Insights

The employment report came out for August and it showed the unemployment rate dropping from 8.1% to 7.8%. That should be good news to the president after he fared badly in the first presidential debate against Mitt Romney earlier this week. It was said today that the...

Well, I'm back from seeing my clients who live in Western states and from taking a few days of much needed vacation in NW Montana and the Idaho panhandle. If you have never been, you are missing out. Everyone should visit Yellowstone National Park in NW Wyoming. While...

The S&P 500 stock index is up 1.7% so far today, moving up on the open following Europe's lead and marching steadily higher after a second boost form European Central Bank chairman Draghi. His announcement was that the ECB would launch an unlimited bond buying...

The answer to the above question, according to the talking heads on TV, is "yes." But, while the stock market does react quickly to new information the stock market has really gone nowhere since spring. There was a rally starting June 1 that gained 8% after a...

A recent study by Charles Schwab that was cited in the Sept. 2012 issue of Employee Benefit News showed that 401k participants that get independent, professional help save twice as much and are better diversified. I offer independt, professional help for 401k...

Tomorrow afternoon is Ben Bernanke's address to a convention on economic policy at Jackson Hole, WY. I was in Jackson Hole in May and boy, is it a beautiful setting! Ben's speech has been eagerly awaited and one reason the market has gone sideways for a couple weeks...

I just wanted to brag on being married 38 years today. Life and marriage are seldom what you expect them to be. You just have to be flexible and go with it, working to make yourself better and being gracious to the other. I don't know how much better I am but our...

Yields are so low right now that most money market funds are paying interest around 0.01% to very slightly higher, probably not enough interest over the course of a year to buy a decent meal. With yields on very short term debt are getting very close to the interest...

The Federal Reserve minutes from their 7/31/8/1 meeting revealed that, "Many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of...

Some of you may not realize that a significant part of my practice is advising companies on their 401k plans. The lack of 401k knowledge I see on the part of their brokers/advisors in the small plan space, that is, below $10 million in assets is really shocking. If...