Elder financial abuse is a rapidly growing problem in America. As the population ages, and wealthy boomers retire, they are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous scammers. Last year banks reported over 24 thousand cases of elder financial abuse in America. That's more than double the totals from only five years ago. Americans can fight such elder financial abuse by working with a reliable advisor earlier in life to build an investment plan that is right for them, and will stand the test of time as they age. Those advisors should absolutely be held to a fiduciary standard. If you ask your … [Read more...]
Wealth Management Pitfall: ESG
Don't fall into the ESG trap. Read what I wrote here on December 11, 2018. Your wealth manager should act as your fiduciary, plain and simple. Sounds easy. But in reality it’s not. Today, I want to help you overcome one of the more absurd obstacles you may face. It’s called environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG. Thousands of investment managers have pledged to follow ESG—a pledge to abide by a U.N.-sponsored statement of ESG principles. Investing in fossil fuel stocks, for example, would likely be on the “no go” list of companies available for investment. You can forget … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport
Update: Read more about Day 4 of Newport's gas outage here. You may have read that Newport, RI lost natural gas service Monday, impacting 7,000 customers and approximately 10,000 people. It’s reported that a single faulty valve froze at National Grid’s distribution center dozens of miles north in Weymouth, Massachusetts, causing the system’s pressure to drop significantly. Newport is located at the end of this gas line system, making it most vulnerable to a loss in pressure. Imagine your head being Weymouth and your foot being Newport and you get the idea. Monday morning was … [Read more...]
How to Avoid 70% Tax Rates
There are few reasonable people in America who believe a return to the crushing tax rates of the 80s are a good idea, but these are not reasonable times. Newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has suggested a return to the 70% tax rates on high income earners that were normal during Carter era. You would think that the economic power unleashed by the tax cuts shepherded through Congress by President Ronald Reagan would be enough evidence to have killed such punitive tax rates forever, but it would seem that some Americans have short memories, or in the case of the very … [Read more...]
Is College Even Worth It for Most Americans?
After being relentlessly told they should go to college for their entire lives, many Millennials are waking up to the reality that their student debt and poor job prospects prohibit them from purchasing homes. The Federal Reserve has done research that shows that student loan debt is preventing young Americans from purchasing homes. Josh Mitchell and Laura Kusisto report: The Federal Reserve has linked rising student debt to a drop in homeownership among young Americans and the flight of college graduates from rural areas, two big shifts that have helped reshape the U.S. economy. The … [Read more...]
What’s Good for Thee is not for Pelosi
As Madame Pelosi cools her heels on the tarmac—thank you President Trump—she might ponder why Americans are fed up with her duplicitous stand on the WALL. Because behind her smirk and her walled family compound, is anyone really home? You would think she’s working for the Russians. Maybe she and AOC should get a boots-on-the-ground look at the border. There’s plenty of room on my downtrodden mule below. By the way, who in their right mind would work if 70% of their income were confiscated by pols like Pelosi & Co.? Exactly. For them, is there anything better than an unemployed voter? … [Read more...]
The Double Whammy Hitting Today’s Retirees
Retirees today are overcoming a mountain of bad timing. Read why in this post I wrote on December 3, 2018. Retirees today are the victims of an unfortunate double whammy. In the prime home-buying days of their youth, they were forced to pay the exorbitant mortgage rates of the late 70s and early 80s. Then, during the Financial Crisis, which should have been the peak of their earning and saving years, many lost jobs and watched their stock holdings evaporate. In the following years when many would have typically moved more of their portfolio into fixed income, they were left with the crumbs … [Read more...]
Remembering Jack Bogle
You know the Vanguard 500 Index thanks to him. And someday, if a Mount Rushmore for investor legends is carved into a mountain side, Jack Bogle will be there front and center. Mr. Bogle passed away yesterday at the age of 89. He will be remembered for the low cost index fund—an idea he made into reality. Though he cautioned in recent months about his grave concerns regarding the explosive growth of indexing—perhaps a product also in its twilight—it turned out that offering a sound investment product at a low cost was, and is, a great idea for investors. Originally posted on Your … [Read more...]
70% Tax Rates Won’t Achieve Proponents’ Goals
Congress's youngest and possibly most famous new member, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made many lofty proclamations during her time in the lime light, but perhaps the one getting the most attention is her call to raise tax rates to 70% to pay for her agenda. Rational thinkers can see the issue in taking 70% of another person's dollar for no other reason than wanting to use it for something else. For the benefit of Congresswoman Cortez and those who believe like she does, the Tax Foundation has done the math to show that even if you confiscate 70% of the income of the wealthiest Americans, … [Read more...]
No Stock is Worth 100% of Your Time or Money
There is simply no company out there that has a stock safe enough for you to invest in just that one and nothing else. Even tried and true utility stocks demand diversification in your portfolio. There is no better example than what is happening to PG&E right now. PG&E is the California utility being alleged to have caused some of the wildfires there. Despite being a "widows and orphans" staple, the stock has plunged and the company has announced it will file for bankruptcy. Juliet Chung and Nicole Friedman report in the Wall Street Journal: Utilities have long been considered … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 119
- Next Page »