My grandparents had the option to buy their home from a mail order catalogue. No kidding! No Amazon. No computers. Just a Sears Catalogue. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold an estimated 70,000 — 75,000 houses. And they could buy the whole house! Sears would ship between 10,000 and 30,000 pieces of
Raise your hand if you’re about to join the roughly one billion people around the world watching the World Cup Final! Tickets for Sunday’s final between Argentina and Spain at MetLife Stadium are running from about $7,500 to over $69,000 on resale markets. Yikes! Smarter fans will be headed
The new Trump Accounts are out! Launched on July 4 – babies born 2025 through 2028 are eligible for $1,000 from the Treasury – invested in an S&P 500 index fund. Any child under 18 can open one — the birth window only determines who gets the free $1,000.
As America turns 250 years old, I thought it would be fun to dig into the finances of our Founders and see how they were with money. It turns out, their money stories are just as messy — and timeless — as ours! Alexander Hamilton built our entire financial system — the
An Initial Public Offering – or IPO – is simply the first time a private company sells shares to the public, turning it into a stock anyone can buy. There’s nothing quite like IPO season — it’s part celebration, part lottery, and part spectator sport. Investors clamor to see
I’m back from vacation – and somewhere over the Atlantic I realized airports and investing have a lot in common. Let me explain. Two weeks ago, I boarded a plane headed from San Diego to Croatia – with one quick lay-over in Newark. (Probably a bad omen to begin
Hi, I’m Julie Derry — Barbara asked me to fill in while she’s away. I am a Certified Senior Advisor ™ with Aging123 which provides cost-free personalized support to older adults and their families in finding Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Memory Care. Barbara will be back on June 21st,
Hi, I’m Julie Derry — Barbara asked me to fill in while she’s away. I am a Certified Senior Advisor ™ with Aging123 which provides cost-free personalized support to older adults and their families in finding Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Memory Care. Barbara will be back on June
Here’s the twist nobody saw coming. Kevin Warsh was confirmed as the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve on May 15th — widely expected to be the guy who finally brought interest rates down. Markets were anticipating it. Borrowers were hoping for it. Now? There’s serious talk of rates
So – if a floundering shoe company sells its entire business and reinvents itself as an Artificial Intelligence company – would you invest? I’m going to assume you said no. But someone said yes. Allbirds was a trendy and successful footwear company. In 2021, it went public at a $4
Have you ever wondered what the oddest job on Wall Street is? I just discovered that one of the most exclusive jobs on Wall Street belongs to a group of roughly three dozen people who spend their days sniffing coffee! It turns out, Wall Street has a job for
Several years ago, my neighbor Judy and I were walking home from a book club meeting. I was a bit miffed that the women barely talked about the book. She looked at me, smiled, and said, “this was your first book club meeting, wasn’t it?” Her response filled me
For the past several weeks, I’ve been having some meaningful conversations with clients. The theme that keeps coming up: they feel like they’re losing money, and they’re worried. That concern is real and completely understandable. Yet, when we look at the returns over the past one, three, and five
The Washington Post recently reported that the number of millionaires in the U.S. has reached a record high — with 1 in 6 families now holding a net worth of over $1 million. I was encouraged by this news for about two sentences. The article went on to say
Several years ago, I was listening to an economic update with Schwab’s Chief Investment Strategist, Liz Ann Sonders. Someone asked: “What keeps you up at night?” Her answer surprised me and I have never forgotten it. She didn’t mention current events or market volatility — she said it was
I think we’ve all read the scary headline: “Social Security is running out of money.” It’s been running out of money — officially, on paper — since the early 1980s. The projected date just keeps moving. Today’s best guess? 2032. But before you panic, keep reading. Does that mean Social Security
The stock market was closed on Friday. This is a long-standing tradition honoring Good Friday, when – according to the Christian tradition – darkness fell for three hours. Ominous? We can wonder. Yet here we are – 2,000+ years later, still shutting down markets. Which raises a fun question:
Would you ever pay for a dinner without an itemized check? Buy a pair of shoes without knowing the price — or whether they’d wreck your feet long-term? Of course not. That would be insane. So why do we accept exactly that when it comes to retirement advice? After
It’s the weekend! The markets are closed for 2 days, and my nerves and my investments are enjoying a much-needed break. I’ll take it — and I hope you’ll do the same. Gas prices are making headlines and markets are reacting. It all hurts. But can we just take a
In my memo last week, I committed to addressing the question: “Is war good for the economy?” From the moment I wrote it, I’ve regretted framing this as an interesting economic question. Real people are losing homes, loved ones, and their semblance of security and peace of mind. I
