Thankfully, we have not seen negative interest rates yet in the United States, but that is the case in some foreign countries. According to Bank of America, we are now seeing the lowest global interest rates in 5,000 years!
Category: General Investment
Interest Rates
Here is an interesting chart I saw today that frames our current interest rate environment from an historical perspective. Interest rates are now as low as they have been in over 226 years! What is also interesting to note is how high rates have been in the past – long-term rates of around 8-10% are not uncommon.
Scary Parallel
Almost everyone recognizes the worst stock market decline as the 1929 crash. It was during that time that the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined approximately 87%. To describe it as a devastating time would be an understatement as The Great Depression was soon ushered in. It has been said that history repeats itself. If that is true, […]
Investment Posture vs. Investment Strategy
A reader submitted the following to question to the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Trubune, and was published in 2001… Q: “I will be 61 soon. I am healthy and energetic, but not employed. I have $420,000 in three IRA accounts, down from $800,000 in January 2000. I am with a full-service broker. A money manager […]
The Debt Ceiling, The Market, and You
The Syrian crisis has subsided and now as you know, the current “crisis of the moment” is the fight over a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government which has led to a “government shutdown.” In the coming days the battle over whether to raise the debt ceiling will become a much larger story if […]
Inflection Points
Webster’s defines inflection as a turning or bending away from a course or position of alignment. Take a look at the chart and note two of the previous inflection points in the chart. The first occurred after a 106% increase in the S&P 500 and resulted in a 40% loss. The second occurred after a 101% […]
Do You Own a Target Date Fund?
Several years ago, providers of 401(k) plans wanted to make the process of selecting a fund much easier. In doing so, they took a buy-and-hold methodology and added to that an age-based formula to develop new funds for 401(k) plans that would provide easy selection and a lifetime hands-off the steering wheel approach. To select […]
The Value of Unbiased Information
Any day, you can listen to the financial talking-heads in the media and hear pretty much anything you want to read or hear. It’s even possible to hear viewpoints within the same hour that are diametrically opposed to one another. So what is an investor to do? One could pick a favorite in terms of […]
Market Update – 7/26/2013
If it were possible to forecast the market, then this update would detail the weeks and months ahead of us. Unfortunately, no one can accurately predict what the market will do going forward. However, tools are available to know the market conditions today – therefore what is, is. With current information, we can know if […]
The Pilot Announces, “We have a 66% chance of reaching our destination”!
Those would be chilling words to hear from the pilot as we sit on the tarmac readying for push-back from the gate. Hearing that, I don’t know about you, but I’d want to get off that plane! How does this relate to retirement planning? Read the following to find out. For all the good that […]