Here’s our May Day collection of interesting reads on investing and other financial topics. We hope you find them interesting and helpful!
’Tip of the iceberg’: Economy shrinks at 4.8% pace, but worst is yet to come (NPR). The first-quarter drop in GDP was the biggest since an 8.4% dive in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Health Savings Accounts add options in pandemic, including telehealth (New York Times). Coronavirus-related legislation has relaxed some HSA rules and expanded a few benefits.
Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. (Reuters). Some interesting graphics and tables here. Nearly half of the 63,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have occurred in just two states: New York and New Jersey.
Half of all Americans are canceling their summer vacations — what to expect in refunds from cruise lines, hotels and airlines (MarketWatch). Tips for improving your chances of getting money back.
10 questions retirees often get wrong about taxes in retirement (Kiplinger). Tax-related matters can be maddeningly complex. These 10 topics are helpfully presented in a simple Q-&-A format.
And from the bloggers and pundits...
When you have no idea what happens next (Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund Blog). Housel suggests reading more history and fewer forecasts.
What’s the catalyst? (Michael Batnick, The Irrelevant Investor). "Nobody wants to read a headline ’Stocks rise as things are terrible but not catastrophic,’ but this is usually closer to the truth than any other explanation."
How May Day remade Wall Street (Jason Zweig). "Today marks the [45th] anniversary of May Day, when the Securities and Exchange Commission abolished fixed-rate commissions on stock trading — perhaps the most transformative event on Wall Street since 1792." (Note: This column was first published in 2015.)
Taking the hit (Richard Connor, Humble Dollar). The decision to convert retirement assets from "traditional" to "Roth" isn’t a simple one. The author lays out the issues that come into play.
"Get My Payment" stimulus check status tool updated by the IRS (Peter Anderson, Bible Money Matters). If you got an error message when you tired the IRS tool, you may want to try again. This article also lists the dates for when paper checks will be mailed.
Your comments are welcome below!
