My Comments: If Saudi Arabia ceases to function and Iran has a nuclear weapon, what are the implications for the rest of the world? I accept that I’ll be just a memory by 2045. However, the United States may then be the only country on the planet with the ability to both unilaterally feed itself …
Category: Retirement Planning
Ideas to help preserve and grow your money
Obama’s Climate Plan Makes for Canny Politics
My Comments: In keeping with tradition, the President’s critics are having the usual hysterics about his recent announcement designed to reduce carbon emissions. If I were the owner of a bunch of coal mines, I’d probably be unhappy too. But for the rest of us who don’t own coal mines, which is virtually all of …
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Rates Must Rise To Avert The Next Crisis
My Comments: Interest rates are the price paid for using money owned by someone else. The rise and fall of that price, which we call interest, is a critical element when it comes to deciding how your money should be invested. For over 30 years they have been trending down and you will soon see …
Social Security: When to Claim at 66
My Comments: Many of my close friends, clients and associates have long since started taking their Social Security benefits. For those of you who have not, there are probably some issues you need to explore before you sign on the dotted line. A generation ago, 65 was the automatic full retirement age. Rembember the phrase …
Which Asset Allocation Mix Outperforms?
My Comments: Here are two charts, associated with the authors comments, that show very clearly that good financial planning for retirement is as much a matter of luck as it is skill. The first chart has numbers that reflect 45 years, which seems like a long time, until you remember that so many of us …
Biggest Retirement Mistakes
My Comments: This is a dramatic headline, intended for those of us already retired or thinking about it. Most of us already understand that "retirement" today is very different from what it was 25 years ago. The changes that we see are influencing my life and millions of others. Many people plan on supplementing their …
Sine of the Times
My Comments: Many of you have read my comments about interest rates lately. (Yesterday!) For many, many months, the Fed has used its powers to keep them low to encourage economic growth. Now that growth is again endemic, sooner rather than later, pressures will exist to cause interest rates to increase. The chart at the …
Get Ready For The Biggest Margin Call In History
My Comments: Like a broken clock that is right twice every 24 hours, I’ve been talking about the probability of us having a severe market correction for the past 12 months or more. It’s obviously not happened yet. But every time I turn around, there are new observations from people who understand this better than …
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Rioting In The Streets Of Gainesville?
My Comments: The blog post title above comes from me; the one that actually accompanied the article is Public Pensions Face New Challenges As We Live Longer. Huh? As a financial planner, I try to make people aware of the existential threats we face as we all grow older. These threats are things that “might” …
Dear Future Me: Please Listen!
My Comments: There's a pharase about not letting the closing door hit you on the ass as you leave the room. It's also a metaphor for life. April 6, 2015 By Bob Seawright Bob Dylan hit on a universal truth when he sang about his son and the attraction of remaining young. May your hands …
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