans and actions. The good news is that confidence in having a financial secure retirement is up, with 63% confident of having a comfortable retirement. That’s increased […]
A Case for Investing in Emerging Markets
Emerging market stocks, bonds, and currencies have had a tough time the last few years. Many investors don’t want them anywhere near their portfolios after the big losses. But perhaps this is the time to be adding them to your portfolio. This blog post makes the case for adding emerging market equities to your portfolio […]
Will the Stock Market Reverse Again?
Stock indexes opened 2016 with a steep decline. They reached a bottom on February 11 and rapidly retraced much of their start-of-the-year losses. What’s next. This statistics blog argues that another rapid decline is likely the next move. Take a look at his data and arguments, and see if you agree. In the 25 trading […]
Will Smart Beta Investing Crash?
Smart beta is an investment strategy that’s become very popular in recent years. It’s a twist on index investing. The investor starts with an index but tweaks the stock allocations so that they are weighted by something other than capitalization. There are many variants of smart beta, and it is estimated that one out of […]
Is the Fed Hurting Seniors?
Low interest rates hurt seniors, because they depend on earnings from their savings to fund retirement expenses. Last weekend, several pieces were published taking issue with that argument. They argued that the Fed’s low interest rate policies plus other government have helped seniors overall to the detriment of younger citizens. It started with this article […]
A Rally or a New Bull Market?
Most investment assets hit bottoms around February 11 after dreadful starts to the year. Is everything okay now, or is this what’s known as a countertrend rally? This article from Ben Hunt of Salient Partners argues that it’s a temporary rally, what he calls an investable rally. Central banks are taking a break in their […]
The Transformation of GE
General Electric was a legendary company in the 1980s and 1990s. CEO Jack Welch was considered one of the world’s top managers, and many companies tried to emulate GE’s methods. After Welch retired, the company hit a number of speed bumps. The biggest was the financial crisis of 2008. Since then, CEO Jeff Immelt has […]
