Evaluating Seniors For Decision Making Capability

Evaluating Seniors For Decision Making Capability

Early in my financial planner career I worked for a firm with a 75-year old client who had become a recent widow. A phone scammer had gotten hold of her and was persuasive enough to convince her to send a hundred dollars in gift cards to an address in the Caribbean. That one indiscretion resulted…
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How Bad Was The First Half Of 2022?

Pretty bad. I’m not referring to the war in Ukraine, or the surge in COVID infections, or supply chain disruptions, or the growing number of gun deaths in the U.S. I’m talking of course about the capital markets. The negative 21% performance of the S&P 500 during the six-month period ending on June 30th ranks…
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Is A Recession Looming?

It must be really tough to be an economist right now. Ordinarily the data that feeds into their economic models is consistent enough to enable them to forecast economic downturns with better than 50% accuracy (although they almost never get the timing or the severity right). Today, though, it’s a different story. Economists are flatly…
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Why Some People Make Bad Financial Decisions

When I was a teenager I was a fan of science fiction. I recall reading one story about an attempted takeover of the world by a bad guy using warrior robots. His nefarious plan was thwarted by the good guy who discovered a way to cause the robots to self-destruct. The solution involved feeding conflicting…
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How Long Will High Inflation Last?

This is the third article I’ve written on this topic since inflation started spiking late last year. Currently we’re experiencing significant increases in the cost of gasoline, food, and other staples. And this is a world-wide phenomenon, not just in the U.S. With the media hyping the current level of inflation as the worst in…
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When Should You Start Taking Social Security?

I’ve written numerous articles over the years about strategies for maximizing your Social Security (SS) benefits. But the most fundamental decision all retirees face is when to start taking payments. Which is better: to start as early as possible or to delay benefits as long as you can? First, you need to understand how SS…
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