As a follow up to Denis’ article about cash, and in light of the recent news involving bank failures, we thought it would be prudent to review how the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) works and what it covers. The FDIC is an independent agency that was established by Congress with the goal of “maintaining […]
Plan By Numbers Blog
Financial Planning simply illustrated by numbers, at our companion blog written by Denis Smirnov.
Why Not Just Stay Safe In Cash at 5%?
With minimal effort, we can get you a 4.5% in a money market fund or 5% on a 3 month CD. Where things get trickier is when people ask “why don’t I dump all my stocks/bonds and sit in cash at 5% until the market feels safe”?
2022 Review: Economy Edition
In 2022 employment remained tight, inflation was sky high, economy grew moderately and housing took a turn for the worse.
2022 Review: Sectors, Stocks & International
Former darlings in Internet, Consumer Discretionary, Semis and Retail all declined over 30% last year. Tech, homebuilders and real estate didn’t do much better. The stars of 2022 sector show were energy stocks with XLE up 64%!
2022 Review: Significant Events and Major Asset Classes
Reviewing major stories of 2022 and how they affected the major asset classes, as well as various bond types
Tucson Monsoon – 2022 Update
After two big outliers in a row (2021 was 3rd wettest monsoon, 2020 was 2nd driest on record), 2022 was comfortably “normal” (Exhibit 1). Exhibit 2 shows monthly rainfall in 2022 compared to Normal. We started off with a fairly good June, followed by pretty dry July (-51% compared to normal), a solid August (+42%) and a mediocre September (-39%).
Market Update 09/29/2022
In the past two weeks the market decidedly took a sharp turn for the worse. The world seems to be falling apart with out-of-control inflation, the war in Ukraine, UK enacting suspect fiscal policies, Europe in the midst of energy crisis and contentious midterm elections at home.
Where is Your Cash?
This table shows rates on select cash alternatives as of 8/29/2022. Traditional banks are still paying nothing, which is unlikely to change anytime soon. FDIC-insured cash deposits at most brokerage firms aren’t particularly appealing either with 0.25% at Schwab. With a little extra work, moving your money to a High Yield Online Savings account, such as Ally or Marcus, might be a good option for many savers.
2022 Mid-Year Review
This time of the year I like to look through some of my performance spreadsheets to see how things are going in various investment areas.
What’s Eating Bonds?
In this post I look at how bond prices have reacted to recent Fed policy changes