This was the year the long, seemingly endless bull market came to a crashing halt– and U.S. investors finally, for the first time since 2008, experienced the normal definition of a bear market.The bottom fell out in the final month of the year, which started with a decent chance of another year of overall annual […]
Older Marrieds Nobody seems to have a good explanation for it, but American adults are increasingly delaying marriage. According to the most recent population survey by the U.S. Census bureau, the median age at first marriage in the U.S. is now nearing age 30—29.8 for men and 27.8 for women. That’s up from 27.1 and […]
Independence Day Very quietly, the United States economy crossed a remarkable milestone. As of October, America is now energy-independent for the first time. For comparison purposes, the U.S. was spending a whopping 4% of its total gross domestic product to buy foreign oil and gas as recently as 2008. This news will not be cheered […]
You may have read that there has been a drop in new home sales—down 13% in September compared to the previous September—and that, combined with the drop in stock market values, might have you worried about the state of the U.S. economy.
The Secret Recipe for Laziness For many people, laziness is not a virtue; it is something that has to be overcome with daily habits and willpower. But what about the driven Type A personality who has been told by his/her doctor that the current lifestyle will almost certainly lead to a premature death? How can […]
Last Call for HARP One of the most beneficial consumer rescue programs from the Great Recession era is about to expire. The Home Affordability Refinance Program—known as HARP—was passed by a bipartisan Congress in 2009, to enable borrowers who were under water on their homes, or close to under water, to refinance into more affordable […]
More Good Job Numbers By now, we should be pretty well accustomed to getting good news from the employment reports issued every month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest report, released last Friday, announced (yawn) the 92nd consecutive month of positive job creation in the American economy—seven and two-thirds years of steadily falling […]
The Cost of Waiting The median retirement portfolio account balance for persons age 56-61 is just $25,000—which is obviously not enough for a healthy retirement, and suggests that many Americans followed less-than-healthy savings habits. In fact, this amount could have been accumulated simply by saving $6 a month in a 60/40 portfolio from 1980 to […]
Mega Cash Returns There wasn’t a lot of fanfare when Apple Computer announced that it would commit $100 billion of the excess cash it had laying around to buying back its own shares. This may be because, as you can see from the chart, the company has made a quarterly habit of committing enormous sums […]
A Better Place A recent global survey of more than 18,000 adults in nine countries asked a simple question: “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?” As you can see from the graphic, the most optimistic country, regarding the future, is Sweden, and […]
