Tuesday evening, Fitch Ratings issued an unexpected announcement that the United States’ sovereign credit rating was being downgraded from its top-tier level of AAA to AA+. In its statement, Fitch Ratings rationalized the downgrade as follows: “The rating downgrade of the United States reflects the expected fiscal deterioration over the…

The reason why you’re still working could fall into a few potential categories – and it’s up to you to figure out why. The first potential reason why you’re still working is that you must work for financial reasons. If you’re young, have a family that depends on you, and…

Previously, I discussed the impact of failure to get a goods thank you letter from a charity to be able to take a deduction for a charitable gift. The Tax Court has again denied a charitable deduction on the same grounds, now to the tune of $5.2 million. In the…

Nasdaq stocks hitting higher highs but showing technical negative divergences may be a problem for shareholders. These 5, from diverse industry sectors, brought in enough buyers last week to establish yearly new highs — but without the confirmation of a key technical indicator. The relative strength index, pioneered decades ago…

The latest Social Security fact report released this past August 2022 has a sad story for future retirees. Without any changes, Social Security is now projected to be insolvent in 2035 (13 years), and Medicare is projected to be insolvent in 2028 (6 years). Current payments into the Social Security…

A screen for Russell 2000 stocks with low price/earnings ratio and which pay a dividend of greater than 3% reveals plenty of regional banks and a few others. This, at a time when the hottest stock in the world, NVIDIA NVDA DIA , trades with a p/e of 226 and…

With many companies reporting earnings, the headline earnings decline moderated. The S&P 500 rose by 1% for the week. This week will be the busiest of this earnings season, with 170 companies reporting, including Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B (BRK/A, BRK/B), on Saturday. A detailed preview of the earnings season is available…

You probably have a chunk of savings in Treasurys. Here’s how to size up conventional bonds, the inflation-protected ones and other ways to guard against a weak dollar. By William Baldwin, Senior Contributor The Federal Reserve will quickly get the inflation rate down to 2%. Do you believe that? If…

Back in 1996, iShares was one of the first companies to create country-specific exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Their country-specific ETFs have an expense ratio of about 0.50%. While we prefer not to invest in anything with an expense ratio greater than 0.50%, iShares country-specific ETFs are our one exception. Even now,…

Name: Michael Davila Firm: MassMutual Location: New York, NY AUM: $824 million Forbes Rankings: America’s Top Financial Security Professionals, Top Financial Security Professionals Best-In-State Background: Michael Davila grew up in Queens, New York, the son of two Cuban immigrants who escaped communism in the 1960s and arrived in the United…