An old joke says that if you keep one foot on a hot stove and your other foot in an ice bucket, on average you should be comfortable. That line always makes me smile. It underscores a reality in the world of markets and investing—averages can be both mathematically accurate and experientially awful. Case in …
The stock market is at an all-time high. Which is great, right? Your 401(k) has never been higher, and you’ve never been richer! But wait. “What goes up must come down,” right? If the market is soaring now, is a dip—or a crash—just ahead? It’s a dilemma: Should we be content or concerned? Should we …
Life is made up of promises, big and small. From marriages, to mortgages, to meals delivered on time, we depend on others—as they depend on us—to keep the promises that have been made. Take the young man who pledges to be faithful to his young bride “till death do us part.” That’s a promise he …
“When this new bunch in Washington raises everyone’s taxes, what’s going to happen to the market then?” I get questions like this a few times each week. And my honest answer is “I have no idea.” Will our taxes be raised? Possibly. But since I’m not a prophet, I can’t say for sure—government tax policy …
When you hear about someone making a fortune in the stock market practically overnight, don’t you sometimes think, “Why can’t that be me?” We saw it again in recent days. In brief, a group of “wolf of Wall Street” types were betting against GameStop, the video game retailer. They were hoping to make millions when …
The man told me he wanted to begin investing. He realized if he never invested his money, it could never grow. And if his money never grew, he’d never get to retire…at least not to the lifestyle to which he was accustomed. Ideally, the man said, he wanted the long-term growth available only in the …
The 1980s brought us cable TV, personal computers, parachute pants and mullet haircuts (powerful proof that not every “innovation” equals progress). The decade also saw the rise of the 401(k) plan. Before the heyday of mullet haircuts, the phrase “retirement plan” referred to a pension plan. A pension was a social contract between workers and …
“Do you want to retire one day?” That’s a question I ask new clients. The answers I get are fairly predictable. Older workers or people with jobs they hate say, “You bet! How about yesterday?!” People who enjoy their work say things like, “I might want to slow down one day, but I can’t imagine …
“Didn’t see that coming!” A worldwide disease pandemic. An explosion of race related unrest across our nation. Oil prices going negative. A global financial crisis. A real estate bubble. The Dotcom bubble. Pundits will blame someone for not seeing “it” coming. Consultants will charge a fee for helping you see it coming next time. And …
How is it that when you have the most unstructured time on your hands, you get the least done? Now, if you’re a doctor or nurse tending to Coronavirus patients, a banker pushing out PPP loans or a grocer working overtime to restock the toilet paper shelves, this doesn’t apply to you. But waaaay more …
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