Bob's Journal
Found 589 Articles.
Get access to our full article archive by subscribing to Retirement Watch and Retirement Watch Spotlight Series.
Bob’s Journal for 5/2
FDIC Changes Insurance for Trust Accounts The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) changed its deposit insurance coverage effective April 1, 2024. The basic insurance limit of $250,000 per account still holds and most types of accounts aren’t affected. The changes affect trust accounts and effectively reduce the insured amount for some trust bank accounts. The […]
Bob’s Journal for 4/25
IRA Heirs Can Delay RMDs Another Year, But Should They? The IRS announced that in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, IRA beneficiaries don’t have to take the annual required minimum distributions (RMDs) described in the proposed regulations interpreting the 10-year rule of the SECURE Act. Recall that in late 2019, the Setting Every Community […]
Bob’s Journal for 4/18
Advance Indicators of Recessions Reverse Course The most-cited advance indicators of recessions recently became less gloomy after months of indicating a recession was imminent. The prominent Leading Economic Index from The Conference Board declined for 23 consecutive months, causing The Conference Board to warn for most of the last two years that a mild recession […]
Bob’s Journal for 4/11
Why the Economy is Harder to Read It’s no surprise that many economists, analysts and investors misread the economy the last few years, as did the Federal Reserve. There are good reasons for this. One problem that’s becoming worse is data collection. A good portion of the economic data released each month comes from surveys […]
Expect Medicare Advantage Changes in 2025
Medicare Advantage plan insurers are under fire, as I foretold in my Feb. 1 Bob’s Journal. Barron’s recently expanded upon the situation in a cover story. The problems became apparent when Humana, a major provider of Medicare Advantage plans, reported higher costs and lower profits, reporting it expected those trends to continue. While Advantage plans […]
Bob’s Journal for 3/28
Social Security to Reduce ‘Clawback Cruelty’ for Benefit Overpayments The Social Security Administration (SSA) finally is moderating its aggressive practices against beneficiaries who were overpaid benefits. It’s not unusual for SSA to make errors when calculating someone’s benefits and discover the error later, sometimes years later. Then, the SSA demands repayment. The longstanding SSA practice […]
17 Record Highs in 50 Trading Days
The S&P 500 set 17 record closing highs in the first 50 trading days of 2024 through March 13, according to Bespoke Investment Group. That’s the most record highs to start a year since the 20 in 1998. Here’s another bit of investment trivia: There have been only five years since 1953 that record highs […]
Bob’s Journal for 3/14
Bitcoin Hits New Record High The new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been good for the price of bitcoin. After a multi-year legal fight, ETF providers prevailed in 2023. A federal appeals court said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) didn’t have a good reason to prohibit proposed ETFs that owned bitcoin. After all, the SEC […]
