Is Inflation Bad For Stocks?

Is Inflation Bad For Stocks?

Although inflation has been mitigated over the last couple of years, it’s still on the minds of many investors. Should we avoid stocks when inflation is high? Can inflation be used for market timing in some way? Unfortunately the answer is “no” in both cases. There is no demonstrable connection between periods of high inflation…
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Can I Retire Today Using Only Cash & Bond Interest?

A reader writes: Now that bonds are yielding over 5%, can I fund my retirement just from the interest? This is a great question that goes to the heart of retirement planning strategies. The first requirement is that you have managed to save enough money. If you expect to spend $100K per year in retirement,…
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Quitting Your Job? Be Aware Of COBRA

According to eHealth almost 50% of Americans receive subsidized group health insurance through their employer. Given the phenomenally complex health insurance marketplace one has to navigate these days, not to mention the cost, that’s a huge benefit. But what happens if you want to change employers? Thanks to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (also…
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How Wealthy Are You?

Have you ever wondered how you stack up financially against other Americans? The Federal Reserve has just completed the 2022 survey of consumer finances (SCF) that it has been carrying out every three years since 1989. It provides a ton of comprehensive data covering practically anything you’d want to know about the financial standing of…
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The Benefits Of Low Volatility

Investing involves volatility. The higher the expected return, the greater the volatility. This is axiomatic. You can’t avoid it but you can mitigate it, as I wrote in a previous column. And it turns out that reducing volatility has a number of benefits for investors. First, there’s what’s known as volatility drag. This is a…
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When Is It Better To Underperform The Market?

That doesn’t sound right, does it? Who would ever want to underperform the stock market? Shouldn’t the goal be to consistently beat the market? That would be great, but how easy is it to do? S&P Global produces an annual report called SPIVA (https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/spiva/spiva-us-mid-year-2023.pdf) which compares how actively managed funds – those that attempt to…
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