The Truth About Stocks Aftermath
I received my November issue of Money Magazine today. I was curious about any reader reaction to last month’s interview with Zvi Bodie which the magazine titled “You Can’t Handle the Truth About...
View ArticleTIPS Auction and I-Bond Reset
The Treasury has scheduled an auction of five-year TIPS on October 26, 2009. (To be more precise, with an issue date of 10/30, these TIPS will have an actual duration of four years and six months.) The...
View ArticleTurning Savings into Retirement Income
A Money Magazine reader recently submitted this question to Walter Updegrave, a senior editor and well known personal finance writer: The 4% rule seems to have become the conventional wisdom for...
View ArticleVariable Annuities Devalued
It seems that insurance companies are unhappy about their profit margins and risks in sales of variable annuities. To compensate, they are offering new “simplified” products. Unfortunately, these new...
View ArticleTIPS Buy Peace of Mind
The Wall Street Journal ran a story this week titled “TIPS Buy Peace of Mind, But at a Steep Price.” I understand and agree with the “peace of mind” concept but not so much the “steep price.” This is...
View ArticleNew I-Bond Rates
As many of you know, the Treasury updates interest rates for I-Bonds each May 1 and November 1. These updates include both the fixed rate component that will remain for the life of the bond and the...
View ArticleReasons to Use Bonds for Retirement
Forbes recently published a focused piece summarizing the top reasons to use bonds for investing. Here are those reasons, in no particular order, and my comments as they relate to using TIPS and...
View ArticleRethinking the Risk of Stocks
The mainstream investing media may finally be getting it. A recent “Ask the Expert” article from Money Magazine tells us that we should “rethink” the risks of investing in stocks. Well, duh! What is...
View ArticleTen Year TIPS Auction Upcoming
It’s unfortunate that the frequency of TIPS Treasury auctions seems to be decreasing. Thus, I was excited to learn that an auction of TIPS with a ten year maturity has been tentatively scheduled for...
View ArticleThe Stock Market is for Fun Money
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a well-known scholar of mathematical finance. Taleb teaches risk engineering at New York University. He is also the author of a major best-selling book: The Black Swan. In...
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