We've all heard stories about folks still working in their golden years because they can't afford to retire. While this is often due to forces beyond their control, there are also common but avoidable planning mistakes to learn from.
Along these lines, The Wall Street Journal has been running a series highlighting the plight of average Baby Boomers struggling to afford to retire. Titled Unprepared, the series looks at the lives of real people through the broader lens of what the Journal accurately portrays (in my words) as the slow-motion train wreck of many Americans reaching retirement age and largely being, well, unprepared.
In the world of investing there are any number of news items floating around every week (or every day) that can throw you off your game. Just last week, for example, we heard that technology companies were having their worst days ever. Not easy news to wake up to, but easy to get worked up about.
The second quarter (Q2) of 2018 seemed to be all about tariffs. There was other market news of course, but headlines regarding the growing trade spat between the U.S. and China were what moved markets most. Even with the disconcerting headlines and market volatility, the U.S. stock market faired decently during the quarter, while foreign markets suffered the bond market held steady.
This past weekend I was barbequing with a group of friends, all dads of teenagers and younger, and one of the subjects talked about was how to teach our kids about money. We complained about how the subject is rarely taught in schools but agreed that it's our responsibility to give these tools to our kids. Teachers have enough on their plates already anyway.
I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July holiday last week. For me, it was a good time to reflect on how lucky and grateful I am to be an American, and to start looking forward to a bit of vacation. My family will soon be heading up to Lake Tahoe for some "togetherness" and a race I'm running up in the mountains. I'll still be working and accessible but will be taking a break from posting for a couple of weeks.
There's been a war of words in the media lately about whether recent tariff headlines coming out of Washington and Beijing constitute a trade war, a trade spat, battle, skirmish, or other descriptive word. While we love to name things, at some level what we call it doesn't really matter. The bottom line is we're in a period of escalating tensions with the world's second largest economy and little about it is good.
