Here's our Money Roundup for a mid-winter day. We hope you find these articles to be helpful!
Is this a new bull market? (Michael Batnick, The Irrelevant Investor). Some people are saying so. (A related Bloomberg story: Key strategist contends 'We’re back in a bull market')
When the stock market and Jay Powell are frenemies (Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journal). "If you invest for the long haul...you should be skeptical about any promptings that now is the time to make major changes to your portfolio."
The long-term wins (Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense). In the markets, you might incur a loss over a 1-5 year period. But that's highly unlikely if you hold on for 20 years.
5 things the SECURE 2.0 Act changes about retirement (Mint blog). Congress and the White House enacted several changes around the first of the year. Some are already in effect.
How are Social Security benefits taxed? (Can I Retire Yet?) As with every tax question, the answer is, "It depends."
The periodic table of commodity returns (Visual Capitalist). Commodity performance in 2022 ranged from +72% (lithium) to -48% (coal).
Debt, not the debt limit, is the real fiscal crisis (Red Jahncke, Wall Street Journal). An opinion piece warning that the U.S. government's "interest expense is rising to unaffordable levels."
Even with used-car prices falling, buyers are still paying more than $7,100 above ‘normal,’ report finds (CNBC). In December, the average price for a used car was $30,899. (That's not a typo.)
Charitable giving is up but number of donors is down for third consecutive year (MinistryWatch). The latest giving stats, based on data from more than 8,000 nonprofits.
This under-the-radar card gets you into a ton of US museums for free (TimeOut). Do you know about the North American Reciprocal Museum Association?
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