Retirement Watch Weekly
Biggest Retirement Surprises
This is an unscientific survey from The Wall Street Journal. One of its columnists, Glenn Ruffenach, recently answered a reader’s question about the biggest surprises he found in retirement. He then asked readers to submit their biggest retirement surprises and received a lot of responses. You might need a subscription to read the article. Some […]
Investing amid the Uncertainty in Washington
Perhaps the most asked question by investors these days is: How do I adjust my portfolio for the new administration in Washington? We’re in a period of what I think is unusual uncertainty in the markets. Before considering any potential change in policies, uncertainty already was very high. As you know, we’re still dealing with […]
Family Finances Miscommunication in Estate Planning
A new survey from Fidelity confirms what we already knew. Parents don’t tell adult children much about their finances or estate plans, but the parents think they’ve presented full details. Not having the discussions or delaying them leads to confusion, hampers planning, and eventually costs the family a lot of money and missed opportunities. The […]
Mutual Fund Managers of the Year
Morningstar has issued its list of fund managers of the year for 2016. There aren’t any surprises on the list. Dodge & Cox Balanced, a long time recommendation in Retirement Watch, is the asset allocation fund of the year. Oakmark International and a T. Rowe Price stock fund also are perennial stars. Don’t use this […]
Finding Interesting Opportunities outside the United States
While investors are focused primarily on the U.S. economy and markets, they’re missing some changes in Japan and Europe. Let’s start with Europe. Many analysts have been negative about Europe for a while, especially since the “Brexit” vote last June when U.K. citizens chose to leave the European Union. But Brexit is going to be […]
Stocks vs. Treasury Bills: Which is the Highest Performing Investment
Are stocks really the highest-returning investment? Research argues that treasury bills outperform all but a handful of stocks over the long-term. Here’s the research, and here’s a review of it. Most common stocks do not outperform Treasury Bills. Fifty eight percent of common stocks have holding period returns less than those on one-month Treasuries over […]
Criticizing “A Case Against Sugar”
Here’s something you won’t see much of. It’s a review of the book, The Case Against Sugar, that largely disagrees with the book’s thesis for the most part. The problem is the book argues that everything bad is the cause of sugar consumption. Stephan Guyenet argues that a series of acts and conditions lead to […]
Stories of a Bond Bear Market
Bloomberg.com has an interesting article in which it interviewed five bond market experts who are hold enough to remember the last time we had an extended bear market in bonds, way back before 1982. They reminisce about what things were like when the bull market began. Younger people who have never experienced more than a […]
