Should Your Investments Include Europe?

My Comments: Europe has been in the news a lot recently. President Obama is/was over there, it’s the 70th anniversay of D-Day, the Ukraine is a basket case waiting to get resolved, and so on. And all this time, people have investments and between dealing with the heat of summer and the need to take …

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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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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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Keeping the NSA in Perspective

My Comments: This won’t interest some of you, which is OK. Others will recognize it as part of the cosmos that includes our economy and our political environment. These things contribute to the process that results in the amount of money we have to live our lives the way we want to. I’ve long said …

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10 Common Estate Planning Mistakes (and how to avoid them)

My Comments: As you can imagine, estate planning is not for the faint of heart. But it matters for some of us, who have spent years and years accumulating assets. While this happens, people get married, they get divorced, they have children, some of whom are considered responsible. I had a recent conversation with someone …

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Uncertainty, Not China, is Replacing US Power

My Comments: Do you lay awake at night, worrying about this? Me either. But global political dynamics will influence our lives, and the lives of those we love, in ways that cannot be predicted. I’ve been part of the world of financial planning and investments for almost four decades and over that span, the extent …

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