Tune Out the Noise
There’s a reason that investors tend to only hear about “looming” market doom or “imminent” market growth. While many news outlets have incentive to draw viewer attention with wildly bullish or bearish predictions, these sensationalized views may be a distraction to a sound investment approach. When tempted to make a radical change to your investment […]
How Not to Screw Up Your RSU’s
You’re feeling pretty confident these days. First, you’re doing awesome work at a great company, and second, your restricted stock units (RSUs) have vested. Now for the big question: When do you cash your shares out? If you’re like most RSU recipients, you plan to hold on to your shares for a year before selling. […]
Your Money & the Markets in April
So far, it’s been a chilly spring for the economy. Growth in most U.S. metrics has been slow for three months or longer. Some of that stagnation is weather-related, but certainly not all. Factors such as the government shutdown and budget settlement, major inventory build-ups, and higher interest rates have all been negatives for recent […]
Find the Right IRA in Three Easy Steps
Even if you’re already convinced that saving in an IRA is a sensible thing to do, there’s still a little bit of research to conduct. There are two main types of IRA accounts, and selecting the one that’s best for you can be a daunting process. You can figure this out in relatively short order […]
Your Money & the Markets in March
Monthly Market Commentary The jobs report for February and initial unemployment claims were much better than expected, as weather effects began to diminish. That very same jobs report also dashed all hope that just maybe the U.S. Federal Reserve would temporarily halt its tapering program. The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield jumped to 2.79% on […]
Five Estate-Planning Tasks That You Shouldn’t Put Off
Keeping tabs on the estate-planning rules during the past few years has been a little like watching Olympic-level table tennis: The action moves quickly, and it’s difficult to keep up. However, no matter how laws and rules change, there are a few basic tasks that are actually pretty evergreen and that everyone should execute. Five […]
Your Money & the Markets in February
Monthly Market Commentary Even though the U.S. market lost 3.5% in January, investors still seemed hopeful about continued low interest rates (now more likely, given soft economic activity) and about the potential for slower Fed tapering of bond purchases. (However, interest rates continue to decline even as the Fed tapers.) Speaking of soft economic activity, […]
Do You Go With The Flow?
Over the last 20 years, markets have experienced many shocks and recessions, including the Asian currency crisis, the Russian debt default, the dot-com crash of the early 2000s, and the recent global financial crisis. When these events occur, investors frequently attempt to reduce (or increase) investments to certain asset classes in order to lower exposure […]
Market Insight
The stock markets of the world turned in stellar results in 2013, and it was almost guaranteed that at some point there would be a pullback. Looking domestically, the S&P 500 reached a recent high of 1848.38 on January 15th, and in the period of a few weeks, is now down to 1741.89. This represents […]
Your Money & The Markets in January
Monthly Market Commentary Recent economic data has not been uplifting, with poor auto sales, a subpar retail holiday season, and a weak employment report. Even home-price growth has been showing signs of slowing down. Only the trade report data was unequivocally good, though perhaps a little too good to be sustained. The Federal Reserve’s Open […]