PaulBBrown

Do We Need a Discount?

I understand, I think, why seniors get a discount. Retailers started to offer the discounts decades and decades ago when most folks over 65 didn’t have much money and it has become an accepted way of doing business. . But with the economy the way it is, do we (and remember I am including myself here) deserve a discount any more than anyone else? Shouldn't everyone pay the same price? More…

Targeting Retirement

I have been amazed by the number of folks I have talked to in the past week who have had their retirement plans put asunder by the recent market crash. And to be blunt, it is (mostly) their fault. One of the fundamental rules of saving for retirement is to shift your money to ever more conservative investments, as your retirement draws near. And yet I can't tell you how many people in their 60s have told me that they had ALL of their money in stocks, even though they planned -- or, had planned -- to stop working within five years. One way to keep this from happening to you is to use a "target date" mutual fund. They are also called life cycle funds. More…

Merry Christmas (in October)

Two things of notes in the Sunday papers show that it may be a dreary holiday season for retailers. 1. Retailers are starting to push Christmas NOW! (Target seems particularly aggressive.) 2. K Mart has brought back the concept of lay away. If I only had money, I’d go take advantage of the bargains. More…

Pawnbrokers and Booze

Have you noticed this too? The worse the news gets on the financial front, the more ads there are from pawnbrokers, brewers and makers of hard liquor. It makes (depressing) sense. More…

We are shareholders, but....

Here is what I plan to ask my Congressman: Sir, Typically, shareholders have three ways to influence the corporation in which they own stock. 1. They can vote with their feet, if they are unhappy. That is, they can sell their shares. 2. If they hold onto their stock, they can vote at the annual meeting. 3. And if all else fails, they can sue. Now that I own (as a taxpayer) preferred stock in some of the nation's largest financial institutions, do I have any of these options? And if I don't, why not? More…

We Might as Well Share in the Rewards

From today's Wall Street Journal: 'The U.S. government is expected to take stakes in nine of the nation's top financial institutions as part of a new plan to restore confidence to the battered U.S. banking system, a far-reaching effort that puts the government's guarantee behind the basic plumbing of financial markets." You can make the case, as I have, that the government should not be in the bailout business. (It simply isn't the way capitalism is supposed to work.) But, if taxpayers are going to be on the hook for guaranteeing loans to AIG and bailing out the banks, we might as well share in the upside. More…

What Jim Cramer Said

It is now only a footnote to the financial meltdown we experienced last week, but it is still worth a quick mention. On Monday October 6, an extremely solemn James J. Cramer, the very smart and very hyperbolic stock picker who has his own cable TV program, came on the Today show and said if you had any money in the stock market that you are going to need within the next five years, take it out immediately. Most people gasped. They figured it was the ultimate bearish signal. My reaction: Well, of course. More…

Money for Nothing

Here are a couple of random thoughts, while waiting for the market to open. Should the L.A. Dodgers play the Red Soxs in the World Series, the Soxs will be paying for Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez to beat them. (Part of the trade that sent Manny from the Red Soxs to the Dodgers during the season required the Soxs to continue to pay all of Manny's salary for the year.) It gets better. If the Dodgers win, not only will Manny get a World Series ring, he will get two bonus checks. The first, for being a member of the winning team. And, the Sox will pay him a pro-rated share of what the losing team receives to cover the time he played for them during the season. Sure beats trying to make money in the market.. More…

Sometimes it is Good to be an Ostrich

If you are convinced your retirement money--and your other funds devoted to your long term goals--are allocated correctly, here's a suggestion: Don't look at the value of those accounts until sometime next year. Otherwise, the relentless drops in the market could make you do something you will regret. I don't plan to check the value of my retirement accounts until December 31 of this year. More…

Are you Rethinking your Retirement? (Drop me a line and you be featured here.)

The stock market has fallen more than 33% since last October. Even more depressing, collectively we have lost something like $2 trillion in the value of our retirement accounts. That has gotten me to start rethinking my retirement plans. I am wondering if it is affecting yours. I am not so much curious about people who are thinking about cutting back. Rather, I am wondering if you—like me—are seeing this as a chance to make lemonade out of lemons. The fact that our retirement accounts are plummeting means we are going to have to work longer. But that doesn’t mean we necessarily have do the same sort of work we are doing now. Are you using the current downturn to rethink what you will do for a living in the future, once you reach “retirement” age? More…