Over half of Americans, 55%, say they are not participating in the stock market, according to a new poll from MetLife of over 8,000 U.S. adults over the age of 18. The survey finds that age is definitely a factor. Gen Z (ages 18 to 24) and millennials (defined here as ages 25 to 34) are opting out in far greater numbers than older Americans.
But gender also plays a role — 44% of men report they aren’t investing, compared to 59% of women. And men tend to be more likely to invest in some type of mutual or index funds and stocks.
The Knightscope Machine-as-a-Service (MaaS) strategy targets an effective, profitable business model with high recurring revenues at scale with hardware, software, and support components. Our contracts can generate up to $96K per annum providing clients an effective hourly rate of approximately $6 – $12 per hour depending on type of machine and options selected. We target recovering $60K in bill-of-material cost of the robot in year one and we also target $250K estimated profit per robot over targeted life of 5 Years.* Approximately 30% of customers pre-pay full year contract in advance.
Save, invest, start early and delay retirement as long as possible are the conventional points of wisdom about retirement planning. But an investor should also consider what their income needs will be in retirement.
Here are some tips to move your thinking from saving for to living in retirement:
THINK INCOME, NOT JUST DOLLARS SAVED.
Instead of focusing on a target number (i.e., “I want to save $500,000 by age 60”), think about income.
What are your monthly expenses and are you able to cover them?
Do you plan to downsize? Or would you like to treat yourself to some luxuries in retirement? Do you want travel?
Do you want to leave a legacy to your family?
How will your savings fare against inflation?
There are many great online tools to help you nail down those details—take a look at some of our planning tools.
REVISIT YOUR INITIAL WITHDRAWAL RATE.
You may start off your retirement with certain needs, but those needs inevitably will change. Make sure you evaluate your withdrawal rate with your financial professional at least annually to make sure you are not drawing too much or too little, and are taking life changes into account.TO TAKE OR NOT TO TAKE SOCIAL SECURITY.
Deciding when to take Social Security varies by individual. Conventional wisdom suggests taking Social Security as late as possible, but that may not be the best decision for you, depending on your health, marital, and financial status. A financial professional can help you determine your ideal time.TRANSITION YOUR PORTFOLIO FOR RETIREMENT.
Build in time to make necessary changes to your portfolio before you retire. That way you are ready and are not making any unnecessary shifts during retirement. In general, a retirement portfolio is less about growth and more about income.PLAN FOR A LONG LIFE.
Life expectancy is on the rise, thanks to advances in health care. This means your money will have to last longer. Consider long-term income vehicles, such as fixed immediate annuities, that provide a steady stream of income for life.
Making sure you have enough income to live comfortably can help ensure that you don’t tarnish your golden years. By using these tips, you can plan today for a better tomorrow.
— Read on www.newyorklife.com/articles/5-retirement-income-planning-tips
Business development companies (BDCs) were literally designed with dividends in mind. These 10 BDCs to buy yield up to 10.9%.
Business development companies provide firms with debt and equity capital, or a combination of the two, to help them grow. Many of the largest BDCs available to investors today provide equity and debt financing to middle-market companies, a considerable number of which operate industrial businesses with stable cash flows.
They first came to be in 1980 when Congress passed an amendment to the Investment Act of 1940 that created a new category of closed-end investment company: BDCs.
For tax purposes, BDCs must pay out 90% or more of their taxable income in the form of dividends so they can retain the tax benefits of regulated investment companies. BDCs may raise their dividends in boom times, however it’s not uncommon for some to cut their payouts depending on the business environment.
BDCs have become popular with retail investors over the past decade because of the significant income they generate. These companies often yield more than 8% on their distributions.
One thing to pay attention to when evaluating BDCs is costs. Externally managed BDC pay advisory fee and typically pay a low double digit percentage of returns or profits to the fund advisory manager. Internally managed BDC do not pay advisory fees. It does, however, incur the operating expenses of employing investment professionals to do investment analysis, research and other duties.
Prosper in this volatile market (or any other) by focusing on fundamentals.
In investing, it’s as important to practice good habits as it is to avoid bad ones, and the stakes have rarely been higher. The longest bull market on record is in its 11th year, volatility is sky-high, the economy is uncertain and market sentiment is skittish.
But long-term investors should rise above the fray and focus on the fundamentals. You already know you shouldn’t buy stock on a tip from your Uncle Fred. But it’s even more important to set appropriate goals, save regularly and monitor your progress. Don’t beat yourself up for the occasional mistake. But if you follow the seven steps below, you’re likely to feel good about your portfolio over the course of a long investing career.
This could be the first year ever where stocks, bonds, gold and crude oil all returned double digits, according to LPL Financial.
The S&P 500 has returned nearly 22% in 2019 while gold and crude are sporting returns of 16.1% and 17.8%, respectively. Treasuries are right on the cusp, with the the 10-year Treasury note up more than 9%
Through Wednesday’s close, just 75 stocks in the S&P 500 were down for the year while 361 were up at least 10%.
Assets have gotten a boost from lower Federal Reserve rates as well as generally strong consumer spending.
Don’t let the constant flow of predictions and prognostications about the markets and the economy—no matter how prescient they may seem—divert you from a comprehensive plan designed to achieve success over the long term.
If you’ve ever been inclined to try to improve your retirement prospects by closely tracking the financial news and then shifting your strategy to stay a step ahead of the market’s twists and turns, 2016 seemed to provide a bounty of opportunities.
A 2016 study from the National Capability Study by the FINRA estimated that nearly two-thirds of Americans couldn’t pass a basic financial literacy test, meaning they got fewer than four answers correct on a five-question quiz. What can be concluded from the study is that Americans demonstrate relatively low levels of financial literacy and have difficulty applying financial decision-making skills to real life situations.
Financial literacy is about money management. And, managing money is a lacking skillset of most Americans. A significant part of money management is the ability to make ends meet through spending less than you earn and possessing adequate savings. Individuals who are not balancing monthly income and expenses are not saving and thus may find themselves struggling to make ends meet.
Personal finance expert Manisha Thakor, founder of MoneyZen Wealth Management, emphasized that it is important to learn to live within your means — making sure that no matter what your income is you have something leftover to set aside for savings and investing, and that you are not carrying credit card or consumer debt. Make sure that your mortgage, car loan, and student loan are the only types of debt you carry.
If you’re not saving and have not created an emergency fund, it’s a sign that you’re not living within your means and that you are spending more than you earn. For every year that you work, she advises that an individual should strive to fund a year of retirement. In an ideal world, people would be saving 10, 15, 20 percent of their earned income.
Living below ones means and agreesively saving is key for working adults to not engage in lifestyle creep. As your income goes up, temptation escalates to live larger and spend more. It’s not always frivolous or non-essential spending that is the culprit. Oftentimes the frivolous spending can be on children or what one deems essential for an upgraded lifestyle.
Individuals should commit to viewing money as something much bigger than just a tool, but as a means to an end. Give money purpose or make it a means to achievimg long term goals and aspirations, such as buying a home, saving for retirement or sending a kid to college.
Ms. Thakor states that people must view money as part of creating a desirable “financial well-being” — an aspect of well-being that individuals grow and nurture the way they would spiritual well-being, physical well-being, and emotional well-being throughout their lives.
Please understand that risk and security are fundamental personal finance concepts. Regarding risk, according to Ms. Thakor, there are three components to risk: one’s willingness, one’s ability, and one’s need.
Willingness means being able to “sleep well at night”. As an investor, do you have the “psychological predisposition” toward taking risk or not?
Ability is “a function of an investor’s age and the stability of their income”. If they are a very young director of sales, they have a much higher capacity to take risk than a 60-year-old retiree.
The final piece is need. “An individual should not take more risk than they need.” One should know the “least amount of risk that they need to assume” in order to realize their long term goals.
It is important to appreciate that much of the America’s personal finance industry, which we will call Wall Street, is geared towards getting the retail investor, which we will call Main Street, to take on more risk because it generates more fees and revenue for Wall Street. Essentially, in the American culture, there exist a paradigm toward growing for growth’s sake. And, as individual retail investors, there is no good reason to blindly follow the crowd.
A recent survey conducted by UBS found that only 23% of women globally take charge of long-term financial-planning decisions. And it isn’t a generational problem: 56% of women aged 20 to 34 defer to their spouse compared with 54% of women over 51 years of age.
A report from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority suggests that women’s financial understanding is going in the wrong direction, too. Baby boomer and Generation X women revealed higher levels of financial literacy than millennial women based on a five-question quiz.
Initially, it was puzzling to understand why highly socially conscious NBA basketball players were being unusually silent and staying on the sidelines regarding the controversy of freedom of speech inside the People’s Republic of China and the human rights of the Hong Kong protesters. Especially, their silence was puzzling when one considers how vocal and visible a stance a number of NBA players took regarding Colin Kaepernick’s freedom of speech and his right to kneel during the pre-game playing of National of Anthem.
In 1992, an aide to then Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton once commented “it’s the economy, stupid”. Well, in the case of the socially conscious NBA players being surprisingly quiet, it appears that it is not the economy, but “it’s the money…stupid”.
NBA teams’ total players’ salaries are capped and directly tied to a percentage of the league’s revenues. If NBA’s top line revenues are impacted by the current controversy in China, then there is a high probability the revenue pie will shrink. And conversely, the salary cap for players salaries will shrink proportionally if Chinese corporations decide to end their lucrative multi year partnerships, which are worth billions of dollars to the NBA.
Additionally, many top NBA players such as James Hardin, Stephen Curry, and LeBron James, to name a few, spend time in China during the off season meeting basketball fans and getting paid. They spend time in the second largest economy signing endorsement deals, promoting themselves and the sport of basketball, and subsequently, promoting the NBA. And, it appears that ‘…for the love of money…’ the players do not want to rock the boat and jeopardize the Chinese golden goose that supplements their million dollar paydays.
Thus, the otherwise socially conscious NBA players have been “radio silent”. They have yielded on the issue of Hong Kong protesters human rights and the Houston Rockets GM’s tweet supporting the protesters that sparked the current brouhaha. Although a few players and coaches have offered tepid apologies to China for someone in the NBA fraternity expressing their freedom of speech, the majority of players have been mute.
Fortunately for Colin Kaepernick, there was not an autocratic Communist government threatening the bank accounts and freedom of speech of the otherwise socially conscious NBA players.
