Income investors who bought Mattel stock due to its attractive 6% yield were crushed when the company recently announced a dramatic 61% dividend cut. For those who want to avoid becoming the victims of such “dividend disasters” themselves, the author of today’s article outlines a 3-step test to employ when it comes to dividend-paying stocks. To learn more about this…
If you think you’ve put off saving for retirement way too late, all hope may not be lost. Today’s article highlights research from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) showing that, “even starting at age 50, it is possible to save more than $1 million for retirement”. How? AAII identifies five different scenarios where, by saving from age 50…
With a few exceptions (e.g. collectibles, life insurance), you can own pretty much anything in an individual retirement account, from real estate and precious metals to farming interests and church bonds. And with concerns that the stock market is overvalued (and rising interest rates affecting bond prices), nontraditional assets – with their juicy return potential and diversification benefits – may…
A new “unretirement” life stage. A “cyclical” (rather than linear) lifeline. Much of what we pay for today (including auto insurance) being free. New “healthopia” communities for affluent boomers. These are some of the predictions so-called “futurists” are making in regards to the personal finances of Americans over age 50 over the next five and 10 years – as well…
One of the macro-level changes in the investment landscape has been the large-scale shift by investors into indexes and ETFs (and away from stocks and mutual funds) – a shift that the author of today’s article sees as being based on misplaced beliefs, and one that he warns will cost those investors – especially younger investors – in the long…
After being delayed, the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule – which requires that all financial professionals put the best interests of their clients first when it comes to retirement accounts – is set to be implemented (for now) on June 9. But beyond eliminating conflicts of interest, will the rule make it less expensive to invest for retirement? Today’s article…
For diligent retirement savers, the author of today’s article doesn’t see investing in large-cap stocks – with their maturity and predictable cash flows – as being a bad plan. However, for the large segment of Americans who are either behind on saving for retirement (or have no retirement savings at all), he points to small-cap stocks as being “the best…
Of all the stocks currently listed on the U.S. market, is a simple basket of just five of them all that is needed for a lucrative retirement? Yes… or at least that is the case the author of today’s article makes. But doesn’t holding just five stocks mean that a portfolio would not be sufficiently diversified? To the contrary, the…
There was a time when a million dollars would have seemed like a mythical amount of money. Today, however, despite the fact that many retirement savers have arbitrarily set $1 million as the amount they need to amass for a secure retirement, many financial advisors caution that a nest egg of this size could still leave people short in retirement.…
Will they or won’t they…destroy the stock market? One theory making the rounds in the investment world is that, as a result of a combination of a mass movement from stocks to bonds and taking required minimum distributions, baby boomers will be huge stock sellers in the coming years, with devastating implications for the stock market. But how likely is…