Our life’s great financial task: Use our human capital to amass a pile of financial capital, so one day we can live without a paycheck.
“I DON’T GET IT.” That’s what my friend said when I told him I would consider marrying my significant other.
“Why do you feel you need to get married?” he continued. “You’re both in your 60s. You’re not going to have any children. There’s no reason you should get married. If you did, you would make the relationship more complicated. You both probably would want a prenuptial agreement protecting your assets. That, in itself,
WITHOUT A DOUBT, John C. Bogle is the greatest man I’ve had the privilege of knowing. Tomorrow, the newspapers will run obituaries detailing his many accomplishments—how he launched Vanguard Group, started the first index mutual and was, right up until the end, a fierce advocate for the everyday investor.
I first met Jack in 1987, when I was a callow 24-year-old reporter at Forbes magazine. I last saw him in October, at the Bogleheads’
GLOBAL LIFE expectancy for almost every nation will rise during the next two decades, with Spain overtaking Japan as the country with the longest life expectancy. Meanwhile, on the list of 195 countries, the U.S. will fall 20 places, from 43rd to 64th. The average U.S. lifespan as of birth is still projected to increase slightly, from 78.7 years to 79.8, but at a slower rate than the rest of the world.
That isn’t great news for the U.S.—but it isn’t necessarily bad news for you,
I WAS SINGLE-track mountain biking with two friends. We had stopped for a rest—which was when I discovered how completely wrong I’d been with most of my financial decisions.
We had all recently retired from the same company and were debating when to claim Social Security. One buddy stated that he planned to start at age 70, so he would receive the maximum monthly payment possible. He defended his position by arguing that he was in good health,
IN 2005, the comedian Stephen Colbert popularized the word “truthiness.” This term, if you aren’t familiar with it, refers to something which seems like it should be true, but isn’t actually supported by evidence. Are stock market pundits guilty of truthiness? To answer the question, let’s look at a recent event.
First, some background: In the life of an investment analyst, there’s a rare but dreaded phenomenon known as a “profit warning.” This occurs when a company can tell,
AMERICANS’ TOP financial goal for 2019 is paying down debt (30%), followed by managing their spending better (13%), saving more for retirement (12%) and saving more for emergencies (10%), according to a Bankrate survey.
WHEN I STARTED writing my column for The Wall Street Journal in 1994, active money managers dominated the investment scene and index funds were struggling to get noticed. A quarter century later, most money remains actively managed, rather than indexed. The triumph of indexing is not yet complete.
Still, everybody knows which way the wind is blowing. Over the decade through 2017, index funds focused on U.S. stocks—both the mutual-fund and the exchange-traded varieties—attracted $1.6 trillion in new money,
We get just one shot at making the journey from birth to retirement. Flirting with financial disaster is not advisable.
HERE ARE THE SEVEN most popular blogs from last month:
NO. 96: IF YOU HAVE children, you will retire later. The Department of Agriculture says it costs $234,000 to raise a middle-class kid through age 17, with college costs and financial help to adult children on top of that. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have kids. But there’s a financial tradeoff involved—and one result is you’ll likely retire later.
ELIMINATE DUPLICATION. Many folks have multiple bank and brokerage accounts, multiple funds that invest in the same market sector and even multiple advisors. This can make sense if, say, the goal is to increase FDIC insurance. But often it reflects a naïve notion of diversification—that more accounts somehow mean greater safety. Our advice: Simplify—for your sake and the sake of your heirs.
EFFICIENT FRONTIER. What mix of investments offers the highest expected return for a given level of risk—or the lowest risk for a target return? In theory, these optimal portfolios can be found on the so-called efficient frontier. Their key characteristic: broad diversification, thus reducing volatility by combining investments that don’t always move in sync.
HumbleDollar is edited by Jonathan Clements, author of From Here to Financial Happiness.
“I DON’T GET IT.” That’s what my friend said when I told him I would consider marrying my significant other.
“Why do you feel you need to get married?” he continued. “You’re both in your 60s. You’re not going to have any children. There’s no reason you should get married. If you did, you would make the relationship more complicated. You both probably would want a prenuptial agreement protecting your assets. That, in itself,
WITHOUT A DOUBT, John C. Bogle is the greatest man I’ve had the privilege of knowing. Tomorrow, the newspapers will run obituaries detailing his many accomplishments—how he launched Vanguard Group, started the first index mutual and was, right up until the end, a fierce advocate for the everyday investor.
I first met Jack in 1987, when I was a callow 24-year-old reporter at Forbes magazine. I last saw him in October, at the Bogleheads’
GLOBAL LIFE expectancy for almost every nation will rise during the next two decades, with Spain overtaking Japan as the country with the longest life expectancy. Meanwhile, on the list of 195 countries, the U.S. will fall 20 places, from 43rd to 64th. The average U.S. lifespan as of birth is still projected to increase slightly, from 78.7 years to 79.8, but at a slower rate than the rest of the world.
That isn’t great news for the U.S.—but it isn’t necessarily bad news for you,
I WAS SINGLE-track mountain biking with two friends. We had stopped for a rest—which was when I discovered how completely wrong I’d been with most of my financial decisions.
We had all recently retired from the same company and were debating when to claim Social Security. One buddy stated that he planned to start at age 70, so he would receive the maximum monthly payment possible. He defended his position by arguing that he was in good health,
IN 2005, the comedian Stephen Colbert popularized the word “truthiness.” This term, if you aren’t familiar with it, refers to something which seems like it should be true, but isn’t actually supported by evidence. Are stock market pundits guilty of truthiness? To answer the question, let’s look at a recent event.
First, some background: In the life of an investment analyst, there’s a rare but dreaded phenomenon known as a “profit warning.” This occurs when a company can tell,
AMERICANS’ TOP financial goal for 2019 is paying down debt (30%), followed by managing their spending better (13%), saving more for retirement (12%) and saving more for emergencies (10%), according to a Bankrate survey.
ELIMINATE DUPLICATION. Many folks have multiple bank and brokerage accounts, multiple funds that invest in the same market sector and even multiple advisors. This can make sense if, say, the goal is to increase FDIC insurance. But often it reflects a naïve notion of diversification—that more accounts somehow mean greater safety. Our advice: Simplify—for your sake and the sake of your heirs.
NO. 96: IF YOU HAVE children, you will retire later. The Department of Agriculture says it costs $234,000 to raise a middle-class kid through age 17, with college costs and financial help to adult children on top of that. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have kids. But there’s a financial tradeoff involved—and one result is you’ll likely retire later.
EFFICIENT FRONTIER. What mix of investments offers the highest expected return for a given level of risk—or the lowest risk for a target return? In theory, these optimal portfolios can be found on the so-called efficient frontier. Their key characteristic: broad diversification, thus reducing volatility by combining investments that don’t always move in sync.
WHEN I STARTED writing my column for The Wall Street Journal in 1994, active money managers dominated the investment scene and index funds were struggling to get noticed. A quarter century later, most money remains actively managed, rather than indexed. The triumph of indexing is not yet complete.
Still, everybody knows which way the wind is blowing. Over the decade through 2017, index funds focused on U.S. stocks—both the mutual-fund and the exchange-traded varieties—attracted $1.6 trillion in new money,
We get just one shot at making the journey from birth to retirement. Flirting with financial disaster is not advisable.HERE ARE THE SEVEN most popular blogs from last month:
HumbleDollar is edited by Jonathan Clements, author of From Here to Financial Happiness.