Retirement Investing

Bob Carlson offers his expert opinion on where to invest your money so that you can get through retirement safely and securely

Found 896 Articles.
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Dividend Investing

More Perils of Yield Hogs

February 16, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

Closed-end funds are one place investors are looking to earn higher income. They’re also paying up for this yield and taking on much higher levels of risk, risks they might not realize. Bloomberg recently surveyed the market and found investors are paying hefty premiums for yield. Six of the 10 closed-end funds with the highest […]

Cash Management

Taking a Close Look at Enhanced CDs

February 16, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

The Fed’s zero interest rate policy causes safety-first, income-seeking investors to consider investments they wouldn’t have paid any attention to a few years ago. One of those is the derivative CD, which goes under a number of different names. Basically it promises to give you a return, if any, tied to an investment or index. […]

Gold and Silver

Stocks vs. Gold

February 14, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

There’s been a lively debate in some sectors of the financial media over the relative merits of stocks and gold. Warren Buffett, Jeremy Siegel and Larry Fink not surprisingly came down on the side of stocks. Others point out the dreary returns from stocks over the last 10 or 12 years, the significant increases in […]

Investing Strategies

Understanding the Price-Earnings Ratio

February 9, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

I don’t use the P-E ratio much in evaluating the stock market. There are a lot of reasons for that. Earnings are, well, flexible. They’re subject to revisions and manipulation. I definitely don’t recommend using forward, or forecast, earnings, because they can be way off the mark. But the big reason is that earnings are […]

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ETFs, Stock Market Bubbles

Is the ETF Bubble About to Burst?

January 25, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

Exchange-Traded Funds are probably the most successful new product launch in the investment industry as measured by the rate of new money flows into it. But things haven’t been all roses for ETFs. A number of ETFs quietly folded or merged into other ETFs because they couldn’t attract enough assets. Many others still are available […]

Financial Crisis

Exploring Causes of the Financial Crisis

January 18, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

I’ve never been happy with the widely-held theories of the causes of the financial crisis. Most are too simple and use movie-type good guy-bad guy themes to explain what went wrong. That’s why I was happy to see a new book is out with a better explanation that is better documented than most others. It’s […]

Real Estate Investing

Seeking High Yields in Mortgage REITs?

January 10, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

The Federal Reserve is keeping normal interest rates near zero, so investors who need income have to look elsewhere. Many are attracted to mortgage REITs. While strategies differ, a mortgage REIT generally borrows money at low short-term interest rates and lends it long-term in mortgages that pay higher yields. Some lend the money directly or […]

Portfolios

Most People Too Passive with Portfolios

January 6, 2012

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

People adopted a number of bad investment practices in the 1990s, and they continue to follow them. One simple strategy that will boost returns is to rebalance a portfolio periodically. Sell what’s done well and buy more of what’s declined until your portfolio is back to your planned allocation. That’s a way to sell high […]