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The Paradox of Wealth

Mark Crothers | Jul 15, 2026

"Dunn, thanks for the kind words. I sometimes wonder if I'm straying too far from the mission statement, so it's really nice to hear that this one landed."

- Mark Crothers

THE OTHER DAY, WHILE walking to my mailbox, I noticed a summer class schedule for a private gifted youth academy lying on the ground. I assumed it belonged to one of my neighbors, who has elementary-aged children. Their interest in extra academics didn't surprise me. Many families move to this area because of its excellent schools. Parents here clearly value education. On any given day, it's common to hear children practicing the piano or violin as you walk through the neighborhood. I admire parents who encourage their children to excel in school. But as I looked over that schedule, I found myself wondering about the lessons that aren't taught in a classroom. Coincidentally, another neighbor's son had just graduated from college and was preparing to begin his career. If he were my son, what advice would I give him as he stepped into adulthood? After some thought, I settled on five ideas. Invest to Build Wealth. The most reliable way for ordinary people to build wealth is to become owners instead of just consumers. Buying shares of businesses allows you to participate in the growth of the global economy rather than relying solely on a paycheck. The good news is that you don't need much money to begin. What matters most is time. Starting early allows compounding to work its magic, with investment returns generating returns of their own over many years. Be a Long-Term Investor. If I could offer only one piece of investing advice, it would be to keep things simple. Invest regularly in low-cost index funds and stay invested. Trying to pick winning stocks or predict market swings is tempting, but history suggests that patience usually beats prediction. I recently read a New York Times column by Jeff Sommer that made this point well. Long-term market returns are driven by a surprisingly small number of extraordinary companies. The problem, of course, is knowing in advance which companies those will be. Broad diversification through index funds allows investors to own tomorrow's winners without having to guess who they are. Even if you think you're smart enough to spot those superstar companies, holding onto them for the long haul is a rollercoaster. They can be incredibly volatile. I've learned that lesson firsthand. A few years ago, my wife and I bought a small position in Nvidia (NVDA). It represented only a tiny fraction of our portfolio, but the stock's wild price swings made us uncomfortable. We eventually sold our shares too early for about $112, and the last time I checked, it was trading at $204. Do I regret selling? Not really. The vast majority of our stock holdings remain in Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI), which owns Nvidia along with thousands of other companies. That approach has allowed us to sleep well at night while still benefiting from the market's long-term growth. Cultivate Friendships. Money matters, but people matter even more. Looking back, some of the biggest turning points in my life came because of friends. One college friend, Chuck, helped me get my foot in the door at an aerospace company when I was a history graduate struggling to find work. That opportunity led to a rewarding career. Another friend, Steve, introduced me to the woman who became my wife. That single introduction changed the course of my life far more than any investment decision ever could. But those special bonds don’t happen by accident; they require making time for them despite a busy career. Good friends encourage us, open doors we never expected, and help us through life's inevitable setbacks. Those relationships are among the greatest investments anyone can make. Give Every Job Your Best. I learned the value of hard work from my parents. When I was growing up, my father routinely left for work before sunrise and often didn't return until evening, six days a week. At the same time, he and my mother managed a 36-unit apartment building. My mother prepared dinner for our family before leaving for her own job each morning, returning home in the evening with just enough time to spend a few quiet hours with my father before doing it all again. Watching them taught me that meaningful accomplishments usually require persistence more than brilliance. There will be phases in your life when long hours are unavoidable. During those times, give your work your best effort. A reputation for reliability and diligence has a way of creating opportunities that talent alone cannot. Protect Your Greatest Asset. For someone just beginning a career, the greatest financial asset isn't an investment account. It's the ability to earn a living. Poor health can quietly undermine that ability. Regular exercise may not seem like a financial strategy, but it helps protect the income that makes every other financial goal possible. I recently came across a quote from a doctor in the comment section of an article in The New York Times that captured this idea perfectly: "Exercise, by its effect on skeletal muscle, can in part preserve cognition, prevent depression, prevent cardiovascular disease, prevent diabetes, prevent some cancers, prevent osteoporosis, and preserve independence. And the list goes on. There isn't a single pill on earth that delivers all of those benefits." Taking care of your health isn't simply about living longer. It's about preserving your independence and giving yourself the opportunity to enjoy the life you've worked so hard to build. As I walked back from the mailbox, I hoped the child whose summer schedule I'd found would do well in every class. Academic success opens many doors. But I also hope someone teaches lessons like these along the way. Years from now, I doubt anyone will remember a report card or a test score. They'll remember the habits that shaped a life: investing patiently, working hard, nurturing friendships, and taking care of their health. Those lessons may never appear on a syllabus, but they can make all the difference. Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. Born in Ohio, Dennis is a California transplant with a bachelor’s degree in history and an MBA. A self-described “humble investor,” he likes reading historical novels and about personal finance. Follow Dennis on X @DMFrie and check out his earlier articles

K-shaped Economy

ArticleAdam M. Grossman | Jul 18, 2026

A TOPIC THAT'S been in the news recently is the so-called K-shaped economy. Imagine a chart plotting the relative standing over time of those with higher incomes and those with lower incomes. Owing to a strong stock market and rising home values, the shape of the chart for those with higher incomes would extend up and to the right and has been moving increasingly in that direction since Covid. Folks with lower incomes, on the other hand, haven’t benefited as much from rising markets. Instead, they’ve had to contend with higher prices on key budget items, including housing, tuition and healthcare. For this group, unfortunately, a chart of their financial progress would extend down and to the right. Put these two charts together, and they form a K-hence, the K-shaped economy. Because this divide has been especially pronounced for young people, more parents are asking how they can help their children. But they aren’t always sure of the best way to approach this. You may have heard the story about the late Charlie Munger. Some years ago, a friend asked Charlie if he planned to leave his considerable fortune to his children. Specifically, his friend wondered whether too much wealth would impact his children’s work ethic. “Of course it will,” Munger replied. “But you still have to do it.” “Why?” his friend asked. “Because if you don’t give them the money, they’ll hate you.” On the one hand, this is funny, but it also gets at why this topic can be so difficult. In fact, I’ve often referred to it as the hardest question in personal finance. But it isn’t impossible. If you’d like to help your children—either today or as part of your estate—here are four questions I suggest considering as you develop your plan. 1. What problem are you most trying to solve? Some families are clear that they just want to help their children as much as they can today, to combat the challenges of the K-shaped economy. Other families are focused on the long term and just want to see their assets pass to their children tax-efficiently at the end of their lives. Both are reasonable objectives, but it’s important to have clarity on what’s most important to you as the first step. 2. To what degree do you value simplicity over tax savings? With the federal estate tax at 40%—and many states levying their own taxes on top of that—folks with assets above the lifetime exclusion often conclude that it’s worth spending virtually any amount on legal fees in an effort to defray that tax. But not everyone agrees. Other families see it this way: While estate planning strategies can be effective in reducing taxes, they can be costly to set up and to maintain. For that reason, other families decide to spend little or nothing on estate tax strategies. They accept that their estates might—and likely will—end up facing a larger tab at the end of the day. But, they argue, if their estate is large enough for the estate tax to apply, then by definition, their heirs will nonetheless still receive a significant sum. 3. Do you worry about the problem Munger’s friend highlighted? If you’re worried about impacting your children’s work ethic, then counterintuitively, it may make sense to start making gifts sooner rather than later. The key is to make modest gifts and to make them incrementally. When you start making gifts like this sooner, it can serve two purposes. As a parent, it gives you the opportunity to see how your children handle these smaller sums. Do they immediately head to Bora Bora, or do they save and invest the dollars they receive? Making gifts incrementally can also help the recipient. To the extent that the first—or the second—gift is spent frivolously, modest gifts provide children the opportunity to acclimate and hopefully to adjust. 4. To what degree would you like to control your children’s use of assets down the road? If you go the route of an irrevocable trust and plan to leave assets to your children as a bequest, you won’t have the opportunity to iterate in the way I described above. That said, you may still prefer to leave assets to your children in this way. The key challenge with trusts is how to structure the distribution provisions. Put too many restrictions in place, and you risk causing your children a lifetime of stress or, worse yet, resentment. But put too few restrictions in, and the trust assets could be spent unwisely and deplete too quickly. How can you thread the needle? There’s no single right approach, but here are four distribution strategies you might consider. Based on age or stage: You might stipulate, for example, that a child reach age 30 before receiving any funds. Or you might require that a child have finished college or be married before receiving funds. The benefit of this approach is that it doesn’t leave room for debate between your children and the trustee. The downside is that this sort of structure can be too rigid, because children’s needs don’t always align with specific ages or stages. The reality is that everyone takes different paths through life in ways that no formula can fully contemplate. I often reference the movie The Bachelor, which is a comedy but illustrates how an overly rigid structure can have unintended consequences. Annual percentage with no discretion: This structure also has the benefit of being straightforward, with no room for debate between beneficiaries and the trustee. In addition, a fixed percentage can help preserve a trust’s assets for many years. The downside is that children’s needs typically vary from year to year. They’ll want to buy homes and may have tuition expenses for their own children. For those reasons, a fixed percentage, while attractive in theory, runs the risk of being an obstacle to your children’s most important goals. Annual percentage with an override for specific needs: The benefit of this structure is that it provides flexibility if a child wants to buy a home or has other higher-than-normal expenses in a particular year. The downside is that it opens the door to debate between beneficiary and trustee. The trustee might deem a proposed home purchase too expensive, for example. Trustee’s discretion: A final approach is to leave distributions entirely up to the trustee. That’s the most flexible but also the most potentially fraught. If a trustee and a beneficiary don’t get along, this setup would give the trustee wide latitude to make the beneficiary’s life miserable for decades. No distribution structure is perfect, but it’s for this reason that I tend to recommend against this approach, common as it is. Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam's Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

R Quinn | Jun 15, 2026

"This article is behind a paywall..."

- Dave Melick

Buying a car in retirement

Julie C | Jul 11, 2026

"I thawed my credit with my phone at the one reporting agency used by the dealer when signing the papers."

- Randy Dobkin

A Can of Worms

Dan Smith | Jul 17, 2026

"Andrew, I wonder if those two fellas from the bar ever learned the lesson of compounding bad decisions."

- Dan Smith

IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

Danbo | Jul 15, 2026

"From reading CFR 418.1110. titled "What is the effective date of our initial determination about your income-related monthly adjustment amount?" it appears to me the likely answer is the SSA would have defaulted to using your tax information from three years ago until you file your return for two years prior to determine any IRMAA surcharges. If that is correct then that part of the Code of Federal Regulations states - "b) When we (the SSA) have used modified adjusted gross income information from IRS for the tax year 3 years prior to the effective year to determine your income-related monthly adjustment amount and modified adjusted gross income information for the tax year 2 years prior later becomes available from IRS, we will review the new information to determine if we should revise our initial determination. If we revise our initial determination, the effective date of the new initial determination will be January 1 of the effective year, or the first month you were enrolled or re-enrolled in Medicare Part B if later than January." Like other Humble Dollar commenters I would encourage you to get current with your tax filings to resolve this issue for you or so your executor does not have this mess to deal with after you are gone if you owe any additional amount for IRMAA income based surcharges.
My guess is that absent meeting a statutory reasonable cause for late filing your 1040 that the determination of late IRMAA premiums may be followed with a non-payment demand for payment in full with the serious potential consequences of loss of insurance coverage if timely payment in full is not paid. "

- William Perry

Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?

achnk53 | Jul 15, 2026

"This was a major concern of mine. I had a govt pension and we both had SS. DW would get half of my pension if I passed first. When I retired at 66, 90% of our investments were in TIRAs. I gradually converted this to a Roth for myself, and when my DW passed last year, our TIRA was about 12%. We paid first or second tier IRMAA penalties and higher marginal tax rates for years to achieve this. I can use the remaining TIRA for QCDs and avoid any future taxable income for RMDs. However, I cannot avoid the change in tax rates. Regardless of what I do, I will be at least in the first IRMAA tier. I am not complaining because I am blessed to have a good pension and SS and can live a nice lifestyle. My biggest mistake was not doing Roth conversions before I took SS which could have avoided IRMAA. I thought I understood taxes very well but I was asleep on Roth conversions until I retired and started SS."

- Jerry Pinkard

Mr Market visits Art Basel

ricardodiaque | Jun 29, 2026

"what a masterpiece, bridging the perceived gap between art and other established asset classes.. Ricardo has said everything that i always wanted to say and more.. to quote "In a nutshell–risk does not always come from whether something hangs on a wall or trades on an exchange. More likely, risk tends to be related to how prices are formed. So, if markets are irregular, and each of them follow an underlying set of logics, then why is collecting as an investment such a niche?".. while Ricardo moved from art to finance, i followed the reverse trajectory.. from my 11 years in finance (and taxation) followed by 18 years in art (and finance), i have come to exactly the same conclusions.. to add my 2 bits, since i have professionally valued equity and realty in my former role (at Andersen/ EY) and now value art (at Aura Art), i can say (with many real instances to back) that there is just as much method in the madness to valuing art as equity and realty (and much more then some other asset classes, like crypto, commodities etc).. thanks again for this piece.."

- Rishiraj Sethi

Danger, Junk Mail

Sonja Haggert | Jul 16, 2026

"Thanks, Sonja. In addition to its specific warnings, your article is a specific reminder that the world is persistently searching for the entrance to our wallets is every sneaky way imaginable."

- Edmund Marsh

A discussion on health insurance, premiums, profits and such- a 50 year perspective most people don’t want to accept

R Quinn | Jul 15, 2026

"You are absolutely right."

- Nick Politakis

Every Writer Has a Beginning: Organ Transplant Fails

Andrew Clements | Jul 8, 2026

"Thank you William. It means a great deal to hear that. Writing these stories has helped me discover even more about Jonathan, and it’s been wonderful to share those discoveries with the people who appreciated his wisdom and kindness. I’m grateful you’re one of them."

- Andrew Clements

The Paradox of Wealth

Mark Crothers | Jul 15, 2026

"Dunn, thanks for the kind words. I sometimes wonder if I'm straying too far from the mission statement, so it's really nice to hear that this one landed."

- Mark Crothers

Lessons on the Ground

ArticleDennis Friedman | Jul 18, 2026

K-shaped Economy

ArticleAdam M. Grossman | Jul 18, 2026

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

R Quinn | Jun 15, 2026

"This article is behind a paywall..."

- Dave Melick

Buying a car in retirement

Julie C | Jul 11, 2026

"I thawed my credit with my phone at the one reporting agency used by the dealer when signing the papers."

- Randy Dobkin

A Can of Worms

Dan Smith | Jul 17, 2026

"Andrew, I wonder if those two fellas from the bar ever learned the lesson of compounding bad decisions."

- Dan Smith

IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

Danbo | Jul 15, 2026

- William Perry

Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?

achnk53 | Jul 15, 2026

- Jerry Pinkard

Mr Market visits Art Basel

ricardodiaque | Jun 29, 2026

- Rishiraj Sethi

Manifesto

Jul 17, 2026

NO. 12: WE SHOULD focus less on the odds of something happening and more on the consequences. We likely won’t die during our working years. But if we did, how would our family cope?

act

Jul 18, 2026

FIRE YOUR BROKER. Is your advisor a true fiduciary, or is he or she held to the suitability standard part or all of the time? If it’s the latter, what you have is a broker—someone with an incentive to sell products that charge high commissions. Do yourself a favor: Hire an advisor who’s a full-time fiduciary and hence always required to act in your best interest.

Truths

Jul 17, 2026

NO. 88: LIVING standards rise with per-capita economic growth—typically 1½ percentage points a year faster than inflation. This is why retirees often feel pinched, even if their income climbs with inflation. It also helps explain why family fortunes disappear. The investment returns generated can’t keep up with taxes and the family’s spending desires.

think

Jul 16, 2026

ASSET LOCATION. After deciding which investments to buy, we should consider our asset location. What’s that? It involves divvying up investments between taxable and retirement accounts. If investments generate large annual tax bills—think active stock funds and real estate investment trusts—we’ll likely want to hold them in a retirement account.

Money Guide

Manifesto

Jul 17, 2026

NO. 12: WE SHOULD focus less on the odds of something happening and more on the consequences. We likely won’t die during our working years. But if we did, how would our family cope?

Spotlight: Charity

QCDs: Concerns for First Timers

Dan Malone | Dec 2, 2024

As someone who has never done a QCD, this article by CPA Mike Piper (www.OpenSocialSecurity.com, Bogleheads speaker, etc.) was very helpful. Anyone with experience on making QCDs, IRS inquiries about QCDs, etc., have any wisdom or personal experience to add to this?

Giving Advice

Adam M. Grossman | Dec 12, 2021

GOT CHARITABLE giving on your mind? Join the crowd. Many folks donate at this time of year, with their charitable giving driven by the charities themselves.

As solicitations arrive, people decide on a case-by-case basis whether to pull out their checkbooks. But some folks follow a more structured process, and that’s the approach I favor. It includes asking these three questions:

1. How much ideally would you like to give? As a starting point,

Random Acts

Austin Dorenkamp | Oct 14, 2023

BUDGETS CAN BE a contentious topic. Some people swear by them. Others argue they’re unnecessary if you easily spend less than you make. No matter which side you take in this debate, I’d advocate budgeting for one item: kindness.
I’ve always enjoyed reading news stories about strangers who left unusually large tips for their waiter. After reading such stories, I’d daydream about where I’d leave large tips if I was that rich. One day,

Give While You Live

Dan Haylett | Mar 19, 2024

MANY FOLKS DELAY financial gifts to family and charity until their death. But I advocate a different approach: giving generously during our lifetime, or what I like to call “giving with a warm heart, not a cold hand.”
This not only transforms the lives of the recipients, but also enriches those who give, making their lives more meaningful and fulfilling.
One of the most compelling reasons to give during your lifetime: You get to see the impact of your generosity.

Christmas All Year

Matt C. White | Dec 24, 2021

I GAVE THE BEST PEP talk I could muster, but it didn’t help. Our family of four entered Walmart in solidarity, planning to buy gifts to fill an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. Two of us left early in disarray.

I had to wrestle my screaming two-year-old all the way to the car because she knew only one way to approach the toy department—with herself in mind. Eliza melted down over her refusal to part with a cheap plastic toy.

Better Than Cake

Kathleen M. Rehl | Feb 22, 2023

ON DEC. 23, 2022, while Santa and his elves were busy loading his red sleigh with gifts, the 117th Congress was putting together some goodies of its own, formally known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Before we rang in the new year, President Biden signed the bill into law.
Included in that 1,600-page, $1.7 trillion appropriations measure was a special present for folks like me—the so-called Legacy IRA. This allows me to increase the sum I give to charity and the money I earn on my fixed-income investments,

Bonus Round

Mike Zaccardi | Feb 4, 2022

LAST AUGUST, I wrote about the retention bonuses I scored by simply initiating a transfer of assets from one brokerage firm to another. Back then, I said I’d wait six months and then try again to capture this free money. This time around, one broker offered me a promotion simply to stay put, but two others wouldn’t. I did some quick Google searches and found offers elsewhere, so I initiated the transfers and collected those bonuses. The whole process was fast and simple. And because I don’t actively trade, I don’t much care how one broker’s offerings compare to another's. What’s the downside? I have more accounts to track and I have to pay small fees to close out old accounts, though the receiving brokerage firm often reimburses those fees. Come tax time, I’ll have a few extra 1099-DIVs. But most tax software packages can import those forms easy-peasy. In all, I’ve scored $2,250 between retention bonuses and new account offers. That money is taxable, so I mentally shave 22%—my marginal tax rate—off that sum to get a true measure of my winnings. Being an investment nerd, I find it fun to poke around on the new trading platforms to see what tools I can use for my analytical work and financial writing. I like Fidelity Investments’ exchange-traded fund (ETF) comparison tool. I find Charles Schwab’s mutual fund research helpful when I do work for advisors. TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim is great for charting. And most of these firms offer solid research reports on companies and ETFs. I can always keep a few bucks in old accounts if I want to continue accessing such features.

Brave New World

Mike Zaccardi | Aug 26, 2021

I MAY BE THE POSTER child for the new retirement, switching back and forth between standard employment and side gigs, as I seek work that I find fulfilling. I’m not alone: It seems many people are retiring earlier than they planned and then working part-time, moving in and out of the workforce based on need and opportunity. The annual Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that—while workers expect to retire at age 65—the median retirement age is actually 62. Indeed, in the latest survey, a quarter of today’s workers said they expect never to retire or to work until they’re at least age 70, and yet only 6% of current retirees waited that long. For some early retirees, a health crisis or disability forces them to quit work sooner than anticipated. Meanwhile, corporate restructurings force others out of the workforce. In the past 18 months, some lost their jobs as businesses closed or scaled back because of COVID-19. For others, a decade of rising financial markets has provided enough savings for them to contemplate retirement. On top of all that, workplace disruptions during the pandemic showed that technology can make consulting and remote work much easier to manage. A recent New York Times article showcased stories of people retiring earlier than expected due to economic changes. It isn’t just people in their early 60s who are retiring early. EBRI reports that 15% of the retirees surveyed said they retired before turning 55. Another 28% retired between ages 55 and 61, and 39% retired between ages 62 and 65. I view the increasing number of early retirees as a great thing. But I also believe many folks won’t be happy with a life of pure leisure and instead they’ll want to remain engaged in the world.…

Price of Ignorance

Mike Zaccardi | Sep 9, 2021

PETER LYNCH, the famed Fidelity Investments’ mutual fund manager, used to advise investors to “buy what you know.” But many of today’s investors have other ideas. Obscure cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens have taken the financial social media by storm. Most investors have heard of bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin. But a new set of coins have emerged—cardano and solana are the hot trades. Meanwhile, JPEG and GIF image files are changing hands for ridiculous amounts of money. I’m reminded of another investing adage, this one from Warren Buffett: “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” I wonder what the Oracle of Omaha thinks about all this. In February, market-watchers marveled at NBA Top Shot. It’s a platform where individuals can own GIF images of superstars as if they were digital trading cards. Sales surged as it went viral across social media. Individual “moments” sold for more than $100,000. At the peak of the frenzy, the combined value of all NBA Top Shot moments had a market cap above the value of some NBA teams. One-upping those prices is the latest round of insanity. EtherRock 27 (yes, that’s a thing) recently sold for some $3 million. It’s a picture of a fake rock. What’s the appeal? Perhaps it’s the chance to impress acquaintances at a dinner party by saying you have so much money you can just throw it at the most useless thing imaginable. I believe financial markets often know more than what my small brain can fathom. No, I don’t own any GIFs or cryptocurrencies. But I do believe the assets of the future could look different from what seasoned investors are used to purchasing today. Keep an open mind—but don’t go all-in buying things you don’t truly understand.

Motion Sickness

Mike Zaccardi | Feb 7, 2022

JUST HOW CRAZY WERE some of last week’s market moves? The Wall Street Journal detailed how Amazon.com (symbol: AMZN) recorded the biggest-ever one-day market cap gain in stock market history. The largest company in the consumer discretionary sector was valued $191.3 billion higher after posting better-than-expected earnings Thursday evening. Amazon’s monster move came just a day after Meta Platforms (FB) notched the single-biggest market cap decrease in market history. More widely known as Facebook, the social media giant shed $232 billion in market cap after posting its first drop in daily users in its 18-year history. These unsettling shifts among the world’s most valuable companies had their impact on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of 10% of outstanding shares, surged to the No. 2 spot on the list, behind Tesla’s Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg has seen his net worth decline by more than $36 billion so far this year. The Meta CEO barely hangs on to his place among the top 10, with a net worth now under (gasp) $90 billion. Amazon and Meta shares weren't the only ones moving and shaking last week. Post-earnings stock price volatility occurred among other large tech-related firms, including PayPal (-25%), Spotify (-17%), Alphabet (-8%) and Snap (+59%). Day traders were surely downing a few drinks after a stressful week. More earnings are on tap over the balance of the month. Index fund investors and those focused on the long term are resting easier. Last week, the S&P 500 was up nearly 2%, while ex-U.S. markets again fared well. Developed nations slightly outpaced the U.S., while emerging markets rallied almost 3%. Looking ahead, earnings continue to roll in, but the focus will undoubtedly be on the Consumer Price Index report on Thursday morning. Some experts are betting that this month…

Scratching That Itch

Mike Zaccardi | Feb 26, 2020

AS A TEENAGER, I started to invest by buying a boring old target-date retirement fund. But from there, I became an avid watcher of CNBC while studying finance in college. Indeed, my first financial love was technical analysis. Even today, when markets turn volatile, I’m as susceptible as the next investor to turning on financial cable TV to check out the supposed carnage. Still, as time has worn on, my perspective has grown longer term and away from day-to-day market movements. In the college finance classes that I now teach, I always try to convey to my students the benefits of documenting their long-term financial goals. I encourage them—as well as others—to draw up an investment policy statement that details what their financial goals are and how they plan to reach them. Yet I understand that many of my students have the same trading itch and market fascination that I had when I was in their seat. Do you feel the urge to “play the market” every so often—and especially right now, amid the whole coronavirus scare? Let’s start by putting things in perspective. The typical year sees at least a few daily drops of 2% or more, while the average peak-to-trough decline for U.S. stocks during a calendar year is 13.8%, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Guide to the Markets. In other words, what we’ve experienced so far this year is entirely normal. But we’ve all heard that before—and, depending on how you’re invested, it may not be all that comforting. We’ve seen a wide variation in the performance of different national stock markets over the past two years. While there have been plenty of recent headlines about all-time highs in the U.S. stock market, many international stock funds are down 15% to 20% since January 2018. Itching…

Buy It Later

Mike Zaccardi | Oct 3, 2022

I ADVISED LAST OCTOBER that loading up on holiday gifts ahead of the main shopping season probably made sense, given problems with the supply chain. Foreign manufacturers were struggling to produce enough goods, plus many items were stuck in ships anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. Parents across the country, flush with cash, were frantic about getting their kids the latest hot toys. What a difference a year makes. While the supply chain isn’t exactly operating smoothly, several indicators suggest the situation has greatly improved. Moreover, many U.S. retailers over-ordered during the past two years, as inventories depleted amid the pandemic-induced spending boom. Problem is, at this juncture, it seems folks prefer services like travel and eating out, rather than buying a big screen TV or new athletic gear. Just last week, Nike reported a huge 44% quarterly jump in inventory. The retailer’s stock is now down more than 50% from the all-time high notched late last year. At the same time, big-box retailers like Walmart and Target have periodically cautioned Wall Street about their inventory gluts. Shares of those two household names are down sharply, too. Just how much has the supply and demand dynamic shifted over the past 12 months? Look to the Consumer Price Index. At its peak several months ago, core goods inflation hit 12% for the trailing 12 months. While still elevated, analysts at Bank of America expect deflation for core goods, perhaps late next year. What about inflation among core services, like travel and dining out? That might not reach a high until right around Christmastime. Wouldn’t you know it? Put it all together, and I think waiting until the last minute to buy things like toys, jewelry and electronics could save you a few bucks this holiday season. Retailers…

The Paradox of Wealth

Lessons on the Ground

K-shaped Economy

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

Buying a car in retirement

A Can of Worms

IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?

Mr Market visits Art Basel

Danger, Junk Mail

A discussion on health insurance, premiums, profits and such- a 50 year perspective most people don’t want to accept

Every Writer Has a Beginning: Organ Transplant Fails

The Paradox of Wealth

Lessons on the Ground

K-shaped Economy

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

Buying a car in retirement

A Can of Worms

IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?

Mr Market visits Art Basel

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