You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t fear loss. Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman demonstrated this with his loss-aversion theory, showing that people feel the pain of losing money more than they enjoy gains. As such, investors’ natural instinct is to flee the market when it starts to plummet, just as greed prompts us to […]
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How Can Losses Help Reduce Taxes and Benefit Your Long Term Results?
You are taxed on your earnings. Generally speaking, your earnings equal your income and gain, less your allowable expenses and losses. Because losses reduce your earnings, losses can help to reduce your tax liability. It is important, therefore, to know how losses arise, how losses are classified, and how losses are taxed. A thorough familiarity […]
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Holding Equities for the Long Term: Time vs. Timing
Legendary investor Warren Buffett is famous for his long-term perspective. He has said that he likes to make investments he would be comfortable holding even if the market shut down for 10 years. Investing with an eye to the long term is particularly important with stocks. Historically, equities have typically outperformed bonds, cash, and inflation, […]
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What Rising Rates Could Mean for Your Money
After years of keeping the benchmark federal funds rate at historic lows, the Federal Reserve has been raising it gradually. Near-zero rates were an emergency measure, and gradual increases reflect greater confidence in the U.S. economy. However, rising rates can affect you as a consumer and investor. WHAT IS THE FEDERAL FUNDS RATE? The […]
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Time in the Stock Market + Market’s Resiliency = Potential for Long Term Financial Success
In the last quarterly newsletter, I wrote about the benefits of time in the market and, conversely, the perils of missing the most successful, unpredictably timed, individual positive days in the market. Simply stated it is “time in the market” that trumps “timing the market” when seeking long term investing success. (see, BWFA Advisor magazine, April 2017, “When’s the […]