Helpful Articles
Investments
These are articles that were written to help develop ideas for journalists that work for The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Kiplinger’s, Smart Money, AARP, newspapers, financial web sites, etc. They’ve been used as a source of quotes for these publications.
The sky will fall on many people, but there is hope for some. This article quantifies the impact on individuals from current debt and government obligations. It's not pretty. Then it goes on to suggest investments that are likely to do well in the resulting environment.
Investment actions in turbulent times. This is a letter I sent to all of our children and adult grand children giving investment advice in light of things that I expect to happen to our economy.
What Goes Around Comes Around. The financial industry takes away much of your investments, and it's unlikely that you know how much. Here's how you find out and can increase your returns.
The Best Investment—for someone approaching age 62. Delaying the start of social security provides a lifetime inflation-adjusted annuity benefit that’s far better than any commercial annuity available in the market today.
Investments That Can Equal Social Security Benefits. Politicians and politically oriented Web sites like to say that it's easy for an investor to do better with a mix of stocks and bonds than with their taxes invested in Social Security's government bonds. However, Social Security offers long-lived inflation protection and benefits that are hard to equal for a couple where one spouse is not employed or is a low wage earner.
Laddering CDs and Bonds. This simple discipline increases returns in uncertain markets and provides flexibility for future investment opportunities.
Smart Actions In Turbulent Markets (PDF File)*. This article explores the subjects of what to buy, when to buy and when to sell. This approach has served the author well for three decades and been applauded by many of this site’s users.
Reverse Dollar Cost Averaging (PDF File)*. This explains the theory that shows regular withdrawals from savings have just the opposite effect from regular deposits to savings. The former effectively gives a saver a higher return than shown in historical return statistics. The latter does just the opposite for withdrawals—which are the essence of a retirement plan.
Retirement Asset Allocation. This is a short lesson in a discipline that is likely to save your butt in turbulent times. It comes as close as you may get to buying when the market is low(er) and selling when it is high(er).
Do You Need Long Term Care Insurance? Insurance companies are eager to sell long term care insurance, but you should be aware that there are alternatives that may either reduce the amount you would need or perhaps eliminate the need for this kind of insurance entirely.