Stocks dropped by about four percent on the week and the proximate cause was the strength of the economy. In the bizarro world of investing, here’s how the reasoning goes: When the economy is expanding, the Federal Reserve has to increase short-term interest rates to ensure that inflation does not eat away at growth. That part has been built into most analyst assumptions, but only recently have we seen yields on 2, 5 and 10-year government notes start to climb. During the week, the 2-year spiked to the highest level in a decade and the 10-yr hit its top level in seven years.

BlogMark TalercioOctober 10, 2018Jill Schlesinger, Jill on Money, Wall Street, Dow, S&P, S&P 500, retirement plan, retirement accounts, stocks, NASDAQ

Jobless Rate Falls to Lowest Since 1969

The last time the U.S. unemployment rate was this low, Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was the number one song, “Hello Dolly” was the big holiday movie hit and war continued to rage in Vietnam. In December 1969, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent and not until this September, has it been as low since.

Wage Gains are Coming

The U.S. economy is experiencing “a particularly bright moment,” according to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, which is why Fed officials increased interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to a new range of 2 to 2.25 percent and are likely to hike one more time by the end of the year. The strength is likely to persist into next year. According to the central bank’s “dot plot,” which is intended to forecast future actions, there will be four rate hikes by the end of 2019.

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 28, 2018Jill Schlesinger, Jill on Money, Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve, Fed, wage growth, China, tariff, tariffs

Financial Planning for All

Are you celebrating the upcoming World Financial Planning Day by creating a financial plan? I’m guessing that the answer is no, because according to the 2018 Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Index, about a quarter of Americans have a written financial plan. That’s too bad because having one “can lead to better daily money behaviors.”

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 28, 2018Jill on Money, Jill Schlesinger, CPA, CFP, retire, retirement, retirement plan, Vanguard, Betterment, Schwab, Wealthfront

Stock Investors Brush Off Tariffs

After the Trump Administration announced that it would impose 10 percent tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, starting Monday September 24 – and then the Chinese said they would retaliate with 5-10 percent tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods, the stock market rallied…and then kept on going up, throughout the week. The proximate rationale for the bump was that tariff levels were lower than expected and on the U.S. side, excluded a number of consumer-friendly goods, like iPhones, smart watches and sneakers.

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 22, 2018Jill Schlesinger, Jill on Money, Trump, China, trade war, trade wars, tariff, tariffs, economy, economics, Chinese

Avoid These 5 Financial Pitfalls

Fall will officially start on September 22nd, which means that you may have already seen Halloween candy displayed along the aisles of your local grocery or drug store. It also means that the kids are back to school and you can now redirect your attention back to your money issues, before the onslaught of the holiday season sucks you in. To help, here are 5 Financial Pitfalls to avoid before the end of the year.

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 19, 2018Jill Schlesinger, Jill on Money, FAFSA, IRS, tax, taxes, retire, retirement, open enrollment, CPA, CFA, CFP

Financial Crisis Anniversary 10 Lessons

The traditional anniversary gift for a tenth anniversary is tin or aluminum, so to honor the milestone of ten years since the financial crisis, let’s make a pinky swear and vow not to turn a tin ear to what happened and learn some important lessons.

Life Insurance is Now Easier to Buy

Here some good news amid Life Insurance Awareness Month: Technology has vastly improved the process of applying for and securing a policy. That should be helpful for the approximately 50 million households who say they need more life insurance. In fact, 40 percent of those surveyed in the 2018 Insurance Barometer Study (conducted by Life Happens and LIMRA) do not know how much coverage they need and what type of life insurance to buy.

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 9, 2018Jill on Money, Jill Schlesinger, life insurance, insurance, term life insurance, #LIAM18

Solid Job Growth for Now…Despite Tariffs

So far, tariffs and trade conflicts have not negatively impacted the labor market. The economy added a solid 201,000 jobs in August and with revisions to the previous two months (down 50K), employers have added an average 207,000 a month to payrolls this year, quite a feat, considering that we are in the tenth year of the expansion.

BlogMark TalercioSeptember 8, 2018Jill Schlesinger, Jill on Money, economy, economics, Trump, tariff, tariffs, China, unemployment, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin

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