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. [...]
Years ago, comedienne Gilda Radner wrote a book about her life and fight against ovarian cancer called, It’s Always Something! These days, one could say the same about reasons for predictions that the stock market must fall down. As a friend in the building said this morning, a couple of [...]
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 [...]
As millions of baby boomers are in or close to retirement, we should know more about social security benefits than we do. In one national survey, over 70 percent said that they knew the basics of the program, but less than 30 percent actually did. I was glad to have [...]
Last week I gave some reasons why I am still bullish about the stock market. Let’s look at some other good news for these United States you probably won’t see anywhere else. Great changes are occurring in our global competitiveness. Boston Consulting Group reports from its survey of senior manufacturing [...]
My forecast first: the sky is not falling and we will carry on. Regular economic principles will trump fear and behavioral financial principles, and the stock market will continue its bullish trend during the fourth quarter. I did not want you to have to sit with bated breath until the [...]
September is College Savings Month. Therefore, today let’s focus on Section 529 College Savings Plans. There are several good vehicles for this, but these get the most press. We will discuss others in the near future. Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code was enacted by Congress in 1996 to [...]
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 [...]
When I was a young attorney in my later 20’s, I asked a friend in the stock brokerage business about starting to invest. I thought he would be glad to help me execute my trades or find the best mutual fund. But he surprised me. He refused to help me. [...]
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 [...]
