If you want to get an inside look at how the sausage is made with certain index funds, take a look at this story by Jacky Wong in The Wall Street Journal: The giants of passive investment need to get more active. Marble mining company ArtGo’s 3313 117.86% Hong Kong-listed shares fell 98% Thursday after index compiler MSCI, MSCI +1.24% in a rare U-turn, dropped its plan to add the company to its indexes. MSCI said the decision followed further analysis and feedback from market participants about the stock, which had soared 3,800% this year. A Heard on the Street column Wednesday may have … [Read more...]
Is Your Cash Safe? Probably not This Safe
How well are you securing your cash and valuables? Do you have a safe at home? A safe is an obvious choice for convenience, but unless you have serious security, you wouldn't want to leave major wealth sitting unattended while you're at the office or on vacation. You need a better option. The most obvious choice for most is a safe deposit box. That is the route an increasing number of the world's wealthiest are taking. Disasters like the wildfires and hurricanes that have hit the United States in recent years have made securing wealth an urgent endeavor in the minds of many. Benjamin … [Read more...]
RIP Jake Burton
In high school in the late 80s, my friends and I were part of the snowboarding revolution that Jake Burton was pioneering. I remember in my ski club taking a van full of skis, snowboards, and classmates to Canada. A 10-to-12-hour slog from Marion, MA to Quebec, a brutal drive. But it was all worth it once we were snowboarding from morning to late afternoon for the long weekend. It was such a great feeling because while most were skiing—we were snowboarding. It just wasn’t that common to see a lot of snowboarders at the time. Those were special memories from high school. Snowboarding on … [Read more...]
Phone Scams are Getting Better: Here’s How to Protect Yourself
Just this week alone, two investors told me they have recently received calls that were believable scams. The robocall scams that regularly target your phone are evolving. As criminals learn what works and what doesn't, they make adjustments and adapt. Falling victim to a phone scam can change your life, for the worse. Here's the story of one victim as told by Sarah Krouse at The Wall Street Journal: The FBI agent sounded official on the phone. He gave Nina Belis his badge number and a story about how her identity had been compromised. She gave him her life’s savings. For most … [Read more...]
Live Within Your Means and Debt Free
Live within your means, and debt-free. That's the advice everyone should adhere to. A debt-free life will reduce stress and provide peace of mind. Many Americans struggle to achieve financial security, and as they get older, it becomes even more difficult to do. Alexander Tanzi reports in Bloomberg, that the majority of Americans 65 and older are at "risk of not being able to pay for basic needs." He writes: That’s according to new estimates of financial insecurity among Americans 65 and older from the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Elder … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Rainbow Bridge Awaits You
One of the best parts of helping people in retirement is getting to be a part of their retirement life. A client recently sent me this picture, and said: "Above is a snap of Rainbow Bridge taken from a nearby alcove that held some old signatures." It was great to be able to share that moment he had worked for his whole life. The beautiful Rainbow Bridge National Monument is in Utah on the edge of Lake Powell. If you want to make it part of your retirement life, you can learn more about it here. Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. … [Read more...]
Charging Stations in Public Places Could Be Loaded with Malware
Have you heard of Juice Jacking? The term is the name of a strategy used by hackers to load public USB charging stations with malware that can attack the devices of users trying to charge them. Allowing your electronic devices to be compromised by malware can be one of the most stressful and violating modern experiences. With more of your life than ever before attached to your phone, tablet or laptop, giving a criminal the ability to sift through your data and learn your most intimate details can be a nightmare. So how do you protect yourself? First, as Doreen Christensen reports in the … [Read more...]
Market Keeps Ripping Higher
You may have noticed it’s been a pretty good year for stocks. Good news, right? Well, it’s all good news until it’s not. With valuations this high, it’s important to gauge your future expectations. Case in point: “When valuations were this high in 2004 and 1997, the next decade delivered after-inflation gains of 4.5% both times, despite enormous market crashes along the way," writes James Mackintosh in the WSJ. The question is, to me at least, how many stock investors were able to stick around and patiently stay invested when things got nasty? What I want you to consider in the … [Read more...]
The Truth Behind The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
You know the name Eric Carle if you have kids or grandkids. His books were a big part of our book collection when my kids were little. That’s why this article caught my eye. And how moving I found this quote from the article about a book I read out loud a thousand times: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on Carle's view of why The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been such a hit with kids for so many years. He writes: In a YouTube video released in January, Mr. Carle said it took him a long time to understand why the title has sold so well before he concluded that “children … [Read more...]
Why Bonds Always Matter to You
I want you to look at my chart above, Bonds vs. Stocks. What I’ve done for you is offer a look at the Fourth Quarter of last year. Of note, the Fed was coming off a series of rate increases and had begun lowering rates in August. Additionally, the Republicans lost the House to Democrats in November. Talk about uncertainty in the markets. The black bars show how bonds rallied. The blue bars show how stocks cratered. This micro example shows you the power of counterbalancing. You have seen time after time at this website how I want you to focus on your risk first and foremost. And this is … [Read more...]