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Good News: Rolling College Savings Balances Into IRAs
(Main Content/blog)
Tax-advantaged college-savings plans known as 529 plans have gotten very popular since their introduction in 1996. But while their tax benefits are attractive, a question has hung over them: What happens ...
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How to Invest This Election Year
(Main Content/blog)
... is that over the years has tended to be good. Between 1937 and 2022, for example, the S&P 500 index has posted an average annual return of 9.9% during presidential election years. You can rest assured ...
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Tax-Loss Selling is Losing its Luster
(Main Content/blog)
... watching the price creep up a little further every day. Thus, the rationale for selling good stocks just for tax purposes has gotten a lot weaker. If the goal is to maximize your wealth over the long ...
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We're Not Out of the Woods
(Main Content/blog)
... and a half, that the rate-hiking cycle may be over. That would be good news for stocks; while the S&P is still up 13% for the year, it’s dropped more than 5% since the start of August. The rate hikes ...
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The Big Question: When Can I Retire?
(Main Content/blog)
... some part-time work. Reality checks are the stock in trade of a good investment advisor. I strongly suggest working with an investment advisor to at least pinpoint a realistic nest-egg target. ...
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How to Fix Your Retirement Savings
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... $1,000 per month. That continues for the next five years. Assuming an investment return of 7% per year—which is a good bet based on historical market returns—you'll have more than $95,000 at the end of ...
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Why You Should Be Invested Right Now
(Main Content/blog)
... 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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“Sell in May Go Away” is Not the Way
(Main Content/blog)
... are at odds with each other. If you look through all the gloom and doom about those aforementioned market headwinds, what you'll see are really good corporate earnings. A few recent examples of great first-quarter ...
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Take the Long View, Ignore the Scary Headlines
(Main Content/blog)
... by bad stretches in the market or good ones. But investors who react to each instance of bad news by buying and selling probably won't make much money over time, and may end up losing money. The more ...
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Improving Bond Yields and the Case for Rebalancing
(Main Content/blog)
... and piled into stocks, causing once-balanced portfolios to become lopsided—and riskier—in favor of equities. Now is a good time to take a fresh look at your portfolio, and to make sure you have enough ...
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How to Get Back into the Market
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... over time, good companies are going to grow and make money, and that they as investors will ultimately benefit. Now for what to invest in. The first step in figuring that out is to, again, pull back. ...
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Five Predictions for 2023
(Main Content/blog)
... in the right direction, buying will increase and the S&P will rise in a sustainable way. Stocks might not finish the year in positive territory, but I believe they'll end the year with good momentum ...
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Putting the Market’s Drama in Context
(Main Content/blog)
... owning good companies over long periods of time. And this happens to be a very good time to make sure that the holdings in your portfolio are optimized to get you where you'd like to go. Investors should ...
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Understanding the Fed’s Rate Hikes and the Market
(Main Content/blog)
... 3.25% in just seven months. These developments are a reminder that one good reading, whether it's on inflation or economic growth or any other financial data, does not make a trend. I continue to believe ...
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Better Inflation News Spells Opportunity
(Main Content/blog)
Last month, I wrote that good news on inflation could be the catalyst that gets the market moving. Well, that good news materialized on August 10: Inflation rose 8.5% in July, down from 9.1% the previous ...
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Is the Next Stock Market Catalyst Taking Shape?
(Main Content/blog)
In last month’s blog, I explained that good news on inflation could serve as the catalyst to break stocks out of their long slump. Well, the latest inflation data, issued on July 13, are the opposite ...
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For Investors, the Shoe Has Dropped
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... is down 18%, while the Nasdaq Composite is off by a stomach-churning 27%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average looks "good" by comparison—it's only given up 14.5%. After years of the markets flying high, ...
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What the Crashes of Netflix and Facebook Tell Us
(Main Content/blog)
... It's a good bet that more high-flyers will fall, and investors who determine the point at which their price becomes attractive based on their earnings could be rewarded. Meanwhile the market is rewarding ...
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A Bad Time to Be Over-Diversified
(Main Content/blog)
... their total holdings. That can make it hard for them to buy promising small-cap stocks, which typically have the most runway to grow. The bottom line: Now is a good time to take a fresh look at your ...
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A Big Market Shift is Underway
(Main Content/blog)
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 ...