The long-awaited SECURE Act 2.0 has passed through Congress and now awaits President Biden’s signature. This is a large and impactful piece of legislation that will include 92 retirement-related provisions that expand the initial SECURE Act that passed in 2019. Thankfully, few of these provisions will call for urgent, last-minute, year-end planning; and many are […]
As a homeowner, you know your homeowners insurance policy covers any losses you suffer in the event of a disaster or other emergency. But do you know how much coverage you really need to carry in order to receive full compensation in the event of a disaster? And do you know what happens when you […]
Ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the 1935 Social Security Act, most Americans have ended up pondering this critical question as they approach retirement: “When should I (or we) start taking my (or our) Social Security?” And yet, the “right” answer to this common query remains as elusive as ever. It depends […]
So far in our investment basics series, we’ve explored the history of investing; how important it is to save (so you have money to invest); how to invest efficiently in broad markets; and why to avoid chasing or fleeing rising or falling prices. By applying these logistics, you are much better positioned to let capital […]
Educating yourself about investing and personal finance often involves learning a whole new vocabulary. Risk, volatility, tolerance, liquidity—you might know these terms from other contexts, and you might even have an idea of what they mean in the investing world, but if you’re like a lot of individual investors, you might not have a clear […]
In our last piece, we introduced the importance of saving, which is the first of five basics that have served investors well over time. Today, we’ll look at where stock market returns really come from, and why that matters to your investing. You can’t invest if you haven’t saved. Markets are inspired by ingenuity, tempered […]
In our last piece, we wrote about how recency bias can damage your investments by causing current crises to loom large, while rewriting your memories of past challenges. Recency tricks us into overpaying during heady times, and bailing at bargain rates, when our confidence fades. One of the best ways to combat recency bias is […]
There were so many big events competing for our attention this summer … said nearly every investor, almost every summer, ever. We’re not making light of this summer’s uncertainties. Inflation is real, and needs to be managed; we also can’t rule out the possibility we’ll still see stagflation and/or a recession (although neither has happened […]
Even though we know it was just dumb luck, can we get a round of applause for seeming to forecast last month’s surprisingly strong market returns? It’s almost (but not really) as if the market were reading our mind when three broad U.S. stock indexes ended July 2022 with their best returns since 2020—up 9.1%, […]
