Overview We often fall into a trap where we think we have all the bases covered. Take retirement planning, for example. You can plan for the lifestyle you want. You can plan for the income you need. You can even stash away extra funds for unexpected expenses retirees typically encounter. But can you truly plan…
Some of the Most Common Misunderstandings about Retirement Savings
Having retirement savings is important because it can help people to retire when they want to and when they feel ready to. Retirement is seen as a time to de-stress and do activities that an individual always wanted to do throughout the work years. Building a retirement savings can seem daunting, but with Wealth CAPS,…
Can The S&P 500 Predict Economic Cycles?
Stock Indices Arguably the most famous of all stock indices is the S&P 500, which tracks a selection of large-cap stocks listed on U.S. exchanges across eleven sectors. The index is “market-cap weighted,” meaning larger companies constitute a higher proportion of the index than smaller ones. For example, Apple is the largest publicly-traded company,…
Workshop: Understanding Your Retirement after Chevron
Workshop Details: Location: Chevron Federal Credit Union Address: 250 Industrial Rd., Pascagoula, MS 39581 Time: 11:30 AM Date: May 19th, 2016 We will help answer questions such as: Should I take my pension as a lump sum? How do I protect my assets from Long Term Care Costs? What strategies…
Current Investors Concerns
What’s Concerning Investors These Days Investors have plenty to fret about these days, and the volatile start to the year certainly has not made things better for the psyche of most investors. Although the list of current investor concerns is quite extensive, let’s look at three of the more prevalent issues at the moment: 1. …
What Can We Gain From All This Pain?
A Rough Start to 2016 The first three weeks of the New Year delivered investors an 11% draw-down in the S&P 500, and many are justifiably concerned that stocks could continue to fall even further. Draw-downs often strain the emotions of long-term investors because the fluctuations in equity prices tends to amplify loss aversion. As…
“May You Live in Interesting Times”
Interesting Times Indeed The title is reputed to be a legendary Chinese curse, and it is often used in English-speaking countries during times of disorder and despair. Despite the intended irony of using a Chinese proverb during a period when China is to blame for much investor angst, it’s safe to say that everyday investors…
Remaining At Rest In A Room
Ouch The idea behind proper diversification is that when one market struggles, the other(s) step in and offer support. Several conservative investors who closely watched their portfolios in 2015 are now questioning this strategy for very good reason. There was nowhere to run last year, and any return that came close to what would be…
The Impact of a Presidential Election
The Worst Part About My Job Without question, the most annoying and frustrating part of my job as a money manager is following the dysfunction in the U.S. government. I cringe when reading a newspaper or watching a television segment involving politics because I feel as if the incentives of most who service public offices…
An Update on China and the IMF
Over the summer, I wrote a Thought for the Week that discussed the implications of China’s currency getting added to the IMF’s basket of reserve currencies. Given the decision this week by the IMF to approve China and add them to the SDR, I wanted to update my thoughts now that we have more information.