The Mission Critical Blog
Exchange Traded Funds: What are they and should I invest in one?
Since the earliest days of trading goods, humans have looked for ways to decrease risk by sharing a cut of the profits. For example, it wasn’t seen as wise to invest all your capital in a single ship. If it sank, you’d lose everything. So, you’d invest in several ships, hoping that at least a few of them would make it back. To better facilitate this “insurance” against total failure, merchants came up with the ingenious idea of [...]
Why “buying the dip” is not a foolproof investing strategy
On its face the strategy of “buying the dip” seems much more measured than merely trying to identify low-cost stocks that are destined to become the next Apple. But it’s still a risky strategy. Just like it sounds, to buy the dip is to purchase stocks that are temporarily undervalued. For example, Pitney Bowes, Paypal, and Meta (formerly Facebook) are all well-known, category-leading companies whose share prices have recently experienced a significant decline. Buying the dip would mean [...]
Securing A Future
If you don't keep up with financial news, you may have missed this story about a new bill The House has recently passed. It's called Secure 2.0, and, as the name implies, the goal is to help secure a better retirement for US citizens. As luck would have it, the Senate is also on the case and has its version of the bill in the works (Retirement Security and Savings Act). There's a similar end game, with some [...]
What’s Your Number? 65… 66… 67… 68
No, we’re not counting sheep or bottles of beer on the wall today. We’re talking about retirement age! Most Americans, according to CNBC, are hoping to retire by the age of 62. Wishful thinking? Maybe. 62 is also the age at which people can first claim Social Security retirement benefits, so long as they are eligible based on their work records. However, you should know that the age you start claiming benefits can affect how much you [...]
Pigeons, Monte Hall, and the Cost of Bias
It’s pretty obvious that birds have much smaller brains than humans. In fact, calling someone a birdbrain is considered an insult. Yet, research has shown that even though birds lack the analytical abilities of humans, they are superior to people in certain kinds of decision making. The evidence is in how our two species perform when solving the “Monte Hall” problem. Monte Hall was the host of the long running gameshow “Let’s Make A Deal.” During the show [...]
When Gauging Progress Towards Retirement, Avoid Fixating on a Single Number
We’re used to assessing our wellbeing through metrics. Newborns are immediately given a numbered assessment for things like skin tone, breathing, and reflexes. School children regularly take standardized tests to determine their grade level in reading and math. High schoolers focus on their GPA and SAT scores. And as adults our routine check-ups involve tests with dozens of data points—our health by the numbers. In each case the metric comes with the question: How does this compare with [...]
