Will 1929 Parallel Continue, We'll Know by June

Charting can be entertaining. I don't put a lot of trust in people that find similar patterns because the charts are similar sometimes, but never the same. That said, here is the latest chart watch as brought to our attention by Mark Hulbert from Marketwatch.

20 Things Rich People Do

I read this from Dave Ramsay. Interesting read, but I wonder how many rich people do all 20 things? I am sure these items will help people feel better, think clearer and be more organized; which should help them be wealthier. Thomas Stanley and William Danko, authors of The Millionaire Next Door inspired this list of the top 10 traits of millionaires.

Elements of an Investment Policy Statement

CFA has released this guideline to help individual investors create an investment policy statement. My preference is for each individual to create one of these documents to help them stay focused on their strategy as well as to help their loved one's understand the plan if they need to assist with managing the portfolio.

Retirement Mistakes

Bud is a fantastic contributor to retirement planning and strategy. Please review his article. The 5 areas he addresses: 1. Funding the unforeseen 2. Planning failures 3. Everything is relative 4. Personal economics 5. Non-financial mistakes. The information is extremely valuable for someone close to retirement trying to make sure they are ready to shift gears.

Global Wealth Update

Thank you WSJ's Jason Bellini for the update. If you have problems with the video here is the source.

State of Your Retirement Savings

I personally enjoy learning about the state of Americans' finances. Here is an article describing our saving or lack of saving for retirement. Andrea Coombes covers many topics in this article.

Fully 57% of people who earn less than $50,000 said they can’t afford to both pay their bills and save for retirement, compared with 35% of people who earn $50,000 or more. Meanwhile, 59% of those surveyed said their top, day-to-day money worry is paying the monthly bills—that’s’ up from 52% who said that in 2012.

Rate Your Financial Capability

FINRA Investor Education has a 5 question Financial Quiz. Take the quiz here. From Marketwatch:

Three-quarters of Americans have “positive perceptions” of their own financial knowledge and math skills. but only 14% were able to correctly answer five financial literacy questions posed by a top regulator’s investor education foundation.

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