Posts Tagged
‘retirement’
by phil - May 12th, 2014 8:29 am
All-time highs on the Dow.
That's all that really seem to matter in the Global markets as we shake off terrible Japanese trade numbers, which was somewhat counterbalanced by China's plan to open up its capital markets – by 2020.
It's never too early to start celebrating, I suppose but should we be celebrating at all when the Nasdaq and the Russell are DOWN more than 5% for the year?
There are 2,000 stocks in the Russell and 3,000 stocks in the Nasdaq Compositie index vs. 30 stocks in the Dow and 500 in the S&P. As pointed out by Business Insider, even on the Dow, the AVERAGE stock is down 5% and within the S&P, 8% the average stock id DOWN 8% while the Nasdaq and Russell (10 times more stocks!) are clearly in bear market territory – down over 20% from their highs.
While investors may not have learned anything from the last crash, the Banksters have learned that you can manipulate just a few key, heavily-weighted stocks in order to make an entire index seem to be performing better than the sum of its parts. This allows the IBanks to dump their shares into ETF suckers, who are forced to buy the crap they are selling (at the day's closing price) as long as they can game the overall index to LOOK like it is doing well.
That's why we see thise constant "stick saves" into almost every close. Half the day's volume is done after the bell at what they call "market on close" orders that are automatically generated by ETFs and IRA drips, which forces the retail suckers with IRAs and 401Ks to buy at Top Dollar – no matter how relentless the selling volume was during the actual trading session.
Don't be shocked, that's why the Banksters designed IRAs and 401Ks and ETFs in the first place! Really, did you think they were doing it for your benefit? On the whole, the stock market is nothing more than a Three Card Monte Game, where pretty much everyone…
Tags: Be the House, bear market, DOW, Investing, Option Strategies, Portfolio Management, retirement, wealth
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by ilene - October 29th, 2010 2:11 pm
Courtesy of JOHN RUBINO of Dollar Collapse
The trouble began in the early 1980s, when we baby boomers entered our 30s and began molding the world in our own image. You can graph the spreading darkness from that point, as US debt, the number of government employees, the trade deficit and virtually every other measure of societal pathology inflected upward. Our generation, says James Bacon, a Virginia writer and magazine publisher, will go down in history as the one that ended the American empire — along with the retirement dreams of pretty much everyone everywhere.
Full disclosure: I’ve known Jim Bacon ever since I wrote for one of his magazines back in the 1980s. He was one of my favorite editors, both because he had a light touch and because he almost always saw the real story behind the noise and opinion. So I expected his new book, Boomergeddon to be both easy to read and incisive, and he’s succeed on both counts. Here’s a representative excerpt from the intro:
When you wake up 20 years from now, shaking your head of thinning white hair (those of you who have hair), groping for your bifocals, and feeling all out of sorts because your “golden” years have become as shopworn as cheap costume jewelry, you’ll know whom to blame. Just look in the mirror and take a long hard look at the miscreant who failed to save enough money, despite abundant warnings that retirement would be very, very expensive. Then head to East Capital Street, N.E./ Washington, D.C., where you can accost any member of the 535 members of Congress who, through successive decisions more short-sighted than your own rheumy eyeballs, racked up mountains of debt, presided over the disintegration of the United States retirement safety net, and ruined whatever shot you had at living an old age where the words “happy,” “carefree” and “solvent” applied.
Bacon’s main point early on is that the system has devolved to the point where it no longer matters who’s in charge. Each major party is run by a ruling class of lobbyists, bureaucrats and professional politicians who are beholden to a set of interest groups that demand higher spending and increased money printing. Each side blames the other for the mounting problems, so elections tend to be alternating landslides, as opposition candidates demonize incumbents, are given a chance to…
Tags: baby boomers, Boomergeddon, borrowing, Congress, debt, Economy, Jim Bacon, retirement, risk, savings, spending
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by ilene - October 7th, 2010 5:52 pm
Courtesy of Michael Snyder at Economic Collapse
The U.S. economy is being slowly but surely destroyed and many Americans have no idea that it is happening. That is at least partially due to the fact that most financial news is entirely focused on the short-term. Whenever a key economic statistic goes up the financial markets surge and analysts rejoice. Whenever a key economic statistic goes down the financial markets decline and analysts speak of the potential for a "double-dip" recession. You could literally get whiplash as you watch the financial ping pong ball bounce back and forth between good news and bad news. But focusing on short-term statistics is not the correct way to analyze the U.S. economy. It is the long-term trends that reveal the truth. The reality is that there are certain underlying foundational problems that are destroying the U.S. economy a little bit more every single day.
11 of those foundational problems are discussed below. They are undeniable and they are constantly getting worse. If they are not corrected (and there is no indication that they will be) they will destroy not only our economy but also our entire way of life. The sad truth is that it would be hard to understate just how desperate the situation is for the U.S. economy.
Long-Term Trend #1: The Deindustrialization Of America
The United States is being deindustrialized at a pace that is almost impossible to believe. But now that millions upon millions of people have lost their jobs, more Americans than ever are starting to wake up and believe it.
A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 69 percent of Americans now believe that free trade agreements have cost America jobs. Ten years ago the majority of Americans had great faith in the new "global economy" that we were all being merged into, but now the tide has turned.…
Tags: Americans, CHINA, currency rates, debt, deficit, derivatives bubble, devaluation of the dollar, Economy, factories, fair trade, free trade, health care industry, income, Jobs, manufacturing base, middle class, outsourcing, politicians, retirement, tariffs, Taxes
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by revtodd64 - September 18th, 2010 2:50 pm
I took a conservative approach for September and wrote only deep in-the-money calls on stocks that had the edge I was looking for at entry. Here are the percentage gains for my five trades that are called out today:
TSL – 3.68%
WFR - 3.31%
VMW - 3.10%
CCJ - 2.67%
CMI - 2.2%
Total Average Gain = 2.99%
Since I was not fully invested for September, my actual virtual portfolio gained about 1.2%. I took early positions for October as I found good entry points that worked for my strategy. I am tracking my virtual portfolio compared to the SPY, which moved from 107.53 at August close to 107.88 yesterday, which is a .32% move upward. So even partially invested I beat the S&P 500 by nearly 1 percent.
At some point I will calculate how much I would have made if I had bought the stocks outright and I’m guessing it would have been a very nice number since they all went up and every stock but CCJ was up more than 5 percent. My checkpoints should make for a great stock picking system for straight stock purchases to hold for 3 to 6 weeks. So why don’t I do that instead? My trading style is very cautious. I hate to lose money. I have tried other systems and found myself vulnerable to buying high and selling low, or getting too nervous and shaken out of positions early, when I could have made a profit with patience. This month I would have had a hard time fighting off all the negativity in the market to even enter positions unless I had a hedged entry with a covered call. Since I have a master’s in psychology, my world view is that trading success has as much to do with psychology and emotions as it does fundamental and technical analysis. I have confidence in my system and feel more secure investing when I know I am hedged and can roll into the next month. I feel like I have taken back control from the market manipulators by selling options to give myself flexibility and a cushion against whatever crazy thing happens out there.
(Click on my user id to go to the website for complete trade updates. I monitor comments more closely at the site as well.)
Tags: Covered Calls, IRA, retirement
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by ilene - August 20th, 2010 1:35 pm
Courtesy of Mish
In response to Creating Jobs Carries a Punishing Price, an article about Mr. Fleischer, president of Bogen Communications Inc. and why he is not hiring, I received an interesting email from "David" a reader who disagrees with Mr. Fleischer’s stated reasons for not hiring.
One of the items mentioned by Mr. Fleischer and challenged by "David" is the idea that corporations are sitting on cash. On this score, "David" is correct. I have also debunked the idea that corporations are sitting in cash (Please see Are Corporations Sitting on Piles of Cash?)
"David" also challenged Mr. Fleischer’s math on healthcare.
However, such arguments miss the entire point of the post.
Actions Matter!
It does not matter one iota if Mr. Fleischer is wrong about corporate sideline cash or anything else. What matters is Mr. Fleischer thinks he has sufficient reasons not to hire.
On that score, I believe Mr. Fleischer is correct. There are numerous good reasons to not hire.
Businesses have a legitimate worry about health care costs, rising taxes, and other artifacts of Obama’s legislation.
On the consumer side, this is not a typical recession. This is a credit bust recession with consumers still deleveraging. With savings deposits yielding close to 0% and with credit card rates over 20%, common sense dictates consumers pay down bills rather than make new purchases. The housing bubble has burst and boomers are headed into retirement with insufficient savings.
Given all the economic uncertainties, consumers are reacting in a rational manner by not spending. In turn, businesses have consistently cited lack of customers as one reason to not hire.
Pertinent Facts
That Mr. Fleischer fails to articulate reasons that others agree with is irrelevant. The pertinent fact is he is not hiring.
More importantly, numerous other small business owners think and act just like Mr. Fleischer. How do we know? Simple …
What Can Be Done?
For my thoughts on what to do about small business hiring, please…
Tags: consumer spending, debt, Health Care, hiring, Obama, retirement, small business, Uncertainty
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by ilene - August 20th, 2010 12:41 am
Courtesy of John Rubino of Dollar Collapse
Pretend for a second that you recently retired with a decent amount of money in the bank, and all you have to do is generate a paltry 5% to live in comfort for the rest of your days. But lately that’s been easier said than done. Your money market fund yields less than 1%. Your bond funds are around 3% and your bank CDs are are down to half the rate of a couple of years ago. Stocks, meanwhile, are down over the past decade and way too volatile in any event. If you don’t find a way to generate that 5% you’ll have to start eating into capital, which screws up your plan, possibly leaving you with more life than money a decade hence.
Now pretend that you’re running a multi-billion dollar pension fund. You’ve promised the trustees a 7% return and they’ve calibrated contributions and payouts accordingly. But nothing in the investment-grade realm gets you anywhere near 7%. If you come up short, the plan’s recipients won’t get paid in a decade or – the ultimate horror – you’ll have to ask the folks paying in to contribute more, which means you’ll probably be scapegoated out of a job.
In either case, what do you do? Apparently you start buying junk bonds. According to Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, junk issuance is soaring as desperate investors snap up whatever paper promises to get them the yield they’ve come to depend on. Here’s an excerpt:
‘Junk’ Bonds Hit Record
U.S. companies issued risky “junk” bonds at a record clip this week, taking advantage of keen investor appetite for returns amid declining interest rates and tepid stock markets.
The borrowing binge comes as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates near zero and yields on U.S. government debt are near record lows. Those low rates have spread across a variety of markets, making it cheaper for companies with low credit ratings to borrow from investors.
Corporate borrowers with less than investment-grade ratings sold $15.4 billion in junk bonds this week, a record total for a single week, according to data provider Dealogic. The month-to-date total, $21.1 billion, is especially high for August, typically a quiet month that has seen an average of just $6.5 billion in issuance over the past decade.
For the year, the volume of U.S.
…
Tags: borrowing, credit, Economy, Hyman Minsky, interest, Junk bonds, liquidity, money market, pensions, retirement, return, savings, stocks, yields
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by ilene - August 3rd, 2010 8:04 am
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
Those government jobs just aren’t what they used to be. Furloughs, IOUs and increased scrutiny of the cost of public employees. Now, a growing number of state governments are instituting requirements that new employees work longer before being able to retire with full pensions.
WSJ:
The change comes as foreign governments from France to Morocco have either decided to increase or are contemplating a rise in the age at which private and public workers can receive government pensions.
A federal commission studying long-term U.S. fiscal issues is also entertaining the idea of changing the retirement age as one way to shore up Social Security, said a person familiar with the matter. A report is due to President Obama in December.
Individual states, meanwhile, are moving ahead as they respond to the widening gaps between the obligations made to workers and the money expected to be available to pay them, thanks to investment losses and recessionary budget pressures.
"It’s a very positive change that the age for receiving full benefits is increasing," said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. "Increasing the retirement age is the single most important thing [states] can do" to tame future pension costs, because it reduces the number of years the state is paying a benefit, she said.
Though lengthening lifespans have been expected to pressure pension systems, the looming fiscal predicament has emboldened lawmakers to demand more years from employees. Also, as many American states cut services, scrutiny has fallen on the compensation of public workers.
In Illinois, where state lawmakers voted in March to increase the retirement age for most new hires to 67 from 60, "it had everything to do with the financial straits the state is in," said Tim Blair, the executive secretary of the State Employees’ Retirement System of Illinois. "The scales have tipped."
Chalk it up as another one of those things that most people never gave much thought to when things were good. Most of all, state workers probably never thought the sweet deal would turn sour. Of course, as always, it could be worse. For some government workers, retirement comes extra early.
Tags: benefits, compensation, employees, pension systems, public workers, retirement, state workers
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by ilene - April 6th, 2010 11:11 pm
Courtesy of Damien Hoffman at Wall St. Cheat Sheet
[For a risk-free trial to Wall St. Cheat Sheet click here.]
These days, the idea of retirement seems like either a bad joke or a utopian fantasy. I’ve already covered some main reasons the US economy is screwed, but here are 8 reasons why the US has become a nation of indentured servants:
1) Stagnant wages
Are you partying like it’s 1999? That’s because you’re earning money like it’s 1999. Over the past 11 years, the median household income has been flat as a corpse’s pulse.
If everything gets more expensive over time but no one gets a raise, workers will afford less goods and services. This means people will either work the same amount for less stuff, or work harder for the same stuff. Either way, it’s a shitty deal.
2) Dual-income Nation
We’re a country of family values, right? Wrong. We’ve built an economy that requires two incomes to attain middle class status. It has even become a luxury for one spouse to stay home to raise children! (But that’s more of an existential issue …)
The graph above illustrates one of the most basic tenets of economics: if there is twice as much cash floating around the economy, the cost of things simply rises in direct proportion. In this case, adding an extra worker per household has increased household income. As a result, sellers of houses, child care, health insurance, cars, etc. have upped their prices to take more of our dollars.
3) Energy and Food Inflation
Remember $4 gas? Well, we’re back to $3 (double last year’s low). Every time a car ride costs more, that’s less money left over for things other than getting from point A to point B. As oil prices continue to rise with global demand (and diminishing supply), we will spend more hours working just to get to and fro.
Food is the ultimate necessity. So, when prices rise, there’s not much to do if you don’t care for the taste of cat food. It’s harder to notice 20-30% food inflation when a $2 item jumps to $2.40. But
…
Tags: earnings, Economy, Education, energy inflation, food inflation, Health Care, Jobs, retirement, wages
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by ilene - March 5th, 2010 6:43 pm
Courtesy of Mish
Here is an interesting pair of articles, one on California the other on boomers postponing retirement for financial reasons.
In California, it’s no surprise that economists are surprised at just how bad things are. Please consider California job losses grow.
"The economy was a lot worse than everybody thought," said Howard Roth, chief economist with the state’s Department of Finance. "The job market is weaker than we figured."
It appears California lost 871,000 jobs in 2009, suggests an estimate provided by the state Employment Development Department.
"This is the worst recession for California since the Great Depression," said Brad Kemp, director of regional research with Beacon Economics.
If those estimates hold up when final revisions are released this month, the actual job losses in the state would be far more grim than first believed. In the initial EDD estimate, released Jan. 22, the EDD reported California employers chopped 579,000 jobs from payrolls in 2009.
"We will have a really big downward revision," Roth said.
That would translate into an 292,000 more jobs that were lost, on top of the prior losses.
Seven In Ten Boomers Put Off Retirement For Financial Reasons
Inquiring minds are noting More Than Seven-in-Ten Workers Age 60+ Are Putting Off Retirement Due to Financial Restraints, According to a New CareerBuilder Survey
The economy continues to change the retirement timeline for many mature workers, leaving them with tough decisions about their futures. More than seven-in-ten (72 percent) workers over the age of 60 who said they are putting off their retirement are doing so because they can’t afford to retire financially, according to a new survey by CareerBuilder. When comparing genders, the survey found that three-quarters (76 percent) of female workers over the age of 60 who said they are putting off retirement are doing so because they can’t afford it, while 68 percent of males said the same.
Note: The title of the article on Yahoo Finance: More Than Seven-in-Ten Workers Age 60+ Are Putting Off Retirement Due to Financial Restraints, According to a New CareerBuilder Survey is misleading.
The correct take-away is "Of those putting off retirement, 7.2 out of 10 do so for financial reasons". Another key number is how many are putting off retirement. That the…
Tags: Economy, labor pool, retirement, unemployment
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by ilene - March 3rd, 2010 1:00 pm
Following up on our earlier article by Tom Lindmark, Can Americans Work Longer? While working longer has many positives on an individual basis, when jobs are scarce, there’s still the problem of more competition for fewer jobs. – Ilene
Courtesy of Vincent Fernando at Clusterstock/Business Insider
A new survey from Career Builder exposes what will be an increasingly common trend as America ages demographically — older workers are being forced to keep working and postpone retirement for financial reasons.
CareerBuilder:
More than seven-in-ten (72 percent) workers over the age of 60 who said they are putting off their retirement are doing so because they can’t afford to retire financially, according to a new survey by CareerBuilder.
The good news is that many older workers are putting off retirement for positive reasons as well.
About 70% of workers delaying retirement said they are doing so partly because they enjoy their jobs according to CareerBuilder. Hence there are many Americans who are, yes, putting off retirement for financial reasons, but at the same time are pretty happy to do so since they enjoy working.
Such job satisfaction will become necessary for most young Americans, since fully supporting retirees from ~60 years onwards will be simply untenable as an increasing proportion of America becomes old due to demographic change and extended life expectancies. Already, in 2012 about 1 in 3 American workers will be over 50 years old according to The Economist.
Thus the financial crisis may have delivered an unwanted wake-up call. Americans will need to quickly learn how to work longer into their silver years.
Luckily, as the satisfaction rates in the survey above show, this situation might not be as bad as you’d expect. Let’s hope.
Read more on this trend at The Economist >
See Also:
ADP: January Job Losses Were Actually TRIPLE What We Thought, And No, We Won’t Blame The Snowicane
Here’s What Today’s ISM Number Suggests About Job Creation In February
BREAKING: Savers Still Don’t Make Jack
Tags: Economy, Employment, Job losses, Jobs, retirement
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site
