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CBS Evening News - Dow Hits 25,000
Ep. 053 - Eight Financial Resolutions for 2018
A colleague recently asked me how he might be able to finally stick to a budget. For years, he had tried to create and adhere to a specific annual spending plan, only to blow a hole through it at some point during the year. "What's wrong with me?" He said. "I know that I should do it, but there's always something that comes up."
Let me be the first to admit that I am not a fan of budgets. In the same way that I think most crash diets lead to failure, the majority of budgets or new year's resolutions fall by the wayside within months of being made, as life interrupts our best intentions. Part of the reason is that we sometimes make the whole process more onerous than necessary.
Budgeting should not be an end but rather the means by which we can accomplish our financial goals.
Of course, that fact means that you need to start by establishing those goals. Here are my top five to help get you started in 2018, though you’ll have to listen for the details on each...and to hear the other three:
- Pay down consumer debt
- Establish an emergency reserve fund
- Maximize retirement savings
- Fund an education plan
- Establish a general investment account
Technology can be your friend as you address your New Year’s Resolutions. Use it to create automatic drafts to avoid late payments and accelerate the pay-down of loans; to establish similar drafts with your bank or brokerage firm; to beef up your emergency reserve fund; and to slowly increase your contribution levels to your retirement plan with auto-escalation features available at many financial institutions.
“Better Off” is sponsored by Betterment.
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"Better Off" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com.
Charitable Giving: 4 Smart Steps
As Republicans negotiate changes to the tax code, one area is set to remain the same: charitable giving. That said, because both the House and Senate proposals nearly double the Standard Deduction, fewer taxpayers will be itemizing, which means they will be giving for the sake of giving, not to reduce their tax bills.
All I Want for Christmas is a Bitcoin
Investors will resume trading after the Thanksgiving weekend, but all eyes will be on the outcome of Cyber Monday. Last year, it was the largest online sales day in history- shoppers spent a record $3.39 billion online, edging out the Black Friday online sales. This year, Cyber Monday sales are set to grow by 16.5 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Digital.
Digital Set to Power 2017 Holiday Sales
Analysts say that the stable economy, an improving labor market and a longer holiday shopping season — one extra weekend day this year — are expected to boost holiday sales by about four percent from a year ago. [In case you missed it, check out my Evening News piece about how brick and mortar retailers are embracing a new concept, “Retail-tainment” to bring in holiday shoppers.]
Long Term Care: Beware the Elder Care Attorney
Long-term care is a tricky issue that is likely to impact a majority of Americans. According to the government, 70 percent of people turning age 65 can expect to use some form of long-term care during their lives. Although most of the care comes from unpaid caregivers (generally family members or friends), those who require more care are finding that the cost is rising.
Why the Fed Matters
Trump to Unveil Tax Plan and Fed Chair
President Trump and Congressional Republicans are about to unveil two, potentially market-moving measures: a tax overhaul plan and a new Federal Reserve Chair. As if those were not enough, those events will occur amid a Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, a monthly jobs report and stock markets soaring to new highs.
Don’t Spend that $4K Tax Raise Just Yet…
The Senate’s passage (51-49) of the budget blueprint last week paves the way for Republicans plan to tinker with the tax code with just GOP votes, which means that tax negotiations have entered a new phase. Last week, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers argued thatPresident Trump's tax plan, which aims to reduce the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, would boost the average American family’s income by $4,000 under . Critics, including former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, questioned the $4K promise.
Ep. 042 - The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History with Diana Henriques
Ask some Wall Street veterans where they were on October 19, 1987 and they will likely regale you with details of any crisis. My life changed that day in ways that often creep up on me. Indeed, Black Monday was the single worst day in Wall Street history, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by more than 22 percent in one session--that’s the equivalent of the blue chip index diving by more than 5,000 points today.
It was a “First Class Catastrophe”, according to our first class guest and storyteller supreme, Diana Henriques, who dropped by the studio to help us retrace the events that led up to that day.
Diana joined us on the podcast earlier this year when her book, The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust, was made into an HBO movie. This time around Diana is joining us to discuss her latest book, A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History. As Diana recounts, Black Monday was more than seven years in the making and threatened nearly every U.S. financial institution.
There were missed opportunities, market delusions, and destructive actions that stretched from the “silver crisis” of 1980 to turf battles in Washington and a rivalry between the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Here’s the crazy thing...you’d think that after Black Monday, lessons would be learned. But in her analysis, Henriques demonstrates how that Monday in the fall of 1987 was the predicate to the financial crisis of 2008. Sadly, investors, regulators, and bankers failed to heed the lessons of 1987, even as the same patterns resurfaced.
This was a fascinating interview for me because I lived through this period. I had just started my career on Wall Street, as the chaos was unfolding. I watched firsthand as my father nearly lost his business. This chat was like going down memory lane and it’ll give you guys a good glimpse of the life I used to live before I started hosting podcasts and radio shows!
“Better Off” is sponsored by Betterment.
Have a finance related question? Email us here or call 855-411-JILL.
We love feedback so please subscribe and leave us a rating or review in iTunes!
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://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
"Better Off" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com.