I try to pride myself on being able to conjure up some kind of solution or strategy when confronted with inherent contradictions in personal finance, but there is one nut that I don’t think I can ever crack.
The problem arises from this irreconcilable fact: Residential real estate in the most pricey and overheated markets […]

As I will be turning 65 next year, this is no longer such an abstract subject for me.
Today’s mail included yet another invitation to a “free lunch” to learn about some exciting trends in the investment world. But then I remembered the famous words of Milton Friedman, “there is no such thing as a […]

When people talk about “the economy” or “the market”, my first response is….which one?
There are many sub-markets comprising the global economy, but the primary division is between markets which are efficient and those that are inefficient.
An efficient market is one that is immersed in the real-time continuous flow of information which is now the axiomatic […]

And the good news is that for the first time in history, many of us will live to see 30 year, perhaps 40 year-long retirements, due to the continuing advances in medical technology and increasing longevity.
The bad news is that we may not be adequate to the challenge of financing this incredibly long run without […]

Well, here we go again. History repeating itself.
While our politicians are falling all over each other to offer relief to beleaguered home owners, they may want to recall the example of Japan as their stock market and real estate market bubbles were punctured after the excesses of the 1980s.
Zombies in Japan
Japanese banks were left […]

Today’s topic is….free money.
Yup. The banks are literally giving it away these days. Not to mention the credit card companies. Don’t feel bad about helping yourself. These are the same banks that are gouging their credit card customers at rates now approaching 30%. Time to dose them back with their […]

My first job after getting my MBA was a very junior posting at a very large bank. This was back in the green eyeshade era, when banks still had the quaint notion that a borrower should be creditworthy, and evidence the ability to repay the loan. Back then, banks kept the loans on […]

Today’s subject is Inflation Protected Bonds.
There is a sure fire way to tell when the government offers you a good deal. They make it hard to get and offer you much less than what you would normally want. This applies to yesterdays post on ROTH IRAs, as it does to any other account […]