Sa For Fas

In investing, it is vital to get the big things right. One way to ensure good investment decision-making is to assume that you harbor biases and probe going against your instincts. If your investing track record has been a poor one, it would be prudent to consider hiring a financial advisor. Realize that not making a decision is also a decision, and know that you cannot possibly make every decision correctly.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both Washington and Lincoln became wealthy men. Washington stands as one of the wealthiest Americans of all time, whereas Lincoln rose far from his log-cabin origins. America has always been a good investment, but Washington got on on the ground floor, literally, as his primary investment was real estate. Lincoln achieved financial comfort, and then preserved that wealth through bonds, but his investment approach was based mainly on patriotism rather than an effort to become rich.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. national debt is now $22 trillion for the first time – that’s an increase of over 10% from when President Trump took office. The administration expects today’s growth will be sustained, but it didn’t work out that way for his predecessors. Reinhart and Rogoff tried to establish debt’s corrosive effect on growth, but their critics were empowered by a research slip-up on their part. I think common sense will ultimately vindicate their view.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veteran Australian financial journalist named Michael Pascoe admits to having spent a quarter of a century providing daily financial market reports that were “mostly rubbish.” Now he is trying to keep investors focused on the long-term, and is finding that doing so is of less interest to readers. Pascoe is spot-on. It’s not just the financial media that are to blame; it’s also media consumers hankering to get their fix of infotainment.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New research by Moshe Milevsky distinguishes between chronological age and biological age. Someone who has lived 60 years may be as fit as a 50-year-old or may be biologically equivalent to a 70-year-old. Thus, the implications for asset allocation and insurance coverage for two people both aged 60 may be very different.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The past two months provided a rare stock-market round trip covering quite a distance in percentage terms, with 9.6% losses in December followed by 8.6% returns in January. If you were among those who sold, the reason was likely the perception that stocks were weakening since October, along with perpetual reminders that the bull market was long in the tooth. But this rationale isn’t relevant to the personal financial plan you should be following, which depends on your age, resources and goals.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An analysis written for the British bank HSBC nearly a decade ago by economist Karen Ward, called “The World in 2050,” projected how the world economy would appear in 40 years. Ward thought today’s emerging markets would make up 19 of the top 30 economies in 2050, with China rising to the top spot. It seems fair to surmise that HSBC has advocated its clients increase their allocations to emerging markets. My own sense of development economics leads me to favor a selective approach to emerging markets, rather than a broad asset-class approach.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Independent analyst Daniel Amerman ,CFA thinks it naïve to expect inflation-adjusted Social Security payments in perpetuity; nor does he expect the system will go bankrupt; rather, he holds retirees will get paid – just less than before each year out. He says Medicare is not keeping up with inflation and is eating most people’s Social Security check, and higher-income recipients are effectively subsidizing lower-income recipients. This system design biases the claiming decision to no later than age 65. He warns that, because the U.S. national debt is now larger than the U.S. economy, policy makers are using “financial repression,” a policy that is injurious to retirees, to cope with debt.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To solve for spending in retirement, you need to plug in how much capital you have, what your rate of return is and how much time you have – that last item being impossible to know. Longevity tables meant to offer guidance may understate the actuarially correct  figures by two to three years. How can we devise a spending plan amidst these uncertainties - plus numerous other hurdles?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Apple having lost a third of its value since October, are investors dealing with a Silicon Valley has-been or a will-be whose shares are now attractively priced? Apple appears to be deftly pivoting from an area of slowing growth to the area that shows the highest growth potential, namely digital health.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jack Bogle offered the gift of strong long-term returns and the ability to enjoy them – without the stress and losses that many who come to Wall Street looking for riches end up taking away with them instead.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gold’s returns over time are unimpressive – if your comparison is stocks. But that’s not really the relevant comparison, and in fact, gold can facilitate your ownership of stocks. The portfolio purpose that gold ultimately serves is as a cash equivalent that beats inflation and as a store of value when your dollars are not holding up.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.C. Berkeley behavioral economist Shachar Kariv identifies two fundamental sources of investor pain – lack of knowledge about the market and lack of self-knowledge. Successful investing requires effort to resolve these uncertainties.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s still the beginning of a new year, and your senses will be besieged by stories such as “The Best Stock-Fund Managers of 2018.” So it’s worth recalling not just that past performance does not predict future returns – as the disclaimer usually goes - but that, statistically speaking, past positive performance is likely to presage poor future performance.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has pinned his firm’s darkened outlook primarily on China. That one of Apple's biggest customers is in bad shape makes it clear that the U.S. has been carrying out its trade war with a sickly opponent. Knocking out that opponent removes one of the pillars of the global economy, and makes recession likelier.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With one cheap fund, you can own a globally diversified portfolio of low-volatility equities. Now that the market is going on sale, two such funds I have admired but not owned are becoming affordable again.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What the American revolutionary Thomas Paine wrote about a military and political crisis applies as well to a financial one. Specifically, he wrote that panics are “short” and “advantageous.” If you’ve properly prepared, you can emerge from this interval stronger than you entered it, as Colonial America emerged from its battle with Britain.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Still scrambling to get your children, nephews or nieces something that will make a meaningful impact? Credit card, mortgage and auto loans have straight-lined over the past 15 years, while student loans have skyrocketed nearly 500%. That’s signals a “with it” gift for indebted grads. For not yet college-age kids, you can offer them a skill that will give them a genuine leg up.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a market that has killed every category, emerging markets have stood out for their losses. Without minimizing the high risks of this sector, is there a baby that has been thrown out with the bathwater? Brazil might be that baby. In 12 days, the country gets a new rebirth of sorts as Yair Bolsonaro assumes office with plans to push his country into an era of liberal economic reform. Brazilian stocks are cheap and an attractive ETF offers a wide representation of the country's leading companies.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott Witt is a fee-only insurance advisor who provides fiduciary advice to clients on products such as annuities and is paid on an hourly fee basis rather than through commissions. In this interview, Scott explains income annuities' potential benefits, provides a decision tree for making the selection and offers a glimpse into his own client engagements.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices