When I first started working in the late 1980s/early 1990s, we would keep our meager savings at the MegaCorp Employee Credit Union. I would walk down to the lobby of our 40-story tower almost weekly to make a deposit, transfer some money, or buy a CD. Buying & cashing Certificates of Deposit is something it seemed like we did all of the time back then. … Continue reading The Savings Rate Game
Tech stocks have weighed so heavily on the market in 2022, there is a strange disconnect between the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500, average, and the NASDAQ index. – Dow Jones -5% YTD – S&P 500 -15% YTD – NASDAQ -27% I am guessing we have not seen a split like this since the ‘dot-com boom’ busted in the year 2000. Statistics show … Continue reading Time For A Santa Rally?
When I was a kid in the 1970s our family – like many Americans – followed President Nixon’s ‘Project Independence’ national energy plan, which included lowering our thermostat to 68-degrees during the day. In 1977, new President Jimmy Carter went 3-degrees lower, asking Americans to cut the thermostat temperature down to 65-degrees. That was cold! We wore sweatshirts indoors, quilted “polar slippers” from the JCPenney … Continue reading Keeping Warm This Winter
The Big Man – Santa Claus – is back on his throne at our local shopping mall after a two year, pandemic-induced absence. It’s great to see him back. Unlike most guys, I love going to the mall and looking around. A UK study from a few years ago said most guys get ‘fatigued’ after just 27 minutes of shopping, while women don’t reach that … Continue reading Mega Shopping @ Mega Mall
Winter came relatively early this year. Snow fell every day for 4 days this week and now we have about 5” on the ground. With high temperatures falling into the teens today, there’s a good chance we’re stuck with the snow cover until next spring. I was ahead of the cold blast in getting the lawn mowed one last time and putting the Christmas lights … Continue reading Money Blowing In The Snow
We shopped early for our Thanksgiving Turkey this year. Our 20+ pound Butterball Premium has been safely ensconced in our freezer for almost a week now. A friend of ours – who runs a big poultry business in Iowa – told us to grab one early as prices will be way up and selection way down due to the Avian Flu this year. Sure enough, … Continue reading The Early Bird Gets The Turkey
I’m cheering for gridlock tomorrow on Election Day. As a political independent and small government advocate, I prefer when the two major parties can’t convince each other to provide costly solutions to problems government almost never can solve. We came close to gridlock two years ago. The Georgia Senate seats went to a special election and the Democrats won both of them, giving them a … Continue reading Forecasting Gridlock & Better Days
It’s as if the financial press WANTS people to be poorly prepared for a happy retirement. This chart from CNBC – dubiously thought of as a business channel – suggests the amount of savings people should have at different ages before retirement. A friend sent it to me a while ago and I think it’s simply terrible. First, the chart starts with the frequent financial … Continue reading Inadequate Advice for Saving
Northwestern Mutual just published their 2022 Retirement Planning & Progress study. It’s not a surprise that people are quite worried about the huge drop in their retirement accounts & soaring inflation over the last year. As a result, people are concerned their savings are way behind. Still, this chart was quite surprising to me. It shows that almost one-half of Americans have no idea how … Continue reading Ignorant Is No Way To Go Through Life
With inflation (CPI) running a hot 8.3% for the twelve months ended in August, the Federal Government is busy adjusting numerous spending & tax parameters for the new year. Social Security is leading the way with a 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment for 2023. Here are some of the other changes due to inflation: IRS tax bracket “break points” are going up 7.0%, on average. The standard … Continue reading IRS Changes Don’t Keep Up With Inflation
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