Tag Archives: 9) Personal Investment

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are an essential part of managing your retirement accounts and income in retirement. While they provide a way to access your savings, RMDs can have significant tax implications if not handled properly. Understanding how RMDs work, which accounts they affect, and strategies to minimize their tax impact can help you optimize your retirement plan and protect your hard-earned savings. What Are Required Minimum Distributions...

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are an essential part of managing your retirement accounts and income in retirement. While they provide a way to access your savings, RMDs can have significant tax implications if not handled properly. Understanding how RMDs work, which accounts they affect, and strategies to minimize their tax impact can help you optimize your retirement plan and protect your hard-earned savings. What Are Required Minimum Distributions...

Consumer Confidence, as surveyed by the Conference Board and University of Michigan, shows consumers are starting to lose economic confidence. Given that consumer spending drives the economy and influences inflation, confidence and the means to spend can significantly impact markets. Based on recent job data, the means (i.e., wages) to consume appear to be in good shape. However, consumer savings are historically low, while credit card balances are high. Recently,...

Consumer Confidence, as surveyed by the Conference Board and University of Michigan, shows consumers are starting to lose economic confidence. Given that consumer spending drives the economy and influences inflation, confidence and the means to spend can significantly impact markets. Based on recent job data, the means (i.e., wages) to consume appear to be in good shape. However, consumer savings are historically low, while credit card balances are high. Recently,...

During Donald Trump's first term, some investors bought into the Trump 1.0 Put. The trade was based on the market's belief that Trump believed the stock market's performance was a referendum on his presidency. Accordingly, investors thought that Trump would do everything he could to backstop the stock market if it fell. Thus, some investors thought it worthwhile to sell puts, collect the proceeds, and sit back comfortably, not fearing losses. According to a...

During Donald Trump's first term, some investors bought into the Trump 1.0 Put. The trade was based on the market's belief that Trump believed the stock market's performance was a referendum on his presidency. Accordingly, investors thought that Trump would do everything he could to backstop the stock market if it fell. Thus, some investors thought it worthwhile to sell puts, collect the proceeds, and sit back comfortably, not fearing losses. According to a...

The combination of extremely rich equity valuations, high interest rates, and a new President taking bold actions will likely continue to whip stocks around for the foreseeable future. Alongside those volatility-provoking factors is that the S&P 500 just posted two annual twenty-plus percent gains in a row. Accordingly, seeing average or below-average returns this year and volatility spikes should not be surprising. If we are correct about volatility, it's...

The combination of extremely rich equity valuations, high interest rates, and a new President taking bold actions will likely continue to whip stocks around for the foreseeable future. Alongside those volatility-provoking factors is that the S&P 500 just posted two annual twenty-plus percent gains in a row. Accordingly, seeing average or below-average returns this year and volatility spikes should not be surprising. If we are correct about volatility, it's...

In its annual letter to shareholders this past weekend, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced that it had increased its cash holdings to $334 billion. As the Financial Times chart on the right shows, Berkshire's cash balances have more than doubled over the last few quarters to its highest level. Additionally, cash as a percentage of assets, graphed on the left, shows it now holds more cash as a percentage of its portfolio than before the 2008 financial...

Just recently, S&P Global released its 2026 earnings estimates, which, for lack of a better word, have gone parabolic. Such should not be surprising given the ongoing exuberance on Wall Street. As noted last week, correlations between all asset classes, whether international or emerging markets, gold or bitcoin, have all gone to one. Unsurprisingly, rationalizations justify illogic when too much money is chasing too few assets. Therefore, it should not be...