It’s open enrollment season, which means it’s time for most workers to choose benefits for the year ahead. Health insurance is one of the most popular benefits that workers review yearly, but there is...
Tag: article_opinion
Opinion: There’s a rush to buy I-bonds to lock in a high yield, but there may be an even better deal next week
It’s hard to imagine that there could be a better deal for parking up to $10,000 in savings than Series I bonds, at this very moment. The 9.62% yield is top-notch, and you can count the hours before i...
Opinion: The limit for 401(k) contributions will jump nearly 10% in 2023, but it’s not always a good idea to max out retirement investing
The federal government will allow you to save nearly 10% more for retirement in 2023. But it’s not likely that many will take advantage of the tax break. The simple reason: Most people don’t make enou...
Opinion: Liz Truss is out — why that might be good for your 401(k)
The British pound rose on the news that Liz Truss was standing down. (It’s now the best performing currency of the last month, if you can believe). The interest rate on British government bonds fell. ...
Opinion: This musician retired after making $170 million in the stock market. Now he’s sharing his secrets.
When a retired Boston Pops clarinetist gave $100 million to Boston University’s medical school last month, everyone focused on his unusual backstory. Edward Avedisian ended his career as an accomplish...
Opinion: Don’t have $13 million? The lifetime estate- and gift-tax exemptions for 2023 still matter to you.
The wealthiest families in the U.S. will get a bit of inflation-adjusted relief from the IRS in 2023, with the lifetime estate-tax exemption increasing to $12.9 million for individuals, up from $12.06...
Opinion: Bernanke’s Nobel prize is harmful because it rewards faulty thinking on how banks actually work
The Nobel Memorial Prize awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig is controversial, to say the least. Mainstream economists are generally delighted that the Nobel Committee has at la...
Opinion: $22 billion in I-bond sales can’t be wrong. Why you may want to buy them even when their rate resets soon
I-bonds’ sky-high interest rate is poised to fall to 6.48% when they reset next month, according to industry experts. Still, that would be the third-highest level since they were sold in 1998. Though ...
Opinion: Five sentiment indicators are telling us it’s time to buy stocks, especially this one group
If you are positive on the direction of the stock market and feeling lonely about it, that’s actually a good sign. Historically, whenever most investors are extremely negative, the market is a buy. I’...
Opinion: The stock market is in trouble. That’s because the the bond market is ‘very close to a crash.’
Don’t assume the worst is over, says investor Larry McDonald. There’s talk of a policy pivot by the Federal Reserve as interest rates rise quickly and stocks keep falling. Both may continue. McDonald,...
Opinion: Florida’s insurance rates have almost doubled over five years, yet insurance companies are still losing money — and the reason is more insidious than hurricanes
Hurricane risk might seem like the obvious problem, but there is a more insidious driver in this financial train wreck. Finance professor Shahid Hamid, who directs the Laboratory for Insurance at Flor...
Opinion: How you can save $60k for a home down payment without risk or waiting forever
Yes, starting from zero and trying to save a bit each month will take a while. To put together that princely sum, you’d have to save $500 a month for around nine years in a high-interest savings accou...
Opinion: One of the most reliable stock market indicators — short-interest ratio — is near a record high, and that’s a bearish omen
Joe Raedle/Getty Images The bulls are grasping at straws when they celebrate the recent increase in short-selling volume. They mistakenly believe that short interest — the percentage of a company’s sh...
Opinion: Disney’s ESPN is aiming for a potential pact with DraftKings. The better bet for investors is FanDuel, which has a few aces in the hole
It can be maddening when other people don’t see the world the way we do. In the stock market, this kind of misalignment can be a source of great wealth. I was thinking about that kind of contrarian ap...
Opinion: 4 predictable retirement problems — and how to solve them
When modeling out retirement, people often apply rules of thumb for income timing. The classic one is the “4% rule,” which many people now think is a bit optimistic as a “safe” withdrawal rate. Bey...
Opinion: Could there be a stock market rally? Probably. Would it be the end of the bear market? Probably not.
The stock market’s low for the year on the last day in September is likely to be breached in this bear market, according to a contrarian analysis of market timer sentiment. That’s because at no point ...
Opinion: Inflation is going to fall just as fast as it rose, and that’s investors’ cue to enter the stock market
When central banks, most notably the Federal Reserve these days, move too aggressively on interest-rate increases, things break. Believe it or not, this is bullish in the twisted thinking of Wall Stre...
Opinion: This week’s big rebound in stocks means the bear market is alive and well
Nhac Nguyen/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Caution: The stock market’s explosive rise in the past two days doesn’t necessarily mean the bear market is over. If anything, the rally suggests that the...
Opinion: Your off-ramp for I-bonds is coming up soon if you bought the securities for their juicy 9.6% yield
You can hold on to Series I bonds for 30 years, but if you jumped in when the interest rate skyrocketed to 9.62%, you might be looking for an off-ramp well before then. If you were attracted primarily...
Opinion: This 401(k) bill opens the door to risky assets
Senators Pat Toomey, Tim Scott and Peter Meijer have just proposed a bill in Congress that would allow 401(k) plans to stretch beyond traditional investments like stocks and bonds. And when we say “be...
Opinion: Stock markets will drop another 40% as a severe stagflationary debt crisis hits an overleveraged global economy
NEW YORK (Project Syndicate)—For a year now, I have argued that the increase in inflation would be persistent, that its causes include not only bad policies but also negative supply shocks, and that c...
Opinion: Micron earnings suggest the chip downturn could be worse than Wall Street expects
Micron Technology Inc. executives warned about a semiconductor downturn in late June, but now say that a “sharp and sudden” drop in demand exceeded even those expectations, suggesting the current chip...
Opinion: A seasonal stock market trade that tends to be reliable begins Thursday
The stock market has broken through technical resistance, and as a result the rally is trying to extend itself. Specifically, the S&P 500’s SPX, +2.46% close above 3800 points was a strong technic...