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By now just about everyone has heard about the incredible I bond interest rates being offered at www.treasury.gov. Since these bonds adjust with the inflation rate every six months they are currently yielding 9.62%. With the Federal Reserve finally initiating a rising rate policy, soon even certificates of deposit will start to earn interest. [...]

One of the toughest, specifically, for new retirees. There may have been harder markets to navigate, I imagine the late 1920’s, and what came after that, or the early 70’s may be on the list ( I missed those market routs) but right now this market is getting tougher to figure out (it is starting [...]

Back in June, the subject line of this paper related to the folly of opening up the economy in the middle of a pandemic. This is not to say that Sweden didn’t do it right or that we, in the US, did it wrong. No one can control a virus whether in a lockdown or [...]

So if you were one of the ‘smart’, but unfortunate, investors that pulled out in December of 2008 as things were collapsing in the financial markets you have missed a roughly 300% move to the upside. Wow. Ten years later and you would be still waiting for ‘the big one’ to hit and markets to [...]

With the markets making new highs daily there is not much to worry about when contemplating retirement planning. Set it and forget is the mentality taking root in investor’s minds as the markets are pricing in the Trump agenda of tax cuts, infrastructure spending and health care reform. We have seen this before, like a [...]

have just been released by the government which will add yet another layer of regulations and more paperwork on brokerage firms in the business of helping retires roll over their 401(k) accounts into IRA’s. The government suggests the new rules could save investors something approximating 16 billion dollars a year in savings from rogue sales [...]

Re-balancing is a time-tested strategy of asset allocation discipline that allows investors, if nothing else, to sell some securities high and buy other asset classes lower. Of course, there are times when all assets rise, and sometime fall, in unison making the re-balancing act more of a magician’s act (once you saw it, now you [...]

Negativity Sells... many things. Politicians recognized this long ago. One has only to endure a ‘political ad season’ to know that negativity must work as voters make their choices. It works in financial services too. How in the world is a brokerage firm (through one of their many ‘financial advisors’) going to get you to [...]

WOW!… Is this market on a run! Investors are beginning to forget about the ‘lost decade’ that was and wonder how high this bull can go. I know this is happening because I am getting inquiries, from some of the same investors that wondered why they owned stocks four short years ago, as to why [...]

There are billboards all over town advising you to visit ‘the safe money guy’. Invest your money into a ‘safe’ annuity and forget about the markets, volatility and risk for the rest of your life! It will cost you nothing and, at the same time, ‘guarantee’ you a 6% return on your principal each and [...]

My Head is Spinning… from watching all of the money flying around these past few weeks. If ever one could compare Wall Street to a casino, this market is the prototypical ‘Desert Inn’. Trades are being made based on the last sound bite and the only safe place for money seems to be Apple stock [...]

That, of course is the title of Nassim Taleb’s 2004 work about the role of luck, or the ‘black swan’ random events that come along and change the markets when no one is expecting ‘it’ to happen.  This philosophy of   investing has gained some form of mainstream thinking the past several years as markets [...]