I have not written on the topic of disability lately, but there may be a new way to protect against its long term financial ravages. As of January 1, 2015, Treasury and the IRS have published final regulations (79 FR 26838) allowing a defined contribution retirement plan (think 401k) to [...]
My longtime Rotarian friend, Dick Puhr, late sportswriter par excellence for this newspaper, used to write an occasional column he called Dissa and Datta, if I remember correctly. Today I am following his lead with some information and opinion on a variety of topics, but all related to economics and [...]
Mr. Market is often fickle in the short term. I have already complained about the roller coaster rhythms of 2014 leading many (including me) to be too cautious, as it turned out. Last weekend, a Kansas RIA colleague and I were consoling each other about being judged by the exact [...]
First let me say that nothing in life, not even life, is guaranteed to any of us. And of course, let’s all say it together: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Period. End of story. But then tell me, What is a better predictor of the future than [...]
Regular readers of this column know I often discuss the four year presidential cycles and their effect upon stock market performance. Although I knew intellectually that 2014 had every statistical right to be difficult and negative—the worst of each cycle—that does not seem to help much if one is perfectionistic. [...]
I had a conversation yesterday with a reader, whom I’ll call John, of this column and apparently many other newspapers. I often get nice comments, but those are usually from friends and acquaintances. John and I had some trouble connecting over the past couple of weeks, but I wanted to [...]
President Obama made a fine decision when he nominated Robert A. McDonald as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs in July. McDonald, a West Point Military Academy graduate and Army Captain serving with the 82nd Airborne Division, has spent his civilian career with Procter & Gamble. He rose quickly from [...]
We are now experiencing in the equity markets what I have expected for a number of months. Earlier this year, there were drops of 3 to 5 percent in February, April and July, but none showed quite as much selling violence as we have just seen in the past week. [...]
Our Missouri state government is concerned about a downtrend in its collection of tax revenues. I decided to check the reported statistics to identify the source for this worry. That did not take very long. On May 20, 2014, Governor Nixon announced he would withhold $35.1 Million in higher and [...]
What can a client receive from a good relationship with a financial advisor? What does that relationship look like? While companies are spending millions on research on Behavioral Finance, I suspect most client consumers spend little or no time and effort to evaluate what they want and need from a [...]
