Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
Low And Slow
The stock market is built for the overnight sensation. It’s wrought with short-term focus. Markets move by the nano second now. The average holding period for a stock is less than one year. Yet most people are investing for an event like retirement decades down the road.
There are many reasons for this. The internet certainly helped with easier access to your portfolio, the advent of the 401k, an increase in job hopping, the funds (mutual, index, and ETFs), and normal human behavior. That future income security is only a button click from being liquidated at the wrong time. How much of that has influenced and added to this new stock market environment. Continue Reading…
There are many investing debates where serious investors latch onto their choice and once locked in rarely waiver. There is growth versus value. You have index versus mutual funds. Active versus passive is probably the biggest. Yet, every investor has an opinion about stock buybacks versus dividends.
One of the most overlooked areas of tax savings is understanding how realized gains and losses impact your taxes. When you sell an investment, calculating cost basis and good record keeping plays a vital role in controlling those savings now and in the future.
There are many do’s and don’ts with investing. Most are pretty straight forward. But some can quickly get you into trouble. Here are five bad investing habits all worth avoiding and a few that can quickly lose your money.