How do you contend with it? How do you avoid letting it unnerve you? If you want significant reward potential, you will have to assume some risk. Anyone investing in securities – particularly stocks – must accept that reality. Investing in the markets gives you an opportunity...
Sometimes you can take penalty-free early withdrawals from retirement accounts. Do you need to access your retirement money early? Usually, anyone who takes money out of an IRA or a retirement plan prior to age 59½ faces a 10% early withdrawal penalty on the distribution. That...
If you move away from equities with age, are you making a mistake? For some time, financial professionals have encouraged investors to lessen their exposure to the stock market as they get older. After all, a 60-year-old has less time to recover from a market...
The “dirty dozen” that criminals & cheats try to get away with year-round. Year after year, criminals try to scam certain taxpayers. Year after year, certain taxpayers resort to schemes in an effort to put one over on the IRS. These cons occur year-round, not just...
Examining the potential differences between assumption & reality. Financially, how might retirement differ from your expectations? To some degree, it will. Just as few weather casters can accurately predict a month’s worth of temperatures and storms, few retirees find their financial futures playing out as precisely...
You may be tempted to do it – but do you really want to? While you might be able to borrow from a 401(k), that doesn’t mean you should. Yes, we are in a recession. Yes, times are tough. But borrowing from your 401(k) could prove...
Take steps so criminals won’t take vital information from you. America is enduring a data breach epidemic. As 2013 ended, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics released its 2012 Victims of Identity Theft report. Its statistics were sobering. About one in 14 Americans aged 16 or...
What’s good for the economy isn’t necessarily good for our future. Our parents & grandparents saved much more than we do. Most people who have read up on the economy for any length of time have heard of the personal saving rate (PSAVERT), which the Commerce...
New economic & political concerns are putting stocks to the test. Dow drops again, analysts wonder. March 13 saw another triple-digit descent for the blue chips – the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 230 points, the second market day in less than two weeks...
Patience & diversification matter in all manner of stock market climates. Stocks rise, fall ...