Managing Equity and Markets

According to the Wall Street Journal, AARP, and others, 11,200 people a day turn 65. A higher-than-ever percentage still work. Networth has increased for those over 75. We are all living longer. Many divorces for those over 50 are not necessarily contentious. The kids are gone, people have just c...

If you could spend one more day with a loved one already departed, how would you spend it? What would you do? Mitch Albom became fascinated by this question while writing the book, For One More Day.Albom found time and again that people wanted to spend an ordinary day doing ordinary things with t...

Happy Tuesday! Markets reacted harshly to the consumer-led inflation data which came out last Tuesday. The market was expecting a 2.9% YoY reading and inflation came in at 3.1%. Although it was higher than the market expectations, it came in 0.3% lower than the previous month's reading. So yes, i...

Fed Chairman Powell, during his speech after the Fed decided to keep rates unchanged, said how the Fed is looking for more confidence in inflation. What he's saying is that he wants to see the numbers continue coming down year over year, within expectations, and without any sudden jumps higher. I...

I wanted to share a crucial message from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regarding federal student loans, as it may have significant implications for your clients. Many student loan borrowers have a unique opportunity to either have their entire student loans canceled or receive a...

Last week the Fed decided to keep interest rates unchanged. During Chairman Powell's speech, he used language that took a March rate cut off the table. This shouldn't be a surprise as I've been saying a March cut is highly unlikely.Powell kept saying that the Fed needs "more confidence" that infl...

To be approved for a home equity conversion mortgage (HECM), borrowers need to undergo mandatory reverse mortgage counseling from an approved, independent counselor. Some private lenders have this stipulation, too. The requirement was established to make sure borrowers understand all aspects of t...

We have a very busy week and this issue may take a little longer than usual to cover it. The most important event to take place is the Fed meeting on interest rate policy. I, along with 97.9% of the market, believe that the Fed will have another pause on rate hikes (2.1% are voting for a 25bp cut...

Last week we saw some home builder data come in, better than expected. Housing starts, building permits, and homebuilder confidence were all higher than expectations. It seems that December's rate drop got the whole industry excited. In January we have seen a little bit of a snap back to reality....

Last week we saw inflation data come in slightly higher than expectations on some gauges and in line with others. Here is the data below. Core = excluding food and energy from the data calculations. The Fed prefers core measurements.  CPI month over month increased by 0.3% when the market was exp...