Brrr! It's cold out there! (At least in much of the country.)
Grab a cup of hot cocoa and settle down for a few minutes with this week's Money Roundup (posted one day early this week):
Big changes to 401(k) retirement plans move ahead in Congress (Wall Street Journal). Congress is poised to pass a 4,155-page spending bill that further boosts automatic enrollment in workplace retirement plans. It also raises the age for required minimum distributions (RMDs) from non-Roth retirement accounts.
Put an end to end-of-the-year omnibus bills (National Review editorial). The $1,700,000,000,000 bill is "full of all the special-interest handouts and wasteful programs that Americans have become accustomed to." (Related: A Twitter thread detailing the bill's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink provisions.)
E-Trade eliminates mutual fund commissions, redemption fees (Financial Advisor). The new pricing affects more than 2,000 traditional mutual funds on E-Trade's platform, including funds from Fidelity and Vanguard.
What investors can learn from a terrible year (Morningstar). "In hindsight, the risks were in plain view, if only anyone wanted to look."
The era of cheap oil has come to an end (OilPrice.com). This piece may be of interest to SMI's Sector Rotation investors.
Our future decisions will be defined by our past decisions (Joe Wiggins, Behavioural Investment). Don't think of sunk costs simply as past mistakes. Until dealt with, they are recurring costs that impair current choices.
Here are key things you need to know about health savings accounts as you near retirement (CNBC). For example, Medicare beneficiaries can use existing HSA funds for medical expenses, but they can't make any more HSA contributions.
How much Washington really owes: $100 trillion (Wall Street Journal). Unfunded entitlements — including Social Security and Medicare — constitute an obligation more than twice as large as the official national debt.
The best bang for your buck: These 10-year-old used cars cost less than $16,000 and could go for another 100,000 miles (CNBC). I'm so old, I remember when most new cars cost less than $16,000!
As always, your comments are welcome. Weigh in below.
Merry Christmas!
