What’s Going On?
How To Avoid 5 Common Investing Mistakes
Investing is not a game. The stakes are very real. If you make a mistake, real money is lost… money that you have worked very hard to attain. Mess up here and you can foul up your plans for your ‘golden years’ Or perhaps helping your children with skyrocketing college costs. Or whatever you’re planning […]
Trends In The US Economy
Differences between the Canadian and US economy I rather focus my attention on the US economy than on the Canadian economy. I see the Canadian economy as huge gas station for the US and a huge ATM machine. The biggest drivers of the Canadian economy are the oil companies and the banks. You take those […]
What Should Value Investors Be Buying In 2017?
While the stock market “Santa rally” seems to be continuing, US market valuations are now looking stretched. That’s not the case for value stocks, though, which have underperformed for several years as investors have either fled for “safe” but expensive defensives, or gambled on highly valued growth stocks. Value is now trading at its biggest […]
These 6%+ Dividends Will Thrive As Interest Rates Rise
You can take it to the bank: interest rates are going up. Everyone from Janet Yellen to Donald Trump says it needs to happen. Traders betting through the Fed futures markets agree, pegging the odds of a quarter-point rate hike at the Fed’s December 14 meeting at 94.9%: More hikes seem likely next year, if […]
How To Live Off $500,000 Forever
A half-million dollars is a lot of money. Unfortunately, it won’t generate much income today if you limit yourself to popular investments. The 10-year Treasury has “rallied” to 1.85%. Put your $500K in them and you’re well below the single-person poverty level at $9,250 annually. Yikes. Dividend paying stocks are masquerading around as bond proxies […]
Why Interest Rates Are Low (Hint It’s Not The Fed)
After dominating investment news headlines on a regular basis over the past 15 years, the Federal Reserve has found its way into the middle of the presidential election. Donald Trump has accused the Fed of propping up a “false economy” and argued that “the rates are going to have to change.” Hillary Clinton hit back […]
3 Dividends Up To 10.3% For The Coming Retirement Crisis
Utility stocks have had a great year, but it isn’t too late to get into this sector at a reasonable valuation and lock in a 7% yield. Of course, you could always just buy the Utilities SPDR ETF (XLU) and wait for the rising tide to drive this indexing fund higher. But there are two […]
Times Are Ripe For Active Management
Summary U.S. stock indexes are trading at or above valuation extremes The U.S. economy still has considerable economic slack Value-oriented “active” stock selection should thrive On just about every valuation metric, U.S. stock indexes are trading at or above historical extremes. And yet, while the U.S. equity market is overextended, the U.S. economy is not. […]
Is The Fed Putting Pension Funds At Risk?
The Third Rail During the ‘Death Throws” of Apartheid in South Africa in the early 90s a common term came about –Third Force or Third Rail. A seemingly invisible violent faction emerged during political protests to cause havoc and destruction and then mysteriously disappeared. The big question was who was this Third Force? Who did […]
Danger In Junk Bonds – Sell These Funds Today
More companies are going bankrupt now than any time since the Global Financial Crisis. This is a big problem for everyone, but nowhere is the pain more acute than in the high yield bond universe. More defaults mean more non-payments on bonds and lower prices for those bonds, causing a junk bond portfolio to fall […]
