Here’s our latest collection of interesting articles on investing, personal finance, and stewardship.
What’s in your 401k? For more investors, just 1 fund (Associated Press). An interesting (but not surprising) trend: many 401(k) investors are choosing simplicity over flexibility (and perhaps over better performance).
Economic growth for second quarter is on track to double 2017’s full-year pace (CNBC). It’s commonly said that "the stock market is not the economy." The reverse is true too. Still, robust economic growth would seem to bode well for company earnings, and therefore stock prices.
2018 income tax rule changes are creating lots of myths and misconceptions (USA TODAY). Taxpayers confused by multiple and simultaneous changes in the tax law? Who could have predicted that?
Medicare trust fund to be depleted years earlier than expected, trustees project (The Hill). The financial deterioration of Medicare (and Social Security) is a slow-moving story that rarely gets the attention it deserves. One day, this slow-moving story will be impossible to ignore.
Millennials and retirement: How bad is it? (Politico). One of the nation’s foremost researchers on retirement-related issues thinks "the vast majority of millennials [now ages 25-35] will be fine if they work to age 70."
And from the blogosphere...
The psychology of money (Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund). A long read, but well worth it. Housel covers "20 flaws, biases, and causes of bad behavior" that trip people up when it comes to managing money.
Buy in May and stay invested (Charlie Bilello, Pension Partners). In which he explains why the catchy investing phrase "Sell in May and Go Away" makes no sense.
6 things I learned from Big Mistakes (Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense). Tidbits from Michael Batnick’s book, Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments, including the fact that famed "margin-of-safety" investor Benjamin Graham nearly got wiped out by — you guessed it — not leaving himself a margin of safety.
Financial contentment in an age of wealth (Spence Spencer, Ethics and Culture). Many of our financial wounds are self-inflicted. Learning to be content is a key step toward healing.
When flesh and heart fail: Why believers should consider advance directives (Kathryn Butler, The Gospel Coalition). In an era of increasingly costly and complex medical care we can’t afford to ignore life’s end — or to divorce our medical decisions from our Christian values.
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