Advanced Wellbeing offers financial therapy insights each week to inform more details about financial therapy.
International diversification has long been part of a balanced investment strategy. Rick Kahler explores why looking beyond U.S. stocks may matter more than ever in today’s changing global economy.
“Find a financial advisor who is a fiduciary, someone legally bound to put your interests first.” I have made this recommendation many times over the years. Now, most financial advisors technically qualify as fiduciaries, which is a problem for consumers.
Many observers expected that the Federal Reserve interest rate was likely to be lowered when Kevin Warsh replaced Jerome Powell as board chair. President Trump’s nomination of Warsh came after strong demands from the president for aggressive rate cuts. With recent price and inflation numbers, however, it appears that rates might be going up instead of down.
How is it possible that consumer sentiment is at an all-time low while stock prices hit all-time highs? This disconnect is not what usually happens. Stock prices and consumer confidence tend to move together because they draw on the same conditions: a growing economy where people are working, earning, and expecting more of both. In forty years as a financial advisor, I have never seen a market this confusing to investors.
As you advance in your career and begin to build financial security and invest for the future, you will build a financial team. Most likely, you’ll find a CPA to do your taxes, a financial advisor for investments, and an attorney for legal matters such as estate documents. Ideally, each professional will be capable and will act in your best interest. It’s natural to assume that their work will come together coherently. Yet it often doesn’t.
When you think about building wealth or financial success, what’s your “freedom number?”
This is the term that financial planner and therapist Prudence Zhu uses for what is often called “financial independence.” It means having enough passive income to live on without having to work and earn money.
For decades, a divide has limited the options for American workers who are saving for retirement. Assets held outside of retirement plans have access to hedge funds, private equity, real estate partnerships, and other alternatives that move differently from the stock market and can offer different kinds of returns. Meanwhile, 401(k) plans have long offered a limited menu — stock funds, bond funds, a target-date fund, perhaps a money market option, and little else. A new Trump administration policy may close this gap.
How do you find a competent, ethical financial advisor? An approach I have recommended for years is to interview planners, ask questions, and persist until you get clear answers. Under a relatively new SEC rule, getting those answers is becoming harder to do.
War with Iran is adding a new level of chaos to already uncertain times. What about your retirement savings? Is your investment portfolio safe? Is it time to think about pulling out of the stock market?
If you’re asking yourself questions like these, please pause and take a few deep breaths. This is not the time to take dramatic action out of panic.
Why doesn’t a dollar go as far as it used to? Inflation is one long-standing factor. Tariffs currently are another. A third, quieter cause is the U.S. dollar losing ground against other major currencies.
This decline is happening largely in the background. A weakening dollar acts as a hidden tax, one that most people feel long before they understand why.
