When our kids were younger, I would sometimes declare an abnormally early bedtime like 6:00pm. It made complete sense to me: I’m tired, they’re tired, win-win. But my declarations were always met with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then I would relent, pushing it out to 7:00pm, still getting all the tears, and ending…
This most recent quarter and the Tariff announcements immediately afterward (which we detailed in our Tariffs and a Declaration of Parental Independence blog post here) reminded investors that markets don’t move in straight lines. After a strong end to 2024, stocks stumbled out of the gate this year. The S&P 500 declined -4.3% as interest…
2024 is shaping up to be one of the rare years with no major asset class in decline (see far right column in the chart below.) Large Cap US, Foreign Stocks, and Real Estate have led the way, while Bonds and Commodities have returns barely more than money markets. Below, we will detail the relevant…
A Quarter on Repeat Our family has a handful of stories we tell on repeat. There is the one about my driver’s ed instructor who made me go through the Burger King drive-thru to pick up her lunch (a “Whopper with no mayonnaise this time!” emphasis hers.) After discovering mayonnaise on her Whopper, she made…
“Dad, our lawn looks like the Masters!” That’s an actual quote from our eleven-year-old son last weekend. When we moved in 12 years ago, the backyard was a jungle without a blade of grass. But over the years, we’ve slowly transformed it to allow us to host countless parties and backyard football games. It has…
The current maximum monthly benefit from social security is $4,555/mo or $54,660/yr. If you purchase this much cash flow as an annuity in the public market, it would be worth $1.3 – $1.5 million. Because of this considerable value, it is worth understanding how to maximize both your monthly benefit/expected lifetime benefit, and how this…
(Note: At the time of publication, July 2022, I Bonds were paying an annualized rate of 9.62%. Since then, interest rates and inflation have changed, causing the combined I Bond rate to adjust down to 6.89% as of February 2023. You can find the current combined interest rate here.) The US Government introduced Series I…
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