Blue chips aren’t known for cranking out big market-beating gains. But that’s exactly what has happened in the first nine months of 2012, with the group surging higher as investors fled volatility and slow economic growth in favor of… Read More

Time is running out. Congress has 42 days to decide what they’re going to do about the “Bush Era” Tax cuts. If they don’t act by December 31st, income taxes will rise across the board. Long-term capital gains could also increase. If… Read More

The equity markets are moving away from risk, and ever since traders turned their attention from the election to more significant unknowns, the de-risk trade has been in full effect. This is true of the equity markets at large, but it’s especially true of many stalwart “safe” high-yield sectors such… Read More

More than 76 years ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was signed into law. As the linchpin of the New Deal, the Social Security program was implemented in order to limit the hazards of old age, poverty, unemployment and disability.  Now, about… Read More

Score one for the “Dogs.” A look at the 2012 performance of the “Dogs of the Dow,” which are the 10 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) with the highest… Read More

I counted twice, just to be sure. $16,301. That’s the amount in “daily paychecks” — more commonly known as dividends — I’ve received from my investment portfolio in the past 12 months. That total comes to $1,358 a… Read More

It’s probably the most important retirement question you can ask. But, unfortunately for you and for financial advisors, there’s no right way to answer it. The question is: How should I allocate my assets?  Your decision may mean the difference between relaxing on… Read More

We are supposed to look forward to our golden years, right? Do a little traveling, play with the grandkids, host dominoes nights. Yet, increasingly, this isn’t what some Americans are experiencing. What’s going on? In American society, our expectations have risen over the decades. We expect to command enough money… Read More

With interest rates near zero and traditional income investments like savings accounts and certificates of deposit earning next to nothing, dividend-paying blue chips have become wildly popular lately… especially in high-yield sectors such as telecommunications. Read More

Markets can only crash when the masses aren’t expecting it. And if history is any guide, Congress just might push us right off the “fiscal cliff.”#-ad_banner-# The fiscal cliff is a combination of federal tax increases and spending cuts that are scheduled to go into effect at the end of… Read More