Retirement Investing

You may have learned about the trouble with annuities. In its simplest form, an annuity is an arrangement in which you give an insurance company a lump sum of money and in exchange you receive payments over time. For a fee, that is. At the end of the day, what you’re really doing is giving up control over your money to some investment board that promises to pay you back over time. Assuming, of course, that it stays solvent.

Should savers and retired investors take the Fed’s bait and invest in long bonds? Not when you have a Fed chairman with a money-printing habit and prominent economists such as Ken Rogoff, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, calling for a “sustained burst of moderate inflation, say, 4–6% for several years.”

I don’t like annuities. I know there are ways they can make sense in some portfolios, but for the majority of investors they’re a...

According to Forbes.com: As of June 10, 2011, the District of Columbia and 22 states imposed estate and/or inheritance taxes. Illinois is the latest of...

You may be surprised at how ill prepared baby boomers are for retirement. In his  Wall Street Journal article “Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans...

I just finished wading through the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS). My findings are problematic. The EBRI is a...

In his twice-a-year economic report before Congress Wednesday, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments helped stocks rally during the morning session, with the Dow...

The next time you see an advertisement for an absolute return fund, make sure you do your homework and understand exactly what you’re getting...

You might think I’m crazy buying $175 sneakers. I’ve never spent that kind of money on sneakers before, and it’s at least double what...

You being in the top 97th percentile in good looks and wealth might be good. But being in the top 97th percentile in the...