Bob's Journal

Bob’s Journal for 3/24/23

Some Notable Events That Grabbed My Attention This Week Correction: In the April 2023 issue of Retirement Watch (which was published electronically last week and will be in the mail shortly), the ticker for iShares Global Metals & Mining Producers on page 11 was misidentified and should be PICK, which is stated correctly in the […]

Bob’s Journal for 3/16/23

Silicon Valley Bank Probably Is Only the Beginning During the last week, both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Those failures are likely only the beginning. The Federal Reserve made two rapid changes in monetary policy in recent years. During the early years of the pandemic, […]

Bob’s Journal for 3/9/23

Some Notable Events That Grabbed My Attention This Week I participated in a number of podcasts recently to discuss my latest book, “Retirement Watch: The Essential Guide to Retiring in the 2020s.” There were a couple of great discussions you might want to listen to. One is my appearance on “Retire with Purpose” with Casey […]

Bob’s Journal for 3/2/23

Why Interest Rates Haven’t Peaked Investment markets indicated investors thought interest rates peaked in late 2022. The yield on the 10-year treasury bond reached 3.96% in October 2022 and began falling. By late January 2023, the yield was below 3.50%. Throughout that period, futures markets prices indicated investors believed interest rates would decline steadily for […]

Bob’s Journal for 2/23/22

Higher Valuations Prop Up Stocks We’re well past the midpoint of the earnings season for the fourth quarter of 2022, so we can draw some conclusions. There is some good news, but it’s not especially good news. About 68% of the companies that reported so far had earnings higher than analysts’ pre-report estimates. Also, 65% […]

Bob’s Journal for 2/15/23

Key RMD Changes in The SECURE Act 2.0 You Should Know It is hard for people to keep up with the more than 100 changes the SECURE Act 2.0 made in retirement plans and related tax code provisions. Here’s a summary of the key changes in required minimum distributions (RMDs) in the law that was […]

Beware of a Potential Stock Market Bear Trap Major stock indexes turned a corner at the start of 2023. After losing about 18% in 2022, the S&P 500 is up more than 7% so far in 2023. The Nasdaq 100 went from a 32.58% loss in 2022 to about a 14.01% gain this year. Several […]

Bob’s Journal for 2/2/23

Take a Deep Dive Into the Latest Inflation Data It’s time for a close look at the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. I last did this in the July 21, 2022, entry for Bob’s Journal under the headline “Inflation Is Deeper and Broader Than Many Believe.” I stated that “inflation is well-embedded in the […]