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.
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.
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.
Early last year, drama around tariffs dominated news headlines, market predictions, and interactions between the US and our allies. Yet most Americans saw little immediate impact on prices for goods. By the time higher prices showed up, the news cycle had moved on. The gap between imposition and impact is part of what makes tariffs so confusing and so politically durable.
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.
Capping interest rates, as the White House has recently proposed, is an age-old idea that always sounds good in hard times. The argument is simple. Interest rates feel painfully high, families are struggling, and something should be done to protect consumers from unfair lending practices. Yet the downside of price controls applies to interest rates as well.
Last week’s column covered four different systems often lumped together as “socialism”: State Socialism, State Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, and Social Democracy. While our perceptions of them are shaped by how we think about freedom and fairness, the key differences among them come down to one essential element: who holds the power.
The election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City has recently put a spotlight on socialism, which increasing numbers of Americans view positively. But when we talk about socialism, we’re usually not talking about the same thing. Beyond its dictionary definition, the word “socialism” actually describes four very different systems.
Cancel culture has caught up with this year’s Christmas column. I can’t bring myself to write another column with sensible guidance we all know and rarely follow. “Make a list and stick to it. Set a budget. Avoid credit cards. Give homemade gifts. Remember the reason for the season.” This advice skims over the deeper forces at play in December. Holiday overspending doesn’t happen because we’ve forgotten how to add. It happens because we’re human.
