stock market

The Stock Market Scares Me

stock 2.jpg

This week we start things off with Rose from Seattle who was wondering what she should do with her student loan debt. Should she set her sights on paying it down, or just make the minimum payments?

Next up was Cindy from Texas, who admittedly is freaked out by the stock market and wants nothing to do with it. What options does she have?

We live in an era in which successful organizations can fail in a flash. But they can cope with change and thrive by creating a culture that supports positive pushback: questioning everything without disrespecting anyone.

Nigel Travis, executive chairman and former CEO of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins, and author of The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback, joins us on the latest episode of Jill on Money to explain how.

Nigel Travis has forty years of experience as a leader in large and successful organizations, as well as those facing existential crisis, such as Blockbuster as it dawdled in the face of the Netflix challenge.

In his ten years as CEO and chairman of Dunkin' Brands, Travis fine-tuned his ideas about the challenge culture and perfected the practices required to build it. He argues that the best way for organizations to succeed in today's environment is to embrace challenge and encourage pushback.

Everyone, from the new recruit to the senior leader, must be given the freedom to speak up and question the status quo, must learn how to talk in a civil way about difficult issues, and should be encouraged to debate strategies and tactics, although always in the spirit of shared purpose.

How else will new ideas emerge? How else can organizations steadily improve?

Have a money question? Email me here.

Connect with me at these places for all my content:

https://twitter.com/jillonmoney

https://www.facebook.com/JillonMoney

https://www.instagram.com/jillonmoney/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillonmoney/ 

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jill-... 

https://apple.co/2pmVi50

"Jill on Money" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com.

Investor Panic Prevention Plan

Investor Panic Prevention Plan

December has been a rough month for investors, the kind of month that makes even the most battle scarred veterans’ hold their breath and hope for a sign that the worst is over. Sorry to say that there is never such a sign, which is why the saying “they don’t ring a bell at the top or at the bottom!” came into being.

Shutdown V3.0 Ushers in NASDAQ Bear

Shutdown V3.0 Ushers in NASDAQ Bear

Welcome to the third government shutdown of 2018! Did you forget about the first two? In January, there was a three-day closure, and then in February, there was the one-day sequel. In both of those instances, investors shrugged off the news and stocks actually edged up during those days-long shutdowns.

CBS This Morning: How Does the Rate Hike Impact You?

Short-term interest rates are higher after the Fed raised rates Wednesday by a quarter point, to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. It's the fourth rise this year and the highest level since 2008. The Dow closed down almost 352 points after the announcement, the lowest close of the year. How does the rate rise impact Americans? I discussed on CBS This Morning.

Have a money question? Email me here.

CBS Evening News: Fed Raises Key Interest Rate


The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by a quarter percent Wednesday, marking its fourth increase this year. The news caused stock markets to reverse course. I discussed on the CBS Evening News.

Have a money question? Email me here.

Goldilocks Appears for a Bull Market Anniversary

Goldilocks Appears for a Bull Market Anniversary

What better way to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the bull market than with a strong employment report?  The economy created a better than expected 313,000 new jobs in February, higher than the anticipated 200,000. The strength was seen across a variety of sectors: retail increased by 50,300, construction was up 61,000, manufacturing added 31,000 jobs and professional & business services employment added 50,000.

Worried Market Watchers and Bitcoin and Blockchain

First a quick PS: If you enjoy the radio show, please check out our podcast, Better Off.  It's very similar and you'll hear more personal finance calls with our listeners.

You can subscribe here if you're an iPhone user or here for Android.  

On to this week's show...

Stock investors are coming off one of the rockiest stretches in two years, leading to the inevitable question: What should I do when the market drops? The answer for long-term investors is clear: nothing. Still, when you hear about big point and percentage losses, especially as the second longest bull market on record tempts some to call the market top, it’s hard not to feel butterflies. So listen to the start of the latest show and let me calm your nerves! 

Hour one also featured an interesting call from Dee in Seattle who wanted a second opinion on some advice that she and her husband recently received from their financial advisor.  Given the recent market gyrations, it was a very timely call! 

Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin is the theme of hour two.  Since the end of 2017 and now into 2018 it’s been hard to avoid the mention of the now wildly popular cryptocurrency. From Cassandra's, who warn that the meteoric rise is a bubble (hello, Jamie Dimon!) to true believers, who think Bitcoin will go to $100,000, it seems that the rest of us better brush up on what’s behind the mania.

My first Bitcoin story aired on CBS in 2011, but I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on all things crypto. Thankfully our guest today, Dan Roberts, senior writer at Yahoo Finance, is a total crypto geek and has been covering the wild ride from the beginning.  

We started by discussing Dan’s recent piece about the biggest misconceptions when it comes to bitcoin. (This is a great primer for any of you who have read headlines, but are now ready to peel back the first layer of the onion.) For instance, one of the great appeals of cryptocurrencies, for better or worse, has always been that it’s not traceable.  Wrong!  As Dan explains, it is very much traceable.  I had no idea.  And it all ties back to the blockchain technology that powers digital currencies.

I also didn’t know that coinbase, the most common exchange used to buy cryptocurrencies, is FDIC insured up to a maximum of $250,000. Like brokerage accounts, the FDIC protect against the failure of the institution, not against trading losses.

Additionally, while it might sound like the Wild West, but the world of cryptocurrencies is more regulated than you would think. Dan notes that legit Bitcoin brokerages are all licensed in some manner: either with Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and all of the exchanges now offering bitcoin futures and options are overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Does that mean you should sell your stocks and plunge into cryptocurrencies? SLOW DOWN, TURBO...Consider this: on the day we taped this interview, Bitcoin tumbled nearly 20 percent, so you would be wise to listen to Dan discuss his number one fear before pulling the trigger.  

Follow Dan on Twitter for easy to understand cryptocurrency content.

Have a finance related question? Email us here or call 855-411-JILL.

Connect with me at these places for all my personal finance content:

https://twitter.com/jillonmoney

https://www.facebook.com/JillonMoney

https://www.instagram.com/jillonmoney/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillonmoney/ 

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jill-... 

http://betteroffpodcast.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

CBS Evening News: Dow Plunges Again, Closes Down More Than 1,000 Points

U.S. stocks tumbled again after huge swings earlier this week. On Thursday, the Dow lost more than 1,000 points. Here's my latest appearance on the CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor to help explain what's behind the volatility.