The market’s winners trumpet their skill, the losers decry their bad luck—and we indexers watch with wry amusement.
AFTER LEAVING the hospital, our family met up at a favorite neighborhood restaurant.
“What’s next?” the teenagers asked.
“Now begins the parade of covered dishes,” I answered.
For the month after my husband’s death, when preparing food hardly seemed possible, friends and neighbors made sure our refrigerator and freezer bulged. The kids experienced a variety of main meals, side dishes and desserts. There was enough for us and our many helpers, and we experimented with time and labor-saving meal shortcuts.
SOCIAL SECURITY has come under political attack over the years. With the federal deficit ballooning, will there be another round of attacks in the run-up to 2020’s election?
I hope not. Here are 15 reasons we should all want to preserve Social Security benefits, no matter which political party we favor:
It helps many. About 63 million people get a Social Security check each month. That’s one out of six Americans.
It provides insurance.
ALMOST 30 YEARS ago, I landed my first fulltime job. I worked at a state-run academic institution, earning $16,000 a year. The sole retirement benefit was a pension plan with a five-year vesting period. There were no investment choices to be made. There was no ability to invest additional funds, beyond what my employer contributed to the plan. It was a retirement plan requiring no participation on my part.
My second job came with the option of investing in a traditional 401(k) plan.
TURN ON THE RADIO and, it seems, you can’t help but hear the holiday classic It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. My question: From an investor’s perspective, is this indeed the most wonderful time of the year?
Apparently, it is. According to a 2017 paper titled Holidays Financial Anomalies, three of the best days for the stock market are the days after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
WHAT DOES IT take to succeed financially? Pundits love to parse stock market returns, dig into the minutiae of Roth conversions and debate retirement withdrawal strategies. Yet, when asked what’s the most important financial virtue, almost all give the same answer: great savings habits.
That mundane reason certainly explains my financial success. Yes, I’ve benefited from owning index funds, holding a stock-heavy portfolio and buying enthusiastically during market declines. But all of that has been gravy.
WE HAVE a hardwired biological incentive to promote the wellbeing of our kids, so that the family line will continue. This is the selfish gene in action. Yet modern human behavior suggests that the wiring may be at least a little faulty—for three key reasons.
Environmental. Our domination of natural resources continues to create tremendous improvements in global wealth, but it sometimes comes at the expense of the only confirmed habitable space that’s practical for our species.
AMONG HOMEOWNERS age 80 and older, 26% had a mortgage as of 2016, up from 10% in 2007, according to an analysis by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
NO. 41: VERY FEW of us need life insurance for our entire life. That’s why term insurance makes sense and cash-value policies are usually a mistake—despite what insurance agents say.
NO. 90: HOME improvements are money losers. Yes, homes typically climb in price over time. But the only sure source of appreciation is the land. The house itself deteriorates and requires hefty expenditures just to maintain its value. Indeed, if you remodel your home, you might recoup just 50% to 90% of the money spent—and that assumes you sell within the next year.
UPDATE YOUR powers of attorney. These allow somebody to make health and financial decisions on your behalf, should you become incapacitated. Are you still happy with the person you’ve chosen? Even if you are, you may want to draw up new powers of attorney if they’re more than 10 years old. Otherwise, there’s a risk they’ll be deemed out of date.
DATA MINING. By scouring financial data, researchers have uncovered a slew of “anomalies”—ways to beat the market averages by emphasizing stocks with certain characteristics. But often, the studies can’t be replicated or the anomalies have no reasonable explanation. Still, some have survived scrutiny, such as the momentum, quality and value effects.
AFTER LEAVING the hospital, our family met up at a favorite neighborhood restaurant.
“What’s next?” the teenagers asked.
“Now begins the parade of covered dishes,” I answered.
For the month after my husband’s death, when preparing food hardly seemed possible, friends and neighbors made sure our refrigerator and freezer bulged. The kids experienced a variety of main meals, side dishes and desserts. There was enough for us and our many helpers, and we experimented with time and labor-saving meal shortcuts.
SOCIAL SECURITY has come under political attack over the years. With the federal deficit ballooning, will there be another round of attacks in the run-up to 2020’s election?
I hope not. Here are 15 reasons we should all want to preserve Social Security benefits, no matter which political party we favor:
It helps many. About 63 million people get a Social Security check each month. That’s one out of six Americans.
It provides insurance.
ALMOST 30 YEARS ago, I landed my first fulltime job. I worked at a state-run academic institution, earning $16,000 a year. The sole retirement benefit was a pension plan with a five-year vesting period. There were no investment choices to be made. There was no ability to invest additional funds, beyond what my employer contributed to the plan. It was a retirement plan requiring no participation on my part.
My second job came with the option of investing in a traditional 401(k) plan.
TURN ON THE RADIO and, it seems, you can’t help but hear the holiday classic It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. My question: From an investor’s perspective, is this indeed the most wonderful time of the year?
Apparently, it is. According to a 2017 paper titled Holidays Financial Anomalies, three of the best days for the stock market are the days after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
WHAT DOES IT take to succeed financially? Pundits love to parse stock market returns, dig into the minutiae of Roth conversions and debate retirement withdrawal strategies. Yet, when asked what’s the most important financial virtue, almost all give the same answer: great savings habits.
That mundane reason certainly explains my financial success. Yes, I’ve benefited from owning index funds, holding a stock-heavy portfolio and buying enthusiastically during market declines. But all of that has been gravy.
WE HAVE a hardwired biological incentive to promote the wellbeing of our kids, so that the family line will continue. This is the selfish gene in action. Yet modern human behavior suggests that the wiring may be at least a little faulty—for three key reasons.
Environmental. Our domination of natural resources continues to create tremendous improvements in global wealth, but it sometimes comes at the expense of the only confirmed habitable space that’s practical for our species.
AMONG HOMEOWNERS age 80 and older, 26% had a mortgage as of 2016, up from 10% in 2007, according to an analysis by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
NO. 41: VERY FEW of us need life insurance for our entire life. That’s why term insurance makes sense and cash-value policies are usually a mistake—despite what insurance agents say.
UPDATE YOUR powers of attorney. These allow somebody to make health and financial decisions on your behalf, should you become incapacitated. Are you still happy with the person you’ve chosen? Even if you are, you may want to draw up new powers of attorney if they’re more than 10 years old. Otherwise, there’s a risk they’ll be deemed out of date.
NO. 90: HOME improvements are money losers. Yes, homes typically climb in price over time. But the only sure source of appreciation is the land. The house itself deteriorates and requires hefty expenditures just to maintain its value. Indeed, if you remodel your home, you might recoup just 50% to 90% of the money spent—and that assumes you sell within the next year.
DATA MINING. By scouring financial data, researchers have uncovered a slew of “anomalies”—ways to beat the market averages by emphasizing stocks with certain characteristics. But often, the studies can’t be replicated or the anomalies have no reasonable explanation. Still, some have survived scrutiny, such as the momentum, quality and value effects.