Markets Up or Down Next Five Years?

My Comments: Here’s another cautionary tale to put somewhere in a mental box to look at when you start thinking again about your financial reserves. That another crash will happen is almost certain. What is not certain is when it will happen, so all you can do is decide whether you want help to figure …

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Short-Term Optimism, Longer-Term Caution

My Comments: You by now know that I'm expecting a signficant market correction in the near future. However, when I say that, one has to wonder what I mean by "near". An analogy I sometimes use is a comment by a currency trader I knew years ago. His idea of "near" was in the next …

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The 3 Stages of Retirement

My Comments: I recently wrote about where we are now in the overall market cycle and the likely chance of a major disruption that will effect your financial future. My post was titled “Are We There Yet?” Most of us have visions of a successful retirement. Of course, “success” is dependent on your life today, …

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4 Lessons For Us From a Century Ago

My Comments: As a nation we are on the horns of a dilemma regarding our role as the sole surviving superpower from the last century. I embraced Obama’s assertion that our national focus should revert to what is in our best interest domestically. At the time we were embroiled in Iraq and other places and …

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Seasonal Factors Ready to Turn Positive

My Comments: This post is about investments and what may happen to your money going forward. My gut told me the downturn in the markets over the last three weeks suggested it was the start of the market correction that all of us expect. You only have to glance at this chart of the S&P500 …

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Stop Tinkering With Your Retirement Portfolio

My Comments: I can’t tell you how many times over the past 40 years that a client has talked with me suggesting something is wrong with his investments. It usually comes after a long run up in the markets and he or she thinks his portfolio is lagging. And almost every time we’ve made a …

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Social Security Cost-of-living Adjustments Projected to Increase Slightly in 2015

My Comments: Those of us old enough to be taking SSA benefits have experienced minimal increases in the last few years. That’s because the ‘official’ numbers for inflation have been low. There is an argument they should be even lower as a way to keep the so-called SSA reserves from going to empty. In my …

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Hospital Sticker Prices

My Comments: No, this has nothing to do with the price of hospitals that are looking for buyers. This has to do with the sometimes dramatic discrepancy from one hospital to the next for what you are charged for the same medical procedure. This comes from Seattle which is obviously a long way from Gainesville. …

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The 4 Drivers Of Stock Market Prices

My Comments: In recent posts I’ve suggested there is a looming crash in the markets that will negatively impact all of us, except perhaps those of us with the ability to go to cash and go short when the crash happens. To hedge my comments, I’ve said “sometime in the next 3 years.” Here is …

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Why Income Inequality Is a Drag On Economies

My Comments: I’ve written before that it’s my belief that at some point, if income inequality between the haves and the have nots gets too large, social chaos will follow. The spread or relative level of spendable income between these two groups is continuing to widen. So it becomes just a matter of time until …

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