Bond Funds-what’s next?

According to the Investment Company Institute, investors poured $220 billion into bond funds during the first eight months of 2009, compared with just $27 billion in 2008.
What happens to bond funds when we start seeing interest rates rise or inflation rising? Vanguard has an excellent article that helps explain some of these possible scenarios. To [...]

Read Full Post »

Money and Marriage

The New York Times has a great article on money questions to discuss prior to getting married.  For those of you that are married but find it challenging to discuss the topic of money, there’s something here for you as well. Here’s the link to the article:
Money & Marriage

Read Full Post »

Blame it on Rio

OK-well it stinks that we lost the 2016 Olympics to Brazil, but at least from an investment perspective, there may be a silver lining here after all.
First some facts: Brazil’s leading stock market index (BVSP) is up year to date, in US dollars, up 114%. Compare that to the S&P 500 year to date-up 17%. [...]

Read Full Post »

Women Hit Hardest by a Life Crisis

The financial and emotional implications of a life crisis affect women more than men, according to new research findings from AARP Financial Inc. The survey of 600 men and 600 women age 40-79 looked at four life crises; divorce, death of a spouse, long-term job loss, and serious illness or disability. In all four instances, [...]

Read Full Post »

ROTH IRA conversion opportunity-2010

2010 may prove to be a great time for boomers to create a tax-free income stream for retirement, thanks to the opportunity to complete a ROTH conversion without income limits. 57% of high income boomers are not aware that income limitations on conversions will be eliminated in 2010.
To learn more about the benefits of ROTH [...]

Read Full Post »

Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman- NYT Q & A

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Winner, recently held a Q & A with his NYT readers. If you’re interested in reading the latest news about the global economy , especially the U.S economy, click on the link below and it will take you to his responses. I highly recommend taking the time to read it.
From everything [...]

Read Full Post »

“One Year Later, Financial System May Be In Even Worse Shape”

That’s the title of the lead story on the Huffington Post website today-9/25/09.  I encourage you to watch the 5 minute interview with Inspector General of TARP-Neil Barofsky. It’s not good news, but it’s the truth. Kudo’s to the Huffington Post for their excellent investigative journalism-well done.
Click this link to watch the interview:
Neil  Barofsky-Tarp Inspector-9-09

Read Full Post »

Dollar Woes

As our country racks up more and more debt, the U.S Dollar depreciates further and further. Right now it’s a slow, drip, drip drip. It may be the case; that the dollar gradually heads lower during the next decade. Or, we could see this process accelerate overnight. No one knows for sure.
Over the past few [...]

Read Full Post »

Setting Financial Goals

As stock markets around the globe start to rev up again, the siren call of higher returns will get louder and louder. The recent crash may have jolted you out of your slumber in terms of your asset allocation; you probably have more in bonds than you did before the crash, but that new pragmatic [...]

Read Full Post »

Playing it too Safe

There’s a large amount of investors sitting on the sidelines, parking their money in treasury bills, CD’s or money market accounts too scared to make a move. For those that lost a lot of money during the recent crash and need their investments to grow in order to fund their retirement, this may not be [...]

Read Full Post »