There have been reports that so-called “elder abuse” in a financial context is on the rise, costing elderly Americans an estimated $36 billion last year alone. By one estimate, roughly one in three older Americans has been scammed in the past five years—what an official at the Institute on Aging calls “an elder financial abuse [...]
Arguably the wildest consequence of the recent pandemic is the remarkable price boom in the U.S. housing market—which, some might remember, went spectacularly bust in the 2008-9 Great Recession collapse. Today, half of all houses put on the market are purchased in less than a week, often for more than the asking price. One recent [...]
The U.S. investment markets continued to defy gravity in the second quarter of the year, closing out the month of June—and the first half of 2021—at new record highs. This is the fifth consecutive quarter where the U.S. markets posted gains. Everywhere you looked in a diversified portfolio, you saw gains in the second quarter. [...]
You probably know that the U.S. stock market has been delivering the highest returns among all developed nations, not just in the last couple of years but over the most recent ten years. But that also means that U.S. stocks have become much more expensive relative to other nations. How much more? One of the [...]
While nature offers four seasons, Wall Street offers only one—four times a year. It’s called “earnings season,” and it can move the markets. So what is earnings season and why is it important? Earnings season is the month of the year that follows each calendar quarter-end month (January, April, July and October) in which many [...]
No matter how far away you are from retirement, there are simple ways for you to step up your savings at any point. Especially if you’re in your 20’s or 30’s, you have plenty of time left to implement smart saving strategies to set yourself up for a successful retirement. Kevin Lao, certified financial planner, [...]
A living trust primer is a popular consideration in many estate strategy conversations, but its appropriateness will depend upon your individual needs and objectives. A living trust is created while you are alive and funded with the assets you choose to transfer into it. The trustee (typically, you) has full power to manage these assets. [...]
We can probably all agree that 2020 was a unique investment year, with the pandemic ravaging the economy, reducing travel and even removing the normal commute to the office—and at the same time delivering above-average 15.76% returns on the S&P 500 index. But not every company sailed through the pandemic unscathed. Consider New Residential Investment, [...]
Space is the final frontier. Our military now has a space force. We are about to get a full report from the government on what it knows about UFOs. Space is in the news, from space tourism to the long-shot prediction by Elon Musk that humans will soon colonize Mars. But is space a growth [...]
One of the most common educational props in the financial planning world is something known as the Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns. The table is constructed in various ways—either with annual returns, or monthly returns—but the result for those shorter time periods is always the same and vividly illustrated. As you can see from [...]
