Wednesday Reading List
ICYMI:
Your Money This Week – In Your Money This Week, we’re looking at the mini sell-off we had in markets, recapping the current environment, and answering a FAQ about whether getting older means you should change your investment objective to become more conservative.
Umbrella Insurance Covers Worst-Case Scenarios. There Are Now More of Them. by The Wall Street Journal
There’s a 45% increase in umbrella insurance claims in the last two years, and the insurance has gotten more costly for a variety of reasons. It’s still important coverage to have, but the exact amount is hard to determine. Use your net worth as a guide, and don’t drop the coverage to save a few bucks.
The best days in the stock market come at the worst times 📉🚀 by TKer
A great reminder of another reason why market-timing is so difficult. The best market days tend to happen during some of the worst market stretches, and missing those days would cause your long-term returns to suffer.
Why Retirement Planning is Different for Business Owners by Heritage Financial
Retirement planning for business owners requires careful planning and unique strategies that are different than those for employees. From the dual role of managing the business and retirement accounts to navigating variable income streams and tax implications, business owners face unique challenges and opportunities that can significantly impact retirement planning. Here, the team shares some reasons why retirement planning differs for business owners and explore some key considerations.
The Big Retirement Myth by Morningstar
Sharing this one because it’s from two people I have a lot of respect for and runs counter to my typical viewpoint on this topic (see: The Higher Future Tax Rates Mythology). The myth they address is that you will be in a lower tax bracket in the future and since they regard it as a myth, they advocate aggressively filling your Roth IRA bucket to avoid large taxable retirement plan distributions.
It’s Time to Rethink Index Funds. They Could be More Active Than Investors Think. by Barron’s
I’ve written about this before using Tesla as an example, but this piece digs further into three questions you should be asking about index ones. First, are they representative of the market given that each index provider “makes its own methodology choices, which can lead to a wide range of returns among indices designed to target the same asset class”? Second, are you sure the index isn’t actively picking stocks when it is making composition choices, because history shows that index providers are. Third, are there hidden costs associated with managing the index since they tend to be inefficient when they rebalance?
The Lion in Winter by J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management
From 1930 to 2010, there were six extended periods of small cap outperformance versus large caps. However, lately large caps have been investor darlings, leaving small caps at their cheapest levels in a while. This paper looks at the performance history, the root causes of why small caps have struggled, and how cheap they actually are now
Book Recommendation
The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter
Boston Corner
Examining The Cost Of Living By State In 2024 – We’re #2! And not in a good way. Forbes found that Massachusetts has the second highest cost of living in the country but also the highest annual average salary. Perhaps this is why another study found that the Boston metro area is 37th in the country on a list of where Gen Z is buying new homes.
Things to Do in Boston This Weekend
Things to Do This Week in Boston