Here is our end-of-a-rocky-week collection of interesting reads on investing and personal finance. Enjoy!
Market forecasters dissect the sell-off (Investment News, via Google link). No can say for certain why the market headed south this week. But, as always, there are plenty of theories.
The biggest buyers of American stocks are on the sidelines right now (The New York Times). Corporate buybacks have slowed heading into the quarterly earnings reporting season. That, according to the NYT story, may account in part for this week’s market pullback.
Why the U.S. stock market’s 10-year returns are going to look better and better (Washington Post). Awful returns from late 2008/early 2009 soon will fall away from 10-year performance numbers.
Social Security benefits to increase in 2019 (Social Security Administration). The SS cost-of-living adjustment for 2019 is the largest in seven years. Also going up: The "earnings limit" for beneficiaries younger than "full retirement age."
Medicare posts 2019 rates, pinches high earners (ThinkAdvisor). Part B premiums will go up 1.1% for most enrollees, but as much as 7.4% for others.
And from the bloggers and pundits...
Who benefits from a market correction? (Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense). For anyone not nearing retirement, there’s a bright side to the market pain.
The stock-market meltdown that everyone saw coming (Barry Ritholtz, Bloomberg). Post-downturn explanations tend to conveniently match pre-downturn theories — no matter what any particular theory may be.
Time horizon vs. endurance (Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund). Having a long-distance goal doesn’t mean you can simply nap through the short term.
Learning from the mistakes made by legendary investors (Michael Batnick, American Assn. of Individual Investors). Material from Batnick’s recent book, Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments (Bloomberg Press, 2018).
Switching Medigap plans is tricky (Squared Away Blog). There’s a maze of regulations that determine whether, when, and how you can transfer from one insurer’s Medigap plan to another insurer’s Medigap plan. Interestingly, switching is easier in some states than in others.
Comments? Join the Discussion below.