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Tax-Loss Selling is Losing its Luster
(Main Content/blog)
... popular because it's essentially free money: Stocks (or bonds in some cases) are sold at a loss in order to offset the capital-gains tax bill created when winners are sold. The result is that your tax ...
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The Big Question: When Can I Retire?
(Main Content/blog)
... bonds. No one wants to retire just as their nest egg is taking a beating from bad markets and inflation is eating into their buying power. So fretting over when to retire and what it will cost is ...
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How to Fix Your Retirement Savings
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... a bank account, or buy safe Treasury bonds, those investments won't give you the kind of returns that will grow your money adequately for a comfortable retirement. What's needed is a diversified portfolio ...
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Why You Should Be Invested Right Now
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... about 4% a year. Whether your cash is intended for short-term or long-term use, it should be invested right now. There are good yields right now on short-term bonds and money market funds, and even CDs ...
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Here’s Why I’m a “No” on Annuities
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... a rate of return over a set time period, did particularly well, more than doubling their sales from the previous year. Why are annuity sales surging? One reason is that stocks and bonds both had terrible ...
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“Sell in May Go Away” is Not the Way
(Main Content/blog)
... more than 5%, their highest level in many years. Stocks have historically provided more growth over the long run than bonds. But owning bonds is far superior to having your cash on the sidelines, being ...
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Take the Long View, Ignore the Scary Headlines
(Main Content/blog)
... to fine-tune your investment mix in order to position for the best possible return with the least amount of risk. For instance, bond yields have strengthened significantly in recent months, which may give ...
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Improving Bond Yields and the Case for Rebalancing
(Main Content/blog)
Owning bonds hasn't been very attractive for the past few years, and 2022 was the low point. A cross-section of bonds, as represented by the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index, registered a 15% loss in 2022. ...
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How to Get Back into the Market
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Last year was a tough one for investors, with stocks and bonds both experiencing bear markets. Now, with markets off to a promising start in 2023, many investors are focused on figuring out which stocks ...
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Five Predictions for 2023
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This past year has been one to forget—a bear market for stocks, the worst year ever for bonds, and raging inflation and rising interest rates to top it off. Will 2023 be better? While no one can predict ...
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Putting the Market’s Drama in Context
(Main Content/blog)
... sense to shift the balance of stocks and bonds in your portfolio. Bonds have done poorly for more than two years relative to stocks, a fact that has prompted investors to load up on stocks and let their ...
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Fighting Temptation in a Volatile Market
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... Jan. 3, investing has been anything but a fun ride. Stocks are down about 20% this year, despite rallying over the past few days. And bonds, usually a safe haven when stocks are struggling, are down ...
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A Bad Time to Be Over-Diversified
(Main Content/blog)
... stance. It's expected to raise interest rates and wind down the bond purchases that have been propping up the economy and the markets. As a consequence, we're moving into an environment in which it will ...
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A Big Market Shift is Underway
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The past several weeks has offered a good example of the effect that Federal Reserve decisions can have on the markets. With the central bank beginning to slow down the bond-buying that has helped support ...
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Higher Interest Rates Could Hammer Stocks
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... worth looking at the potential impact on markets. The effect of rising interest rates on bonds is fairly straightforward: Rising rates make existing bonds less valuable, since newly issued ones will pay ...
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Time to Make a Shopping List
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... part of the reason they can be so much more profitable than bonds over extended periods. To collect what we call stocks' risk premium, we have to be patient: Over the long term, the market's rise has always ...
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Where to Invest Now? It's Tricky
(Main Content/blog)
... the proceeds, there's no obvious place to reinvest that money. High-quality bonds are unappealing because of their low yields--10-year Treasuries are yielding just 1.3%. And the possibility of rising ...
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How to Invest for Inflation
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... can make a difference. While investors are rotating to value stocks, and selectively holding on to growth stocks, one area to be extremely cautious about is long-term bonds. Inflation ...
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Rising Inflation and Interest Rates: What to Do
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... spurring price inflation. In March, consumer prices rose .6%, their biggest gain since 2012. Accelerating inflation, meanwhile, is pushing long-term bond rates higher. Essentially, the bond market is ...
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Capital Gains Tax Hike a Possibility
(Main Content/blog)
... earning capital gains above $1 million per year. Long-term capital gains — the sale proceeds from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate and other investments that are owned for more than a year — ...