The trend toward online investing and advisory services, also known as robo-investing and robo-advice is gaining momentum, but industry participants are struggling to get a handle on how retail investors view and/or use robo-services to conduct their financial affairs. Studies Abound Recent research conducted by major asset management firms has gleaned insight, yet often their […]
Long eclipsed by their bigger and smaller brothers, midcap stocks clearly suffer an image problem. Most have yet to achieve the universal coverage and broad visibility of large caps, but they lack the nimble reputation of small caps to potentially generate rapid earnings and share price growth. Yet these same characteristics are what make midcaps […]
Whether you will soon be applying for Social Security, or are already receiving benefits, here’s what you need to know about what’s changing (and not changing) in 2016. What’s Not Changing No Cost-of-Living Increase: Because inflation was unchanged from the third quarter 2014 to the third quarter 2015, there will be no increase in benefit […]
The average investor isn’t stupid. The latest evidence comes from a look at where investors are putting their money, taken by the Morningstar mutual fund data organization. Morningstar found that when they ranked funds by how much they cost their investors, from the top 20% to the bottom 20%, they found that the lowest fee […]
The rule of thumb in financial planning circles is that you shouldn’t spend more than 25% of your income on housing costs. But if you live in certain cities, it might be a tad difficult to follow that rule. Pity New Yorkers, whose rent costs 63.1% of their income. And New York is cheap compared […]
By all accounts, Puerto Rico is a beautiful, sunny place to visit, especially in the Winter. But it’s hard to fathom how this U.S. island territory of 3.5 million people could have racked up $70 billion in public debt—roughly $20,000 per citizen, which happens to be almost exactly the population’s average yearly income. Now that […]
Some of your New Year’s resolutions may be to break a few of your bad habits and to take on some new, positive habits. If you’d like to improve your investing habits, setting up daily, monthly, and yearly routines may help. Daily Investment Habits Simple day-to-day routines may be the key to your investment success. […]
How long might you live in retirement? Think carefully. Your answer could influence whether you have enough money for a comfortable retirement or just scrape by. According to pension mortality tables, at least one member of a 65-year-old couple has a 72% chance of living to age 85 and a 45% chance of living to […]
There are two great reasons for buying a vacation home: You want one and you can afford to buy it. Buying a vacation home as an investment, however, should not be your primary motivation. Some vacation properties can also be good investments. Others aren’t. As recent history has shown, real estate prices can go down as […]
In December 2015, President Obama signed into law the “Protecting Americans From Tax Hikes Act of 2015.” This new ruling made permanent many tax breaks that had been dubbed “extenders” as taxpayers would have to wait — typically until the last minute — for lawmakers to reinstate them for another year. Among the most popular […]
