Helping pave the way towards financial freedom
Most investors are not aware that just seven companies have kept the S&P 500 Index afloat this year. Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, Alphabet, and Tesla have driven the vast majority of gains. The concept of “market breadth” analyzes how stocks perform relative to one another in a given index, such as the S&P 500….
Nobody wants to make investment mistakes. And yet, we’re human; mistakes happen. Here’s how to minimize the ones that matter the most, and make the most of the ones that remain. Bad Decisions vs. Bad Outcomes First, let’s define what we’re talking about: Investment mistakes happen when you make bad decisions, regardless of whether the…
Stock buybacks—i.e., a company repurchasing shares of its own stock—have been targets for praise and criticism through the years. So, which are they: good or evil? We agree with The Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig, who once wrote: “Buybacks are neither bad nor good. They are simply a tool. Just as you can use…
I have been reading a lot about what types of investments are good to hold in a recession. While no one investment is bulletproof, we do see experts claiming that some products are better than others. Amongst the products are consumer staple stocks, healthcare stocks, investment-grade bonds, and dividend stocks. Today I thought I’d address…
Investors went into Q2 on high alert for a recession. Who could have blamed them, it was blasted all over the news! Uncertainty about the direction of interest rates, bank failures, and geopolitical uncertainty weighed on the minds of many. By quarter’s end, there was no economic downturn in site and the Fed was expected…
Not too long ago I wrote about the types of scams that are out there (see that post here). I’ve gotten a lot of feedback about this topic, as well as some questions. So I wanted to share the following pointers as a sort-of reference guide. Here we go: Who Are They (the bad guys)?…
In a recent piece, “Who Is The Media“, I offered my broad take on the media. I suggested how to identify islands of investment insights across the oceans of daily news. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight one of the first pioneers in financial journalism. Introducing America’s first personal financial columnist Sylvia Porter…
One year ago there was a craze about I-Bonds. Many people inquired about them, and many people bought them. Perhaps you were one? I wrote about I Bonds in May 2022, and wanted to do an update on them now that we are in May 2023. What’s Changed? Well, the inflation rate over the past few…
In past posts – or perhaps conversations – we’ve been known to take aim at the media. That’s because bad things tend to happen to your personal wealth if you read, watch, or listen to too much news—or if you read too much into the news you’re reading. It’s human nature to react to the…
The first quarter of 2023 is in the books, and many wonder what to make of the recent headlines. The Fed raising interest rates to combat inflation was still at the forefront of the nightly news. Then came along some negative events in the financial world, dominated by Silicon Valley Bank and its meltdown. Geopolitical…