Jonathan Clements

LIFE MAY HAVE BEEN nasty, brutish and short at one time, but it sure isn’t today. Thinking ahead to retirement? Forget the famous quote by 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes—and ponder the famous wager suggested by 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal.
As Pascal saw it, it’s rational to believe in God. If you believe and it turns out God doesn’t exist, the price is modest: an hour lost from every Sunday morning and a little less immorality.

IN MY NERDY PERSONAL finance world, there are perhaps two dozen folks I pay close attention to—and one of them is Mike Piper, the blogger behind ObliviousInvestor.com. He’s also written nine books in his “made simple” series, which offer great primers on financial subjects like taxes, Social Security and retirement, all in 100 pages or less.
An accountant by training, Piper brings his analytical mind and detailed knowledge of government rules to the topics he tackles.

WHEN WE MAKE financial decisions, we usually have a pretty good idea what we’re getting. But what are we giving up? That, I believe, is the crucial, unasked question.
Think about any financial choice, whether it’s the shoes we buy, the stock we purchase or the kids’ college degree we promise to pay for. All too often, these are snap decisions. Captivated by the bright shiny object in front of our eyes, we make an isolated choice—and fail to grapple with the bigger picture.

WANT TO CHECK your retirement readiness? There’s a slew of online calculators available, but one of the best is NewRetirement.com. The site strives to deliver great content and foster an active community, and it does a decent job on those two fronts. But the site’s heart and soul is its super-sophisticated, comprehensive retirement calculator.
Truth be told, my preference usually runs to calculators that don’t require registration and don’t involve many inputs, so I was initially reluctant to create an account at NewRetirement.com.

STARTING TO SAVE is a discouraging business. Even if you invest in stocks—and even if stocks post gains—progress initially can seem agonizingly slow.
Consider a simple example. Let’s say you earn $100,000 a year. Not exactly an everyday salary, I admit, but it makes the numbers easier to grasp. You save 12% of your income, equal to $12,000 each year. That money is invested at the start of the year and earns 6% annually,

IN NOVEMBER 2006, I wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal about how to get started as an investor, even if you didn’t have much money to spare. The article was read by Charlie Cutelli, a high school teacher and coach in St. Louis, Missouri.
“At the end of the article, there was a nugget about T. Rowe Price waiving the $2,500 minimum ‘if you commit to socking away at least $50 a month through an automatic investment plan’,”

TRYING TO BEAT THE market isn’t just a risky endeavor that will almost certainly end in failure. It’s also unnecessary and, arguably, an astonishing waste of money and time.
As I grow older, the clock ticks ever more loudly in my head. I hate to be kept waiting. I keep chores to a minimum. I try to eliminate activities from my day that bring little pleasure and have no purpose. I think hard before acquiring new possessions,

IF THERE’S ONE financial website I visit more than any other, it’s The Wall Street Journal’s market data site. Before the stock market opens, I’ll look to see whether the S&P 500 futures indicate shares are headed higher or lower. During the trading day, I’ll check occasionally to see where things stand with stocks—and, if there’s been a big move, I’ll scour news sites to see what might be driving it.
But the Journal’s market data site doesn’t just offer a snapshot of the financial markets.

ARE YOU GETTING RICH off your neighbors—or are they mooching off you? You might imagine your financial success, or lack thereof, rests squarely on your own shoulders. But much also hinges on the behavior of your fellow citizens.
In numerous financial situations, one group in society effectively subsidizes another. Much of the time, you want to be the recipient of the subsidy—but not always. Consider seven examples:

Spenders subsidize those who save prodigious amounts.

THE MARKET IS ALWAYS right. It may have a different opinion tomorrow—perhaps radically different—but that doesn’t mean current prices aren’t the right ones.
Holler all you want that the stock market ought to be far lower. I do a fair amount of that myself (though the shouting is more akin to grumpy mumbling). But whether we like today’s share prices or not, they reflect the collective wisdom of all investors—and, if we want to buy or sell,

IF THIS TURNS OUT to be a major bear market, there will be a slew of articles to be written. It’s the negative correlation enjoyed by every financial writer: Even as our portfolios shrink, our potential for pontification soars.
But what if the market bounces back? It’s almost too painful to contemplate. Think of all the articles that won’t get written. If the past week’s rally continues, here are 10 stories that will have to wait for the next market downturn:
1.

AFTER THE WILD RIDE of the past two weeks, stock investors are in search of reassurance. Will this movie have a happy ending?
If we’re venturing into the stock market, we should ideally have at least a 15-year time horizon. That gives us 10 years to make money and another five years to look for the exit. Those final five years may prove crucial if the first 10 years don’t turn out so well.

SO WE’RE ALL POORER, right? The S&P 500-stock index has fallen 10.2% over the past nine trading days. Yet all we’ve done is give back a sliver of the huge gains notched since 2009. My contention: Not only is much of the handwringing unjustified, but arguably it’s also wrongheaded.

Seasoned investors don’t get nervous when the market declines. Rather, they get excited by the prospect of buying shares at much cheaper prices. So far,

WHEN MARKETS GO crazy, financial writers feel compelled to dust off the keyboard and cook up profound insights. But I am writing this at 5 a.m., while still ingesting my first cup of coffee, so I’m setting the bar a little lower. Here are 12 modest observations following yesterday’s 4.1% plunge by the S&P 500:
1.  I don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody knows. The market turmoil of the past six trading days feels like a sea change after 2017’s remarkable calm.

I FEAR I’M GROWING wealthy at my children’s expense. My investing life began in the late 1980s. Yes, there have been stock market bumps since then, notably the 2000-02 and 2007-09 market crashes, and even a minor hiccup over the past week. But if you look at the broad trend, it’s been three decades of rising stock market valuations.
From year-end 1987 to year-end 2017, the S&P 500’s price-earnings multiple climbed from 13.8 to 24.6,