Personal Finance

Consumers are the foundation of the U.S. economy and today's chart plots data (reflecting median spending, and adjusted for inflation) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 12 different consumer categories over a period of nearly 75 years to show the changing way in which Americans spend their money.

I recently revisited the fascinating tactic Professor Sheena Iyengar of the Columbia Business School proposed at BlackRock’s recent Retirement Roundtable in New York to help investors save more for retirement [and what she proposes is easy to implement, and extremely effective].

I’ve always said that personal finances are more important than portfolio management, but I still think there’s probably not enough people writing or providing education on the topic so I’m going to make a concerted effort to write more about personal finance in the coming year and, to that end, here’s my list of 20 personal finance rules:

If you earn $250,000 a year does that mean you are rich? The answer is “no” – and it turns out that the actual statistical relationship between income and wealth is surprisingly low.

In the next 5 years most people will lose 75-90% of their wealth and some 100% but investors needn’t lose most of their money if they took a few measures to protect their fortune...

When holding their stock picks for the year, banks were only 43% accurate with their predictions. That’s right! Flipping a coin would have been potentially more effective than buying bank stock picks, which ended up down -4.79% on the year. The S&P 500 finished down only -0.69%. Simply just making any interest in a savings account would have been more effective as well. [This article ranks] the banks, from best to worst, based on accuracy of their calls and also based on the performance of their recommendations.

Being a millionaire is overrated. Becoming a “millionaire” once meant being set for life and destined for early retirement - but that was then, and this is now. Today's infographic shows how things have changed over time, and that a million dollars of wealth ain’t what it used to be.

My parents are more stressed now than ever before as a result of the combination of healthcare costs and income squeezes. The threat of bankruptcy for them is a big one, as is foreclosure on their family home. This has inspired me to write this article (guide) for seniors on how to deal with the financial stress in their lives. I hope you find useful.

You might have heard people claiming that they'd flee to Canada if Trump — or Clinton — won (maybe you've even said so yourself) but you might be surprised to learn that life can get costly over the border. Here is a quick look at what you would pay were you to flee to our neighbors to the north.

It is important to ask the right questions and do your own due diligence before selecting an advisor or participating in an investment. This article presents 10 basic steps all investors can take as well as certain indicators that should serve as red flag warning signs of the potential for trouble down the road.