One of the most challenging aspects of being a prudent investor is recognizing the difference between short-term noise and long-term evidence. With billions of market data points available instantaneously 24/7/365, it’s easy to find yourself measuring what equates to a 26.2-mile journey with a 12” ruler. The investment industry and its corresponding news cycle aren’t [...]
You've heard about them; they're risky. Few seem to make money for their investors. But they get a lot of attention when they do. So wouldn't it be interesting to know where hedge fund managers invest their money? You might be surprised at the answer. Hedge funds are investment partnerships that employ a fund manager seeking to [...]
When teaching my Income in Retirement college classes, there is a section on preservation of capital embedded within the investment strategies portion. In my book, preservation from fraud and theft are even more important discussion topics because the methodologies to separate you from your money are many. And they are often aggressive. In my recent [...]
Painting the sun room You've all heard that expression... especially when it involves some insane thrill seeker jumping off the edge of a mountain in a squirrel suit, or as I watched more recently, some dare devil racing down a mountain side on a dirt bike, complete with 360s in the air across large spaces! [...]
We’ve had a nice nine year run up in the market. And you know you’re thinking: “what goes up, must come down”. It sure seems as though the bloom is off the rose for U.S. stock investors. And while experts disagree whether we’re in a bear market, volatility is definitely back in a big way. I [...]
It never ceases to amaze me… that the adage “People and money… are funny,” proves itself over and over again. Maybe it should be said that some people who deal with money become ‘funny’… in the head! It should not surprise anyone, yet it often comes as a shock that there are people so crooked [...]
I’m going to stir the pot a bit this week. You know my mantra: no one can predict the market, the price of a stock, a bond or an index. But sometimes… there’s just that feeling right? So recently, my husband sent me two articles that contradict each other and I thought we could have [...]
America Is Running Out of Family Caregivers, Just When It Needs Them Most Smaller, more far-flung families mean fewer unpaid helpers. ‘Are you really my daughter?’ It's time to begin preparing for the inevitable - we all get older and more frail. Some of us plan to have wheelchair races, while others will just end [...]
We Americans are living longer and more of us are eventually going to need long-term nursing home care. The cost can be devastating to a family. Nursing home care now costs an average of over $85,000 per year, and much more than that in some parts of the country. Medicaid is a government program that [...]
Market Volatility can best be imagined as a roller coaster: up and down, sometime sideways, with precipitous drops and fast accelerations. A relatively recent 'wild ride' allows us an opportunity to examine our expectations and determine whether the fear is real or imagined, and how best to keep our perspective. From February 1–5, the US [...]