Bob's Journal

Bob’s Journal for 1/5/22

The Year Cash Stopped Being Trash The Federal Reserve finally stopped supporting the prices of financial assets in 2022, and investors who didn’t recognize the policy change paid a price. Few investment assets had positive returns in 2022. Treasury bonds, often considered among the most conservative investments, had perhaps their worst year ever. The long-term […]

2022: A Brief Review It seems that every year is filled with numerous twists, turns and surprises. This year is no exception, as 2022 is just days from giving way to 2023. The biggest surprise of 2022 to many was inflation, and it influenced many things during the year. Investors and policymakers started 2022 with […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/22/22

The Holiday Conundrum Most years from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, my wife, Elaine, and I like to watch a lot of the classic holiday movies and shows. We watch something when we want to instead of when someone’s broadcasting it, so I used to record them and now mostly track which streaming services they’re […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/15/22

Some Notable Events That Grabbed My Attention This Week In the December issue of Retirement Watch I emailed you last month, I mentioned that a new digital version of the “To My Heirs” report would be available. I’m pleased to announce the links to this new estate organization spreadsheet are ready. If you’re interested in […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/8/22

How FTX’s Leader Telegraphed Its Fall There’s a lot we don’t know about cryptocurrency broker FTX and its collapse. But we do know a few key things and one, in particular, indicates failure was very likely at some point. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was an extreme risk taker. He took more risk than probably anyone […]

Bob’s Journal for 12/1/22

Some Notable Events That Grabbed My Attention This Week This week, I received, fresh from the printer, copies of my new book, “Retirement Watch: The Essential Guide to Retiring in the 2020s.” You can make a pre-publication order or learn more about the book by clicking here and here, respectively. In this week’s subscriber-only teleconference, […]

Bob’s Journal for 11/24

Happy Thanksgiving 2022 Happy Thanksgiving to all my Retirement Watch members and readers! My wife, Elaine, and I are thankful for the opportunity to help each of you establish and maintain your independence during retirement. I am grateful to the many readers who let me know, through email or conversations at my speaking engagements, how […]

Bob’s Journal for 11/17/22

The Bubbles Keep Popping The Fed’s easy monetary policy since 2009, and especially during 2020 and 2021, inflated many bubbles. A few of those bubbles have burst, but there likely are more to come. Last week’s rapid demise of the global digital currency exchange FTX was the latest instance. We’ve had rolling blowups since the […]