I’m sure you’re already aware the markets are very uncertain these days. For most of us, they’re down significantly for the year. For every pundit who says there’s a lot more downside to expect, there’s a pundit telling us we’ve essentially hit the bottom and the upside looks like a return to normal. After …
Continue reading The Retirement Life – The First of Many Steps
My Comments: If you’re like me, you’ve been overwhelmed recently by the recent event in Texas and haven’t allowed yourself to focus on much other stuff. One of those “other stuff” items is what is talked about here. No children will be killed, thank God, but if this plays out like I think it will, …
My Comments: There are as many articles that tell us a bear market has arrived as there are articles that say one will not happen any time soon. I have no idea which one is right. All I do know is that bear market signals are in many ways loud and clear. And if you …
Continue reading What Happens After a Bear Market Starts? Four Things to Know
My Comments: I’ve now spent 45+ years of my life helping others figure out solutions to their financial problems. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve focused my attention on this debt problem. I was mostly focused on growing the amount of money they had with which to pay their bills. Apparently I’m not the only …
Continue reading Nearly Half of All Americans Expect to Retire in Debt, Survey Finds
My Comments: Virtually every employed person in the US has some expectation of getting older and having to survive on resources accumulated over the years. A great many of them have money accumulating in retirement accounts that to some extent depend on continued advances in the stock and bond markets. It’s very easy to go …
Continue reading 8 Facts You Need to Know About Stock Market Corrections
My Comments: I’m increasingly reluctant to suggest what anyone should do with their money. But this article is consistent with what I’m doing with mine. The single most dramatic question when thinking about retirement is ‘Will I have enough money?’. It resonates with almost everyone sooner or later. With so many of us living longer …
Most of us attempt to save money. We know there will come a time when what we save today will be needed to pay for things tomorrow. Our choices about how to do this are varied, mysterious, and confusing. Too often we take the easiest path and hope for the best. We congratulate ourselves for …
My Comments: If you’re still a working stiff, the idea of eventual retirement crosses your mind from time to time. In years past, we thought of live as having two phases: childhood and adulthood. In childhood we are dependent on others and in adulthood we are dependent on ourselves. Adults worked until they died or …
My Comments: It became accepted wisdom that a properly diversified stock portfolio can indefinitely absorb an annual 4% withdrawal rate to satisfy a need for retirement income. That assumption is now disappearing. There is growing sentiment that over the next decade, if not longer, a 4% withdrawal rate will lead to the exhaustion of your …
Continue reading ‘Rolling Bear Market’ Will Paralyze Stocks for Years: Morgan Stanley
My Comments: By first choosing to opt out of participating in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and then inviting a trade war with China, the US has effectively ceded global economic supremacy to China. The expressed logic behind these moves was in the guise of ‘Make America Great Again”. Hah! In turn, China is attempting …
Continue reading We’re underestimating China’s economic power. Here’s why
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