Financial Symmetry News & Views

Posts Tagged ‘understanding economic topics’

Yesterday was certainly a stressful day for US investors.  Watch as Chad talks with Steve Daniels of ABC 11 Eyewitness News about the best way to react to the recent stock market moves.

The total United States government spending for fiscal year 2011 is budgeted at $3.82 trillion. Of that amount we are borrowing $1.65 trillion in order to be able to pay all of our obligations.  If the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2nd, effectively shutting down the government, we would have to the fill [...]

As most people know, healthcare costs have been rising much faster than other areas of our economy for decades.  The chart below demonstrates what will happen to federal spending levels if healthcare costs continue to rise too quickly.  Despite what some are saying, it is clear that other areas of federal spending- including social security [...]

In today’s economic environment, safety is at a premium but bank account rates remain at historical lows.  This has persuaded many investors to look for higher yields with their safe money.  In some of these situations, they are finding products that are advertising a 7-9% return.
We found a real-world example described in this Bloomberg article [...]

Have you ever felt anxious about your investment portfolio?  Who hasn’t?  A recent presentation at one of our professional conferences pointed out that five out of every six years will produce a stock market return sequence that either triggers anxiety or smacks your portfolio so hard that you wonder why you ever trusted the markets [...]

Many of us are familiar with inflation. But what about deflation?

Many investors have become disillusioned with their investment strategy.  After all, at the end of the 2000s,  most investors were left with less than they started with at the beginning of the decade.  So a desire to do something different (try something, anything else for goodness sakes!) is completely understandable.
Lots of people have made money [...]

Feeling a little nervous about the recent drop in the market? You’re in good company as it’s perfectly normal in this type of environment.  In fact, we’d be surprised if the drop had not made you nervous as that is what the majority of people feel after a rise over 14 months long.  Here are [...]

Investing in gold is on the tip of many investors’ tongues these days. The fact that gold has tripled in value over the last seven years and recently has been hovering at a price of $1,100 an ounce, has certainly helped.  This is coupled with the realization that gold has outperformed most of the major [...]

After going through multiple investment bubbles, a severe credit crisis, and two painful recessions, the “Lost Decade” for stock investments has come to an end.   In fact, the latter half of 2009 left us with a rather robust recovery and the idea that we may be participating in a sustainable economic recovery.
At the beginning of [...]