I quite enjoyed James Kwak's recent exercise in retirement planning. Plugging in various possible savings rates and investment returns, Kwak explores what retirement might look like for a hypothetical youngster who expects to retire as a 65-year-old in 2051.

One of the major lessons of Kwak's piece is the impossibility of investing out of the hole created by a low savings rate. Even with rates of return, and starting to invest at the tender age of 22, investing at the national savings rate of 2.4%-3.6% (the estimate varies according to the time period selected) won't lead to anything more than a supplemental portfolio. Forget about a nest egg that can replace Social Security for meeting basic needs, or combine with Social Security to make for a dream retirement. It ain't happening.   More 

With the S&P 500 up more than 60% from those dark days in March, it is becoming very easy to forget what it felt like to hold course in the face of what was clearly some very uncertain times. If you need a reminder, this video may help.

You may have already forgotten, but back then, there was an almost universal recognition that talking about risk in a "lifeboat drill" sort of way is completely different than EXPERIENCING IT.

Risk is funny that way: You can't understand it until you feel it.   More 

While many observers fear commercial real-estate issues and mortgage resets, my bigger concerns relate to small businesses and government policies.

I have cited commercial real estate as being one area that could throw cold water on my relatively optimistic forecast. Some of the most pessimistic prognosticators cite commercial real estate as the lynchpin for their dire predictions. There are many different ways commercial real estate can influence the economy, and economists need to be more explicit about what worries them. Some people are worried about continuing declines in construction employment and how that would exacerbate unemployment rates. Others worry about the companies that are involved in the real-estate market, and more explicitly, the publicly traded real-estate investment trusts.   More 

Carl Richards and Cathy Curtis have written eloquently about financial advisors' (financial planners,' you pick the label) image in recent columns. The gestation was the comments section of a Your Money column in The New York Times, which was filled with disdain for advisors. As the article was in the NY Times, more cynics may have opined negatively due to their own personal experiences with brokers (and other Wall Street types) residing in New York City. We all know there are many outstanding planners across the country. It is difficult for the public to locate fee-only, fiduciary, client-first CFP®s. Fee-only planners' marketing budgets pale in comparison to the fog-horns of Wall Street.

Undoubtedly, differentiation is critical in the RIA space for the industry to survive the recent scandals. Pending new regulatory legislation could further place a wall between investors and their advisors in regard to differentiation, as brokers appear to have the upper hand in commoditizing the business and the labels attached to fee-only planners.   More 

With last week's bank holiday, the flow of economic indicators was at a low ebb. Initially, unemployment claims looked encouraging, as did the more obscure job openings report from the Labor Department. FedEx FDX and UPS UPS both offered favorable comments about the upcoming holiday season, providing one of the first confirmations of improving conditions in the battered transportation sector. Small business optimism managed one of its best monthly improvements during October, but remains mired at depressed levels.   More