The Return of the Inflation Chupacabra

My Comments: A few weeks ago I wasted several hours exchanging replies with someone who asked “who is responsible for inflation?” My initial response was to the effect it is a “what” question and not a “who” question. But that soon devolved into discussion about irrelevant issues that I decided meant the writer had never …

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There Isn’t Going To Be A Crash Anytime Soon

My Comments: Last week I posted an article that suggested you be very cautious with your investments going forward. This article says “never mind”, all is well, keep going. Unfortunately, from my perspective, both are completely rational, plausible, and probably accurate. Which means that I have no earthly idea how this is going to play …

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How Will The Federal Reserve Raise Interest Rates?

My Comments: There is little argument that sooner or later the Fed will start to push interest rates up. And when they do, there is going to be confusion about how fast and how far they push. This in turn will cause some volatility and timing issues on Wall Street. But all this is part …

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3 Reasons The Current Equities Market Is Exhausted

My Comments: Many of my clients are asking how come their investments are not as exciting as what they hear on TV these days. And my standard answer is that exciting comes in two flavors, great and frightening. For the most part, I’m trying to help them avoid the frightening part. For many years I …

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Could Obamacare Prompt You to Retire Early?

My Comments: Retiring early is a desired goal for many people. For one thing, they really don’t like what they do, and two, they think they have either enough money or time to fill their lives. I planned to retire at 65, which seemed sort of normal. But then came the crash of 2008. It …

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Obama: Prevaricating On Foreign Policy

My Comments: It’s hard not to be tired and uninterested in the speeches of a President now well into his second and last term as President. Never mind that I voted for him twice and have a generally favorable opinion of his efforts on our behalf. Foreign policy is not something that does much for …

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Be Flexible On 4% Rule

My Comments: Increasingly, I find myself working with older clients. After all, I’m an older advisor. From time to time there is a question of how fast you should decumulate your nest egg(s). (I’m not sure if “decumulate” is an approved word, but the intent is to convey the opposite of accumulate.) The rule of …

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Every Day Should Be a Good Day to Die

My Comments: If this headline caught your attention like it did mine, then what is the message? As a life insurance salesman for lo these past 40 years, talking about death is not something new to me, though always somewhat uncomfortable. You and I both know it’s inevitable, but not something to dwell on. The …

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Capitalism: Looking Past The Bottom Line

My Comments: If this author is right, then this issue will have an impact on the mid-term elections this fall as well as the elections in 2016. The lasting legacy of the Obama administration will be the PPACA or ObamaCare legislation. When it was enacted, our cost of health care was increasing much faster than …

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6 Social Security Traps to Avoid

My Comments: (I’ve missed a couple of posts for which I apologize. We went to my 55th high school reunion and met some interesting people. Much more interesting than thay were 55 years ago, assuming I remembered them at all. The prevailing sentiment was to congratulate each other for being upright, breathing and taking noursishment.) …

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