Retirement Watch Weekly
7 Key Investing Behaviors
Behavioral economics ended the idea of rational economic man. Here’s a quick review of the top seven common human behaviors that are irrational and cost investors money. 4. Confirmation bias How it tricks us: It’s a basic human flaw: We like to think we’re always right, and will go to great lengths to seek out […]
More on Medicare and Affordable Health Care
Here’s an interesting piece explaining how the Affordable Care Act reduces the growth of Medicare spending over time. According to this essay, it’s a straightforward case of rationing. What will this mean? Seniors will be the least (financially) desirable patients as they attempt to find doctors who will see them and institutions that will admit […]
Why Medicare Spending is Slower
Spending on government medical programs, especially Medicare, has been slowing for several years. It still is growing, but at a slower rate than in the past. But in the last year spending per beneficiary actually decreased. This provokes a lot of discussion about the causes. This piece argues that most of the growth reductions are […]
Aging as a State of Mind
This long New York Times article is about a Harvard psychologist, some of whose studies seek to show that aging and health can be influenced by attitudes and other mental attributes. It makes some interesting points and describes interesting research, though the ideas of using the mind to cure disease or slow aging are far […]
Evaluating Investments by the Inventor of the Sharpe Ratio
Nobel Prize-winning economist William Sharpe gave an interesting interview to AAII. He makes several points that all investors should note. Sharpe developed a statistic that’s now called the Sharpe ratio. He said he was looking for a number to consider if you only can look at one number to evaluate an investment. Now, he says […]
Dangers of Large Mutual Funds
Some of you might remember back to the stock market crash of October 1987, when major indices fell about 25% in one day. There was a lot of finger pointing at the time about the cause, but I remember a number of people saying that a major mutual fund company decided to unload a lot […]
The Importance of Social Security
Many people downplay Social Security benefits in their retirement planning. Most people who’ve been retired for a while, however, report that Social Security is an important part of their financial well-being. Now, a new study by the Census Bureau (subscription might be required) reveals that without Social Security a majority of U.S. seniors would be […]
Some Data on Stock Market Declines
Every time we have some big down days in the stock market, too many people immediately start talking about the next crash and big losses. At such times, it is helpful to take a look at the data. This blog post is a good summary of the data on corrections and bear markets, including how […]
