Mean Returns • 13th September 2021

The Inflation Thing That Wouldn't Leave

In 1978, Christopher Lee appeared on Saturday Night Live and bemoaned the sorry state of horror films back then, showing a few mock trailers for truly bad-looking films. One of them featured John Belushi as a houseguest who showed up one night and refused to leave. No such film was ever made, of course. Or at least until this month.

Charles Schwab On Investing • 5th August 2021

The New Rules of Cybersecurity

Cyber fraud may be as old as the internet itself, but it’s also a growth industry. In 2020, the FBI recorded 792,000 cybercrime complaints in the U.S. alone—a 69% increase over 2019. Losses from those frauds totaled $4.2 billion. Here are ten tips for staying ahead of increasingly sophisticated scams.

Charles Schwab On Investing • 6th May 2021

Smart Moves

Americans are pulling up stakes—motivated in part by the shift to remote work. Some 14 million to 23 million people are expected to move this year to take advantage of new work-from-home opportunities. If you are contemplating a move, beware of these four common mistakes before you follow in their footsteps.

Charles Schwab On Investing • 22nd February 2021

Five Ways to Sweeten Your Tax Strategy

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation puts the number of words in today’s tax code at some 7.7 million. No wonder it’s such a hard recipe to follow. Here are five common tax planning missteps—and how to avoid them.

Charles Schwab On Investing • 21st December 2020

Giving in Times of Crisis

Between the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and social unrest, 2020 has seen its fair share of upheaval—and generous Americans with the means to help have stepped up their charitable giving in response. One study of 32 community foundations reported an 80% increase in donations from March to May, compared with the same period in 2019. Here are five steps to maximize your charitable impact.

TIME • 17th June 2020

How to Rethink Your Investments When COVID-19 Uncertainty Reigns

Every three months, publicly traded companies report both their actual financial earnings and their expected prospects over the near future. Investors closely watch these reports for signs of promise or trouble, in a ritual not unlike reading tea leaves. But with the COVID-19 crisis upending business plans left and right, interpreting those leaves is more challenging than ever.

TIME • 6th March 2020

Low Rates Are Changing the Rules of Retirement

Millions of investors have heard the same two pieces of retirement advice: your portfolio should be split 60/40 between stocks and bonds, and you should plan on withdrawing no more than 4% of your savings annually after leaving work. Following those rules may have been wise in the past, but experts say they don’t hold up in today’s world of staggeringly low interest rates.

Fortune • 28th January 2020

Bond market turbulence: Why it matters and what to do about it

For decades, bonds have offered a kind of fallout shelter for jittery investors in uncertain times. But recently, the bond market has looked more like the tip of a warhead aimed at their portfolios.

TIME • 3rd April 2020

These Free Tax Filing Options Can Keep Money in Your Pocket During Rocky Times

While this year’s tax deadlines have been delayed for 90 days, returns will still need filing out eventually. Fortunately, at a time when cash flow is so iffy, there are a number of programs that can help you calculate or file your taxes for free.

Fortune • 28th January 2020

Why Investors Are Shrugging Off Warnings of an Index-Fund Bubble

A funny thing has happened since Vanguard set up its first index fund in 1976: Most active mutual funds have underperformed the broader market over the past 20 years, while continuing to charge investors high fees for the privilege. Meanwhile, the Vanguard 500 Index Fund how has nearly half a trillion dollars in assets under management.

Charles Schwab On Investing • 28th January 2020

An Honor or a Burden

When Marcus Baker’s grandfather asked him to be executor of his will and a successor trustee of his trust, Marcus didn’t hesitate. The two had long confided in each other about various investment opportunities. When his grandfather passed away, however, Marcus discovered that the trust’s structure and the estate itself were far more complex than he had anticipated.

TIME • 28th January 2020

New Year, New Tax Laws

As yet another tax-filing deadline approaches, taxpayers who want to maximize their return (or minimize how much they owe Uncle Sam) would be wise to get familiar with a handful of key changes taking effect this year. The good news is the tax code didn’t undergo a massive overhaul in 2019.

Charles Schwab On Investing • 16th November 2017

Traders Tell All: A Look at Three Traders' Daily Routines

While many investors prefer the relative ease of buying and holding securities for the long term, others have developed an appetite for more-active trading—a pursuit that can be as rewarding as it is risky. “The good news is that it’s possible to mitigate the downside,” says Kevin Horner, a senior manager with Schwab’, “but doing so consistently requires discipline and a plan.” Interviews with several Schwab clients who trade frequently bear that out.

Quartz • 22nd December 2014

The gold rush days of bitcoin mining are over, and not because of the price

For all the volatility in bitcoin pricing, 2014 may be looked back on as a year when bitcoin began to move past the proof-of-concept stage and toward a mainstream market. Some 6.6 million bitcoin wallets have been set up so far this year, according to Coindesk, a fivefold increase over 2013. And 75,000 merchants now accept the digital currency, including giants like Dell, Expedia and Overstock. But one area of the bitcoin economy is maturing much faster than the others....

Charles Schwab On Investing • 16th February 2018

Guiding the Golden Years: Helping Aging Parents Manage Their Finances

How to help the elderly in your life with financial planning, fraud prevention and more. “It’s a difficult conversation to have,” says Gary Wachs, vice president of Independent Branch Services Compliance at Schwab, “but our elderly clients and their children really need to understand all the necessary steps ahead of time.” Helping your parents get their financial house in order—and keep it that way—can be an uncomfortable role reversal for both parties.

Fortune • 23rd January 2015

Shape the Future: Q&A: Gavin Andresen, chief scientist, Bitcoin Foundation

2014 wasn’t a banner year for Bitcoin speculators—its price was down nearly 60%—but it has left the community of developers who support the digital currency more optimistic than ever. New applications, exchanges, products, and uses for the Bitcoin technology are emerging every week. Unlike large companies such as Apple or Tesla, Bitcoin developers operate as an open community—no organizational structure necessary.

Fortune • 28th January 2020

What a $1,000 Investment in Netflix and 9 Other Top Stocks a Decade Ago Would Be Worth Today

In a decade when FOMO became a widely acknowledged malady, there's always this uncomfortable itch that needs to be scratched—the perverse knowledge of what we could have earned had we been gifted ten years ago a magic crystal ball that revealed what the ten best performing stocks of the decade would be trading at today.

28th February 2020

Redefining Retirement

For some retirees, it may be time to retire the word retirement. For the decade ending in 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 55% rise in labor participation among those 65 to 74 years old and an 86% increase for those 75 and older—compared with an increase of just 5% for the labor force as a whole during the same period.

TIME • 11th April 2016

Why 'Peer-to-Peer' Startups Haven't Revolutionized Lending

Finance has proven to be stubbornly resilient to technology innovation. Online trading, despite its ubiquity, never delivered on its promise of democratizing stock investing. Bitcoin remains far from a threat to centrally managed currencies. Incumbent banks, if anything, have grown more powerful since the Internet emerged.

The latest innovation to fall short of its early promise is peer-to-peer lending.

Corpwatch • 13th June 2014

CorpWatch : A Proxy Battle: Shareholders vs. CEOs

The atmosphere outside the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, where Coca-Cola was holding its 2006 shareholder meeting, was a festive one. For a company that has worked hard to make its beverages appear ubiquitous in sports stadiums and amusement parks, it was appropriate enough.

The trouble was, it wasn’t the kind of festivity Coke ever asked for – or wanted.

Consumer Reports • 4th February 2009

Rebuild Your Nest Egg

When bad investments happen to good people, there's only one thing to do short of weeping: Turn to Plan B. That's where most of us are now. We're viewing the shards of our broken next eggs and making choices we'd hoped to avoid. We might have to work harder to slash debt, cut spending, and save more. Plan B means seizing the reins in every area of our finances over which we have control.