This Week’s Takeaways:
- To protect your inner circle from fraud be alert for unusual secrecy or odd financial activity in loved ones especially during times of stress, grief, or major life changes, address it supportively, and use dedicated security resources to actively safeguard against scams.
- There are financial retirement myths holding you back, including that you have to be mortgage free in retirement, you can’t make a big splurge or should wait to donate to charity at death, and that you need to be worried about stock market volatility as the biggest long-term risk when avoiding fraud and scams should be higher priorities.
- Use tax-deferred accounts to shelter tax-inefficient investments that generate ordinary income. hold tax-efficient investments like growth stocks in taxable brokerage accounts and use tax-loss selling and donating appreciated securities to charity to lower your tax-bill. Take advantage of the tax-free growth provided by Roth IRA’s and make sure you have a strategy to minimize the tax bite from your IRA Required Minimum Distributions.
- U.S. Treasuries have done well despite surging U.S. debt and deficits, but investors should continue to favor short-term bonds over longer-term ones.
- Goldman Sachs and GMO are recommending that investors shift money from U.S. to international stocks.
- Boston Corner with a fall foliage forecast and a New England economic update, and Things to Do This Weekend in Boston.
- Plus my latest book and podcast recommendations.
Protecting your inner circle from fraud by Vanguard
Look for subtle but sudden changes in a loved one’s routines, communication, or financial behavior—especially if they become secretive or are instructed to keep financial matters confidential by someone else. Approach loved ones who may be at risk with support, patience, and sensitivity, initiating open conversations to discuss any concerning behaviors or transactions. Use available resources to learn specific methods for recognizing, preventing, and responding to potential scams targeting yourself or your family
6 More Retirement Financial Myths to Avoid by Morningstar
The six retirement myths to avoid in this article highlight amongst other things that you can do a big splurge in retirement, giving money to charity during life instead of at death improves your income tax situation which is likely more of an issue for you than estate tax, you don’t need to be mortgage free in retirement, and stock market volatility isn’t your biggest retirement risk (preventing fraud and scams may be).
The Part of Investing You Still Need to Master: 4 Legal Tactics to Slash Your Tax Bill by Investopedia
Investors focus on gross returns, but what you keep after tax matters as well. Use tax-deferred accounts to shelter tax-inefficient investments that generate ordinary income. hold tax-efficient investments like growth stocks in taxable brokerage accounts and use tax-loss selling and donating appreciated securities to charity to lower your tax-bill. Take advantage of the tax-free growth provided by Roth IRA’s and make sure you have a strategy to minimize the tax bite from your IRA Required Minimum Distributions.
Bond Vigilantes Fended Off as US Debt Emerges Surprise Winner by Bloomberg
Despite surging U.S. debt and deficits, and global fiscal turmoil, U.S. Treasuries have performed strongly in 2025, with 10-year yields actually declining and bond market volatility decreasing. For investors, current conditions favor considering tactical strategies like the “steepener” (favoring shorter over longer maturities) and monitoring labor market and Fed actions, as further yield declines could occur if economic growth cools. However, there’s a caution that market complacency and fiscal strains may eventually resurface as risks, so ongoing vigilance and timely portfolio adjustments remain wise.
How Goldman says investors should navigate a new ‘postmodern’ cycle in markets by Business Insider & American Unexceptionalism by GMO
Goldman Sachs and GMO make their cases in these separate pieces about why investors should be allocating to international stocks now and shifting money from the U.S. market to do so.
Podcast Recommendation
Book Recommendation
Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction by Elaine Frantz Parsons
The first comprehensive examination of the nineteenth-century Ku Klux Klan since the 1970s, Ku-Klux pinpoints the group’s rise with startling acuity. Historians have traced the origins of the Klan to Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866, but the details behind the group’s emergence have long remained shadowy. By parsing the earliest descriptions of the Klan, Elaine Frantz Parsons reveals that it was only as reports of the Tennessee Klan’s mysterious and menacing activities began circulating in northern newspapers that whites enthusiastically formed their own Klan groups throughout the South. The spread of the Klan was thus intimately connected with the politics and mass media of the North.
Boston Corner
New England Fall Foliage Forecast 2025
New England Economic Conditions through September 2, 2025
