Retirement Investing
Bob Carlson offers his expert opinion on where to invest your money so that you can get through retirement safely and securely
Found 849 Articles.
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The Cost of Holding Cash
A bull market mantra was “cash is trash,” meaning that investors shouldn’t have any of their portfolios in cash when stocks are rising by double digits each year. That was the mantra even when money market funds were yielding 4% and higher. Now, there’s an even stronger argument to limit your cash holdings. Money market […]
More Perils of Yield Hogs
Closed-end funds are one place investors are looking to earn higher income. They’re also paying up for this yield and taking on much higher levels of risk, risks they might not realize. Bloomberg recently surveyed the market and found investors are paying hefty premiums for yield. Six of the 10 closed-end funds with the highest […]
Taking a Close Look at Enhanced CDs
The Fed’s zero interest rate policy causes safety-first, income-seeking investors to consider investments they wouldn’t have paid any attention to a few years ago. One of those is the derivative CD, which goes under a number of different names. Basically it promises to give you a return, if any, tied to an investment or index. […]
Stocks vs. Gold
There’s been a lively debate in some sectors of the financial media over the relative merits of stocks and gold. Warren Buffett, Jeremy Siegel and Larry Fink not surprisingly came down on the side of stocks. Others point out the dreary returns from stocks over the last 10 or 12 years, the significant increases in […]
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Understanding the Price-Earnings Ratio
I don’t use the P-E ratio much in evaluating the stock market. There are a lot of reasons for that. Earnings are, well, flexible. They’re subject to revisions and manipulation. I definitely don’t recommend using forward, or forecast, earnings, because they can be way off the mark. But the big reason is that earnings are […]
Is the ETF Bubble About to Burst?
Exchange-Traded Funds are probably the most successful new product launch in the investment industry as measured by the rate of new money flows into it. But things haven’t been all roses for ETFs. A number of ETFs quietly folded or merged into other ETFs because they couldn’t attract enough assets. Many others still are available […]
Exploring Causes of the Financial Crisis
I’ve never been happy with the widely-held theories of the causes of the financial crisis. Most are too simple and use movie-type good guy-bad guy themes to explain what went wrong. That’s why I was happy to see a new book is out with a better explanation that is better documented than most others. It’s […]
Seeking High Yields in Mortgage REITs?
The Federal Reserve is keeping normal interest rates near zero, so investors who need income have to look elsewhere. Many are attracted to mortgage REITs. While strategies differ, a mortgage REIT generally borrows money at low short-term interest rates and lends it long-term in mortgages that pay higher yields. Some lend the money directly or […]
