Even if the Dow Jones Industrial Average is what people refer to when they talk about ‘the market’. The Standard and Poors 500 index has long been the ‘go-to’ measurement of the US stock market. More frequently on the ‘serious’ finance media, ‘the market’ that is referred to is the S&P 500. The rationale is […]
“Fun is like life insurance: The older you get, the more it costs”. Life insurance is contrastingly both easily understood and the object of much misunderstanding. The basic premise is simple: If you die and have a life insurance policy, the insurance company will give money to your survivors. Used properly, life insurance is a […]
James Bradley & Sam Chaplin discuss the current investment climate in the wake of the US Presidential election, Coronavirus and earnings season. You can watch the video above or read the commentary below. Market Review July kicked off the third quarter with a bang as stocks surged throughout much of the month. Investors were encouraged […]
In light of the COVID pandemic, the CARES act has created new planning opportunities, including the ability to deduct up to 100 percent of your income for charitable contributions. This important incentive comes at a crucial time when the need is great. Planning your charitable giving, however, should be done in a way that avoids some unforeseen pitfalls […]
There are a lot of different ways to set up lifetime income from your TIAA contracts. Most of the decisions you need to make revolve around whether you want to provide income for your life, or for the lives (or shorter-term needs) of other loved ones. Choosing among these options will determine the amount you […]
Changes are coming to the University of Maine Retiree Health plan. Here, in this post, we’re giving you what we’ve been able to find out about the new plan so far, and to give you some additional color to what you can get from the published information. If you want more information than what we […]
Under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, Health Reimbursement Accounts – or HRAs – joined an already complex alphabet of healthcare funding options that exist for employees and business owners. HRAs are possibly the least understood of these because, for a lot of reasons, they have been used relatively scarcely. New regulations put in place […]
Two economists meet at a conference. One asks the other: “How’s your wife?” The second economist responds: “Compared to what?” People who have been on earth at least as long as I have will recognize the riff off the king of the one-liners, Henny Youngman. More on Henny later, but I think this joke […]
“I am more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money.” Will Rogers Two things seem to occur pretty reliably during periods of market stress and uncertainty: People become very interested in safe places to put their money, and the return on safe assets drops substantially. Why is it that […]
