A reader asks: I get all the stuff Ben has been saying about inflation — wages have kept pace, economic growth has been higher than the 2010s, wages have risen the most for lower income people, etc. I get all that. My husband and I own a house and own stocks so we’ve benefitted in recent years. Having said all of that, I STILL CAN’T GET OVER HOW HIGH PRICES ARE!!! The grocery store, home/auto insurance, restaurants, babysitters for the kids…everything is more expensive. So how do I get over the sticker shock? Will it just fade eventually as we get used to higher prices? The psychological com ..read more

Daniel Kahneman, whose death was announced this week, was one of the most influential psychologists of the modern era. Born in Tel Aviv in 1934, Kahneman went to the US in 1958 to begin a doctorate in psychology before moving to Jerusalem in the early 1960s. He returned to North America in 1978 and was eventually appointed as a professor at Princeton University. In 2002 he became the first non-economist to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002, in what was a landmark moment for academic finance. The award officially recognised the critical part played by human behaviour and deci ..read more

Graham Hand’s update last week, five months on from his cancer diagnosis, understandably struck a chord with readers. It wasn’t just his battle with brain cancer. It was also his revelations of struggling with not being able to work, and in some ways, of losing his personal identity. It brought home that in debates about retirement or semi-retirement, there’s a lot of focus on the financial aspects: income, tax, estates, wills, superannuation, and the like. Less attention is paid to the psychological challenges of retirement, which can be even more demanding. In response to Graham’s article, o ..read more

It’s my favorite time of year again: March Madness, the NCAA competition held each spring to determine the national champions of college basketball. Many fans look forward to predicting who’s going to win the whole thing—what’s become known as “bracketology”—but not me. In my mind, March Madness is captivating because it’s completely unpredictable. What I love is witnessing an arena full of athletes trying their absolute hardest, working together to achieve a common goal. Watching college basketball provides clear evidence that we, as human beings, can do so much more together than we’re capab ..read more

Many people start out managing their own investments. But as their earnings and assets grow, their financial needs and challenges become more complex—and continuing to go it alone could prove costly in terms of investing miscues. Consider three common mistakes that can reduce returns and increase anxiety: 1. Trying to Time the Market Investors may be tempted to cash out of the stock market to avoid a predicted downturn. But accurately forecasting the market’s direction to time when to buy and sell is a guessing game. Missing only a brief period of strong market performance can drastically affe ..read more

When you haven’t got much capital of your own, the road to financial security can seem long, hard and complex. But the truth is that wealth building is relatively simple. All it takes is time and the price of a cup of coffee. A son of a friend just graduated from university. Still in his early 20s and with student loans to pay off, Josh has hardly any savings or capacity to save much at all. So Josh and I met for coffee and a chat. He had acquired a taste for espresso while studying and working at night waiting tables. (The coffee kept him awake). “How much do you spend on espresso each week ..read more

A podcast listener asks: How do you both manage to produce podcasts every week, handle your jobs, write, read, and raise families without burning out? How do you maintain this balance? What strategies do you use to recharge yourselves? Personally, when I go on vacation, I completely disconnect from work, yet I’ve noticed you guys continue podcasting even during your vacations. Do you ever dream of leaving everything behind and retiring completely? What are your thoughts on achieving a happy retirement if such a thing exists? I am middle-aged like you too, and retirement has been on my mind la ..read more

A reader asks: I am 73, my wife is 58 and I have a 15 year old son. We own a small farm and house in Iowa. We also own three properties in Spain where we spend most of the year. We have no debt and are sitting on 2 million in cash, most of it is short term bills. I deal in vintage guitars and will keep doing it as long as I can. We have a great life and are careful with our spending. I would like to have a plan to create generational wealth. Is this possible? Any suggestions? I love this question because it shows there is no single path to wealth-building. There are two ways to answer this q ..read more

When trying to outperform an index, many investors will try to trade between funds focused on different market segments and asset classes. But such an active investment approach isn't without costs. In fact, market timing can increase return volatility and add unnecessary uncertainty to the overall experience of investing in stocks and bonds. (See "Market Timing: More Evidence Why It Doesn't Work.") Along these lines, IFA's wealth advisors like to point investors to work by researchers at our preferred funds provider, Dimensional Fund Advisors. Besides considering the ill-effects of market tim ..read more

  Transcript Take a look at every recession we’ve been able to measure. How did the stock market respond? What can we learn from the past that is predictive of this moment? The answer is almost nothing.   People say, “It’s different this time.” They’re right. It’s different every time. This one is because of a pandemic. The first crisis of my career was in the 1970s: inflation, oil, and Vietnam. Then the savings and loan crisis, Black Monday, the Asian financial crisis, the dot-com bubble, 2008. The list goes on and on. Every financial crisis has a different cause. Crises keep h ..read more