What We're Reading
Leaving Money to Your Kids? Consider These Inheritance Tips
Talking to family members about estate planning and legacies can be uncomfortable. These discussions, however, are an important way to share your choices with your children and prepare them for their financial futures. Here are a few suggestions to help you broach this tricky topic and set your heirs up for better success.
Nine Roads to Ruin
There are many ways to fritter away our wealth. Pay high investment costs. Day trade stocks. Buy timeshares. Marry a spender. Purchase variable annuities. Retire too early. Buy leveraged exchange-traded funds. Mimic the spending of our wealthy friends. The list goes on and on. But anybody can ruin themselves slowly—and plenty of people do. What’s really attention grabbing is when it happens quickly. Want to blow up your financial life? Here are nine ways to ruin yourself in a hurry.
Making Sense of Elevated Stock Market Prices
Shares are very expensive, but so are bonds. Even at current prices, the economist Robert J. Shiller says, it is reasonable to keep some wealth in stocks.
The World in 2030: Investing For The Next Decade
The world in 2030 may seem a long way off, but at Capital Group we spend a lot of time thinking about the distant future. “Imagining life in 2030 is not a hypothetical for me,” notes Capital Group vice chairman Rob Lovelace, a sentiment echoed by many of his colleagues. “In the portfolios that I manage, my average holding period is about eight years, so I’m living that approach to investing.” We asked our investment team to look in their crystal balls to envision how life may change by the end of the decade. Here are seven portfolio managers’ perspectives on the world in 2030, and how these shifting trends influence their investment decisions.
Why You Can't Afford to Leave a Spouse or Partner in the Dark About Money
A message to married and unmarried couples about managing your money: it's a two-person job. Letting just one of the two of you handle all the household's saving and investing, bill paying, insurance, wealth building and debt management is a recipe for financial trouble, especially if you're over 50.
When Everyone's a Genius (A Few Thoughts on Speculation)
The end of a speculative boom can be inevitable but not predictable. Unsustainable things can last a long time. Identifying something that can’t go on forever doesn’t mean that thing can’t keep going for years. Years and years and years.
GMO’s Jeremy Grantham warns: The stock market is in a 'fully-fledged epic bubble'
“The long, long bull market since 2009 has finally matured into a fully-fledged epic bubble,” says GMO’s co-founder Jeremy Grantham.
Poor Old Me
Here's a comment I’ve heard countless times in recent years: You should claim Social Security early because you’ll enjoy the money more in your 60s and because you’ll spend less later in retirement. I think this is nonsense that rests on three wrongheaded assumptions.
Dementia May Cause Major Financial Problems Long Before Diagnosis, Making Early Detection Critical
The anecdotes Lauren Nicholas was hearing were all similarly alarming: People with dementia were experiencing “catastrophic financial events” — often before they or their loves ones knew there was anything wrong with them.
Too Thrifty?
I never really liked the vehicles that I owned. They were an unimpressive lot, including a Volkswagen Beetle, Mercury Capri, Toyota SR5 pickup, Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion. I would like to say they got me where I needed to go, but that wasn’t always the case. All the cars, except for the Camry, were unreliable, which would sometimes make my life stressful and difficult. Of course, keeping those cars for many years didn’t help.
People Do Crazy Things with Money. Avoiding These Blind Spots Can Help Prevent Future Regrets
When it comes to managing money, most everybody has doubts as to whether they’re doing it right. So you may breathe a sigh of relief to know that no one is crazy, according to Morgan Housel, author of the book “The Psychology of Money.” That goes for both the person you know who saves every penny to the person who spends like there’s no tomorrow.
This Arkansas School Turned Solar Savings Into Better Teacher Pay
In Batesville, Arkansas, just 17 miles west of the state’s largest coal-fired power plant, a solar array at the local high school is having an unconventional impact: boosting teachers’ pay. In 2017, energy efficiency company Entegrity conducted an energy audit of the Batesville School District, which currently comprises Batesville High School and five other schools that serve roughly 3,200 students.
15 Ways to Happy
We don't pursue money just to put food on the table and a roof over our head. Instead, the hope is to enhance our life. On that score, it seems we aren’t doing terribly well: Our reported level of happiness is no higher than it was half a century ago. Could we do better? I believe so.
Has Business Left Milton Friedman Behind?
On September 13, 1970, the New York Times Magazine published an essay by the economist Milton Friedman titled “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits.” It laid out what came to be known as the Friedman Doctrine — a call to arms for American free-market capitalism and arguably the most consequential economic idea, for better or worse, of the latter part of the 20th century. Fifty years later, Mr. Friedman’s seminal essay continues to stoke debate among business leaders and policymakers — many of whom now seek to rebuke his view as leading to a generation of profiteering companies at the expense of society, exacerbating inequality.
Four Questions to Help Demystify Your Relationship with Money
Jennifer Risher took a job in campus recruiting at Microsoft in 1991. She was 25 and given stock options worth several hundred thousand dollars. While working there, she met her husband, David, who had more stock options than she did. He later left to work for Amazon when it was still just selling books and got even more valuable options there. In a few years, they were worth tens of millions of dollars and on their way to a comfortable life. When Ms. Risher looks back, was it luck or good decisions that helped her land that Microsoft job?
The Fed Is Raising A Spoiled Teenager
Thirteen years ago last month (June 2007), the Fed Funds interest rate peaked at 5.25% and since then has been steadily declining. Apart from one short rate hike cycle in 2018, The Federal Reserve Bank (The Fed), has consistently reduced interest rates and implemented what is known as accommodative monetary policy. This accommodative policy has led stock investors to become dependent on lower rates to help them justify investing in stocks. In the absence of lower interest rates and Central Bank accommodation, as we saw in 2018 and in February/March of this year, stock prices struggled.
The Mystery of High Stock Prices
From the Department of Curiosities: On Tuesday, as the number of new coronavirus cases continued to spike to record levels, the stock market closed out its strongest quarter in more than two decades.
Stock Market Legend Who Called 3 Financial Bubbles Says This One is the ‘Real McCoy,’ This is ‘Crazy Stuff’
That is Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist at Boston-based money manager Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., offering up a stark warning to speculators driving the stock market to new heights amid the greatest pandemic of the past century. “This is really the real McCoy, this is crazy stuff,” said Grantham during a Wednesday afternoon interview on CNBC that appeared to knock some of the stuffing out of a market that had been drifting along listlessly on Wednesday.
A Father’s Letter to His Kid: The 9 Money and Life Lessons Most People Learn Too Late in Life
On June 3, 2019, my wife and I welcomed our daughter into the world. She’s barely old enough to walk, so her job (mostly eating and sleeping) hasn’t changed much. But, one day, she’ll need some money and life advice. As a father who has spent much of his career studying and writing about money, behavioral finance and business, this is what I’ll tell her...
Why a Rise in Telecommuting May Boost Home Sales in Vacation Spots
Real estate has long been tied to job growth. In the past decade, home prices have surged in the urban cores of hot labor markets, as more and more people were drawn to live near the abundance of high-paying jobs in big cities like San Francisco, New York, and Boston. But what happens when good jobs no longer have a fixed location? We may soon find out.
Pandemic Has Increased Money Anxiety. Therapists Hope to Cure That.
Dale Mackey closed her event space in Knoxville, Tenn., a week before the state issued its orders to end large gatherings. She did not think about the economic ramifications of shuttering her business, the Central Collective; she said it was the right thing to do to reduce the spread of the virus.
Martin Wolf: After the Coronavirus Pandemic
The FT's Martin Wolf explains what the world could look like when the epidemic is over.
SNHU to cut tuition from $31,000 to $10,000, revamp on-campus learning
Southern New Hampshire University, known for being on the cutting edge of collegiate learning, plans to slash tuition for incoming freshmen as it drastically revamps how it conducts on-campus learning beginning in the fall. As part of the changes, tuition will be cut 61%, from $31,000 to $10,000 starting in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Under Pressure
On April 14, 1988, Captain Paul Rinn was the commanding officer of the USS Samuel B. Roberts when it struck a mine in the Persian Gulf. The resulting explosion tore a 21-foot hole in the side of the frigate. Almost immediately, the ship began taking on water and multiple fires broke out.
Why Long Term Investors Should Never Sell Stocks in a Panic
The adage “keep calm and carry on” might, in the end, be the best advice for investors to follow during times of extreme market volatility such as the present. While it might seem counterintuitive to sit back and relax while stocks post swift and steep losses, for investors with longer-term time frames it typically pays to wait it out.
Rob Lovelace on What a Recovery Could Look Like
What does the world look like in 2022? It’s a guidepost that’s driving Capital Group Vice Chairman Rob Lovelace as markets remain volatile and the world copes with COVID-19.
Capital CEO Tim Armour on Weathering the Coronavirus
Rising fears over the continued spread of the coronavirus have led to a sharp stock market decline as investors grapple with its impact on the global economy. On Monday, March 9, in reaction to news of the virus spread and the recent oil shock, Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index fell 7.6%, triggering a 15-minute trading halt. In this interview, Capital Group Chairman and CEO Tim Armour offers his perspective on the latest events and what Capital is doing in portfolios to help guard against market volatility.
Don't Lose It
Here's the least surprising thing you’ll read this week: You can’t control the financial markets. They’re driven by news—and we simply don’t know what news we’ll get in the weeks and months ahead, whether it’s about the spread of the coronavirus, its impact on the global economy or something else entirely.
Dear Mom and Dad: Are Your Finances Ready for Retirement?
Cameron Huddleston was 30 years old when she first suggested that her mother look into getting a long-term care insurance policy. Her mother was divorced, and Ms. Huddleston, a financial journalist, knew that a long-term care insurance policy could help offset the cost of any future care that might be needed. Ultimately, her mother couldn’t get coverage because of a pre-existing health condition, and the conversation just petered out.
When You Were Born > Everything Else
What is the most important factor behind one’s investing experience? Is it their ability to analyze a business, their temperament, or their network? It’s none of these things. For almost all investors, the most important driver of investment returns is the year you were born, and therefore how old you are when you began investing.
The Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America
In the 2010s, the national unemployment rate dropped from a high of 9.9 percent to its current rate of just 3.5 percent. The economy expanded each and every year. Wages picked up for high-income workers as soon as the Great Recession ended, and picked up for lower-income workers in the second half of the decade. Americans’ confidence in the economy hit its highest point since 2000, right before the dot-com bubble burst. The headline economic numbers looked good, if not great.
High-Speed Traders Cost Regular Investors Almost $5 Billion A Year, Study Says
Traders and hedge funds who use high-speed methods to gain an advantage in the stock market impose a “tax” on other investors, according to a study released Monday, costing as much as $5 billion per year across global exchanges.
Why It's So Hard to Forecast the Economy
The U.S. economy has experienced its slowest recovery from a recession in the post-World War II era, and the longer it lasts the more evidence there is that normal cyclical patterns are missing. And their absence means market participants shouldn’t rely on them to divine the economy’s future.
An Unkind Act
As if on cue, Ebenezer Scrooge recently showed up in Washington, DC. The result wasn’t pretty. A bill known as the SECURE Act, a favorite of the insurance industry, had been stuck in Congress all year. But suddenly, on Dec. 20, it got tacked onto another bill and signed into law. As far as I can tell, the primary beneficiaries of this new law, which heavily impacts retirement plans, will be the IRS and the insurance industry—but probably not you.
We're Getting Old, But We're Not Doing Anything About It
One of the paradoxes of this presidential campaign is that while many of the candidates are in their eighth decade of life, fundamental issues associated with the aging of American society are still receiving relatively little attention from the public, the press and politicians themselves. In 2031, the oldest baby boomers will turn 85, entering the land of the “old old” and facing exponentially higher risk for dementia, serious physical disabilities and long-term dependency.
You're Tracked Everywhere You Go Online. Use This Guide to Fight Back.
Here are some mildly terrifying things I learned when I recently did an online privacy checkup: Google was sharing my creditworthiness with third parties. If you want Target to stop sharing your information with marketers, you have to call them. And, my favorite: If you would like Hearst, the publishing giant, to stop sharing your physical mailing address with third parties, you have to mail a physical letter with your request to the company’s lawyers. Cool cool cool.
Breaking Bad
We all do things that make us feel good right now, but which aren’t so good for us over the long haul. Yes, even me. Yes, even you. Some of this behavior stems from hardwired instincts passed down to us from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, like our tendency to consume whenever we can and to focus too much on today, while giving short shrift to tomorrow. Other damaging behavior is the result of habits we’ve developed, often learned from our parents, that we’re now trying to unlearn.
The 100-Year Family: Here Are Some Tips for Becoming One
Dennis Jaffe, a sociologist by training, has spent years trying to figure out the answer to a pressing question: what makes a hundred-year family? The question attempts to confront an adage that exists in many cultures and languages and is often attributed to Andrew Carnegie: “Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.” It refers to the fleeting nature of wealth and the all-too-common tendency for one generation to make it, another to waste it and a third to end up without it.
Is College Worth It? A Georgetown Study Measures Return on Investment — With Some Surprising Results
When Larry Burrill started college, his goal was to walk into a job that paid well after graduation. He was coming from a family of humble means and knew he would be paying his way through school. He chose Maine Maritime Academy, set in a historic town miles down a peninsula, because he knew graduates were earning starting salaries double or triple what he could otherwise expect to make.
How FedEx Cut Its Tax Bill to $0
In the 2017 fiscal year, FedEx owed more than $1.5 billion in taxes. The next year, it owed nothing. What changed was the Trump administration’s tax cut — for which the company had lobbied hard. The public face of its lobbying effort, which included a tax proposal of its own, was FedEx’s founder and chief executive, Frederick Smith, who repeatedly took to the airwaves to champion the power of tax cuts. “If you make the United States a better place to invest, there is no question in my mind that we would see a renaissance of capital investment,” he said on an August 2017 radio show hosted by Larry Kudlow, who is now chairman of the National Economic Council.
Wait a Minute. How Can They Afford That When I Can't?
I’ve done it and you probably have, too: looked at a neighbor or friend who seemed to be in roughly the same financial bracket and wondered, “How do they do it?” How do they afford the elaborate remodel and the luxury vacations they’re bragging about on their Instagram accounts and the private school tuition? The feeling is envy, but it’s mixed with curiosity. And it often comes with a large dollop of self-criticism. They somehow must be better at managing their money than my husband and me. What are we doing wrong?
When the Best Deal is What You Give Away
My father grew up with few material possessions. As a result, he appreciates things far more than anyone I know. Throughout my life, I watched him meticulously clean and repair just about everything we owned, be it a radio, a coat or a blender. His attention to detail extended particularly to cars. No matter what vehicle we owned, it was always kept in pristine condition, inside and out.
Majority of Americans Say Parents Are Doing Too Much for Their Young Adult Children
Financial independence is one of the many markers used to designate the crossover from childhood into young adulthood, and it’s a milestone most Americans (64%) think young adults should reach by the time they are 22 years old, according to a new Pew Research Center study. But that’s not the reality for most young adults who’ve reached this age.
Here's How to Keep Health-care Costs Down in Retirement
Retirees will spend a significant amount of money on health care. Still, many older Americans don’t plan properly for it. A healthy male-female couple retiring at age 65 in 2019 can now expect to shell out $285,000 on health-care expenses in retirement, according to Fidelity Investments’ annual analysis.
Stanford Psychology Expert: This is the No. 1 Skill Parents Need to Teach Their Kids—But Most Don’t
As parents, we all want to raise kids who are smart and focused, especially in a world where digital distraction seems to be inescapable. (Even tech titans like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have strategies for limiting their children’s screen time.) Why? Because in the future, there will be two kinds of people in the world: Those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others and those who proudly call themselves “indistractable.”
As Costs Mount, States Scramble for New Ways to Pay for Late-In-Life Care
It’s the late-in-life financial hit that can wipe out your savings and your children’s inheritance. Yet few in middle age want to think about, or prepare for, a time when they’ll need “long-term care” — help with walking, dressing, or going to the bathroom.
What’s the Deal With That Inverted Yield Curve? A Sports Analogy Might Help
The financial world has been atwitter about the inversion of the yield curve. It is a phenomenon in the bond market in which longer-term interest rates fall below shorter-term interest rates, and has historically been a warning sign that a recession could be on the way.
The Hidden Money Grab In The SECURE Act
On May 23, 2019 the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement). A more appropriate name for the bill would be the Extreme Death-Tax for IRA and Retirement Plan Owners Act, because it gives the IRS carte blanche to confiscate up to one third of your IRA and retirement plans. In other words, it’s a money grab.
You Are Probably Overconfident. (If You Skip This, Doubly So.)
When we’re betting money on the stock market, it’s important to remind ourselves of something called the self-serving bias, where we take credit when things go well and cast blame elsewhere when they don’t. One of the reasons these biases are so scary is that expertise — the kind professionals are often so certain they have — doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, it might even make it worse.
7 of Your Most Burning Questions on Social Security (With Answers)
People have lots of questions about Social Security: Will it still be around when I retire? How much will I get? How does the spousal benefit work? That’s not surprising. No government program is more important to so many Americans. This year, Social Security is expected to pay $1.1 trillion to 69 million recipients of retirement and disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income. Nearly all Americans pay into the program and can expect to receive a benefit at some point in their lives. And it is the largest retirement income source for a majority of older households.
Exploring Education: Should K-12 Schools Teach Financial Literacy?
In the first part of our 4-part series on K-12 education, we look at what role schools should play in helping students learn life skills for money management. Several states require financial literacy classes for high school students, and Senator Hassan has co-sponsored federal legislation to support financial literacy classes in schools. We look at the role of schools in helping students learn to manage money: what skills do students need, and what are N.H. schools doing?
Beware, The IRS is Eyeing Your Inherited Money
One of the perils of being well-off is the constant risk that the federal government and/or your friendly state and local tax collectors will figure out new and different ways to snatch more of your wealth. Especially wealth that you earned the old-fashioned way: by inheriting it. To raise your paranoia to the appropriate level, here are two new things to worry about.
80% of the Stock Market is Now on Autopilot
Passive investments control about 60% of the equity assets, while quantitative funds -- those relying on trend-following models instead of fundamental research -- now account for 20% of the market share, according to estimates from J.P. Morgan.
Retirees Might Run Out of Money 10 Years Before They Die
One of the toughest problems retirees face is making sure their money lasts as long as they do. From the U.S. to Europe, Australia and Japan, retirement account balances aren’t increasing fast enough to cover rising life expectancy, the World Economic Forum warns in a report published Thursday. The result could be workers outliving their savings by as much as a decade or more.
No, Renting Isn't Throwing Your Money Away
Home ownership is part of the stereotypical American Dream. Renting the place you live in has traditionally had a less romantic connotation. On this episode of Good Money, we show why renting shouldn't get such a bad rap, and why in many cases it's less of a headache, and more affordable, to rent than buy.
Senior Scams Proliferate as Fraudsters Deploy New Tactics and Technologies
Last month, a pair of Swampscott police officers were dispatched to a local Stop & Shop to rescue an older man from Lynn. The man was rattled: A stranger had called to warn that his Social Security number was compromised and he needed to pay $2,500 to protect his identity. The man had withdrawn the money from a nearby bank and was trying to convert it to gift cards, as the caller instructed. A watchful supermarket manager alerted police.
The Bond Market Is Trying to Tell Us Something (Worry)
Let’s face it: Bonds are boring. Usually, stock markets are the source of hyperventilation and headlines. But right now, all the action is in the bond market. It is sending powerful signals that there’s trouble ahead for the United States economy. They’re powerful enough, in fact, that they’re even rattling the parts of Wall Street that people do talk about. Does it mean a recession is imminent? Certainly not. Part of what makes the bond market so ominous is that it’s not terribly specific. But there is good information buried in the weeds. Here’s what to make of it.
A Financial Checklist for Your Newly Minted High School Graduate
The summer after high school graduation inevitably includes monthslong encounters with various to-do lists. Extra-long-sheet purchases and milk crates for future collegians. A résumé for job seekers. Thank-you notes for all. But let me suggest one more itemized offering: a list of financial tasks. If you want to set your child up properly for college, work, military service and the years beyond, there are several things you ought to do, help them do or teach them before too long.
You're Probably Not Ready to Retire - Psychologically
Retirement is a major transition that unfolds over many years, as we move from the life we know into the life we will get to know. Many pre-retirees do not fully comprehend how dramatically their lives will change. ... Many people are simply not psychologically ready to retire, even if they'refinancially able.
Here’s When Giving Financial Support to an Adult Child Crosses Into Coddling
As parents, my husband and I have struggled with finding the right balance between protecting our children and letting them learn things the hard way. To raise children to become responsible adults, you have to be supportive and encouraging. You also have to set limits — and you have to let them fail. It’s through those stumbles that they experience the natural consequences of bad decision-making. There also comes a time when you have to back away financially so that your children can learn to become self-sufficient. But knowing when to withdraw your support can be hard.
Man Credited With Calling the 2008 Crisis Says the Next 20 Years in the Stock Market Will ‘Break a Lot of Hearts’
Jeremy Grantham, an investor credited with predicting the 2000 and 2008 downturns, told CNBC on Thursday that investors should get inured to lackluster returns in the stock market for the next two decades, after a century of handsome gains.
Here's How the Super Rich Teach Their Kids About Money
When it comes to teaching kids about money, the super rich are different from average Americans. But it’s not only about the amount of wealth they have.
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