Make Social Security Great Again

My Comments: Short and sweet. Sean Williams / Jan 29, 2017 For more than 75 years the Social Security program has protected the financial well-being of our nation's retired workforce. Today, more than 41 million retired workers are receiving monthly benefit checks from Social Security, a majority of whom need that income to meet their …

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An Overvalued Stock Market?

My Comments: Dr. Doom here again. And boy, do I love this first chart. Many of my colleagues have been encouraging our clients to sit on the sidelines now for about two years or more. And we’ve been blasted because the DOW and the S&P just keeps going up. Unless you believe the world has …

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A few more Laws from Murphy

A reminder: Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will. So here are a few more: Cohen's Law: What really matters is the name you succeed in imposing on the facts, not the facts themselves. Manly's Maxim: Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. Murphy's Corollary: …

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Saving for Retirement

My Comments: It’s a truism in our society that having more money rather than less money is a good thing. And retirement, by definition, is a time in your life when earning money to pay bills and enjoy life is not in the cards. That being said, if you expect or need to transition to …

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Cheap Electricity and Food

My Comments: Over the next 25 years, the US will resume it’s role as THE major global economic influence. You can argue it will happen as a result of bringing coal mining jobs back to Appalachia or because there will be a wall built along our Mexican border, one built by Mexico with help from …

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How Not To Screw Up Your Investments

My Comments: Basic stuff for some of us; gibberish for others. So if you have difficulty with this, ask your financial advisor for help. Dana Anspach on April 6, 2017 Smart investors follow an asset allocation plan. An asset allocation plan tells you how much of your total investments should be in stocks versus bonds …

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What’s Killing The Long-Term Care Insurance Industry?

My Comments: This was written almost five years ago. During these years, every reader today is almost five years older and while the world has changed dramatically, the demographics are still with us. Among the existential risks we all face is what is known as a Long-Term Care, or LTC event. Before we all die, …

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The 7 Elements of a Successful Retirement

My Comments: Just 7? No, there are lots more, but you have to start somewhere. The first element reflects my personal approach to this. There has to be a real understanding of the difference between strategies and tactics. There’s a reason that seems militaristic because it is. I’ve just borrowed it to use in financial …

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Donald Trump’s Big Problem

My Comments: To my Trump supporting friends, this is not a rant against our president. Governments work, or don't work, on vastly different rule sets than does private enterprise. Government is a public enterprise and the outcomes by their very nature will be markedly different. His skills as a businessman don't necessarily translate effectively to …

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Social Security Is Failing Because the Program Is Antiquated

My Comments: This is far and away the most coherent overview I’ve read that addresses the problems faced by Social Security going forward. Now we have to convince the politicians that it’s in everyone’s best interest to take remedial action. Sean Williams \ Apr 8, 2017 \ https://tinyurl.com/y8qnxfny The data doesn't lie: a majority of …

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