Did you increase your savings rate a few months ago when the IRS increased retirement plan savings limits? If not, now is still a great time to do so. In most years, the IRS increases the limit for what individuals can contribute to their retirement plans. If that change slips past you, and/or you forget to increase your savings rate, you lose an opportunity to save more on a tax-advantaged basis….
What is one of your big life goals? What’s a wild dream you’d like to achieve? When you’re in the midst of peak busyness, you may feel you can’t go after what you desire. Not true! As we head into the last few months of 2021, now is the perfect time to reflect on what you want to accomplish, not only through the end of the year, but in 2022 and…
It’s been a difficult week and a half for investors, as the uncertain trajectory of COVID-19 upset people’s sense of well-being, public health systems and the financial markets. Coronavirus and its economic fallout, coupled with the Saudi/Russia oil tension, have created a unique mix of anxiety that makes markets particularly volatile. No one can predict what will happen over the short term, but we have confidence, based on past experience,…
The Federal Reserve Bank’s Open Market Committee adjusts rates, down to stimulate the economy when needed, and up control inflation and prevent the economy from overheating during times of growth. In the first several years after the Great Recession, people thought little about rates. The Fed’s target rate fell to 0% late in 2008 and stayed at 0% for 7 years. Such extended periods of low rates is highly uncommon,…
How new behavioral research can relate to financial behavior (e.g. bad soccer goalie decisions – a nod to recent world cup!, teams fire coaches too fast, the “IKEA effect” and how you place higher value on things you make yourself), how unconscious perception biases about aging cause people to under- or over-save, wages are up… but barely vs. inflation, interest rates are on the way up and imply certain risk…
Summer months are typically a quiet time for the markets. Recent events, however, may disrupt this tradition. Threats of escalating trade wars have cast a pall over equities, and numerous geopolitical uncertainties continue to push investors toward a more cautious stance. A desynchronization in global growth as well as a divergence in central banks’ monetary policies have contributed to U.S. dollar strength and wreaked havoc on emerging markets. Currencies of emerging…
Market volatility returns, markets often have long rises and “flat” spots, a periodic table of returns using sectors, discipline is key: missing out on the best 30 market days over the last 50 years would have led to a 40% lower return, research indicates a big gap between savings goals and actually savings patterns, higher savings might lengthen your life, and more.
