Special Bulletins

As a savvy investor you know that one of the keys to long-term success is avoiding unnecessary costs. You know to steer clear of tax penalties, excessive transaction costs, and even opportunity cost (you can’t have your cake and eat it too). But there’s another cost that many investors are

At the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, Clark Stanley got up on stage and pulled a live rattlesnake out of a canvas bag. To the amazement of the crowd, he demonstrated how to kill it and extract its fat, which he called rattlesnake oil. This extract, he claimed, was guaranteed

One of the good things about the Internet is the way it’s fostered a culture of clever repurposing. For example, people who do woodturning (creating bowls and other items on a lathe) have shared how to convert an old dishwasher into a kiln for drying woodturning blanks.1 With some simple

Back in the days of sail-powered vessels, the fastest freighters on the sea were the clipper ships. Designed to bring back tea from China in the shortest possible time, they were proportioned for speed.1 Clippers were long and narrow with thousands of square feet of sail. To leverage all that

If you were fortunate enough to have parents who cared about you, you can probably recall times when they gave you advice you absolutely did not want to hear. It might have been when they told you not to buy that cool car you wanted so badly. They could have

Imagine that you get to go on a long-anticipated trip to Hawaii. But instead of going through the hassle of making arrangements in advance, on the first day of your vacation, you just hop into your car and drive to the nearest airport. While you’re enjoying the freedom of spontaneity,

Ben Franklin is credited with saying that nothing is certain in this world but death and taxes.1 What’s interesting is that this quote by Franklin comes after he spent nearly a decade serving as the American envoy to France—a country with arguably the most unfair, burdensome, and inefficient tax system

Each of us is a unique individual. There never was and never will be the exact same mix of personality traits and talents, woven together in a unique social environment. And yet, in some ways we’re remarkably similar to everyone else. A good example of this is how we all

In 1902 the New York Evening World newspaper used the phrase “feel like a million bucks.” This was a brand new idiom for expressing a feeling of extraordinary well-being.1 At the time, surgeons and bankers could expect to make about $1600 per year. You could buy a new Ford for

One of the most basic principles of economics is that markets don’t like uncertainty. Even if a factor contributes to growth in the long-run, its immediate results are unpredictable, investors will respond by pulling back. The first quarter of 2025 saw a swift succession of events, each of which on

Have you heard the term “shakedown cruise”? It sounds like a boat trip planned by extortionists. But the term actually refers to an age-old practice used to prepare oceangoing ships.1 When a vessel is brand new or has had extensive refitting, it can be difficult to predict how it will

A friend of ours was lamenting how slow and costly it was to sort out his parents’ estate after they had both passed away. His father thought that by setting up a trust, everything would be easily distributed to his heirs. Unfortunately, our friend and his siblings found out that

Christine Benz knows a lot about managing money and saving for retirement. For decades she’s been a personal finance columnist for Morningstar, the influential investment research company. Benz has demonstrated her expertise in books like 30-Minute Money Solutions and The Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds.1 But as she was conducting

Knowledge has its limits. Just because you know all the reasons you should do something, doesn’t mean you’ll actually do it. For example, there are nurses who smoke cigarettes, paramedics who drive recklessly, and estate attorneys who haven’t written out their own wills. At least if you have the knowledge,

As last year’s robust gains continued into the fourth quarter, financial analysts were using an explanatory term you might be more likely to hear from a shaman: animal spirits.1 They were using it to refer to the strong emotions that sometimes drive economic behavior, especially the herd mentality that seems

You read that headline correctly. You can still potentially reduce your tax liability for last year by making contributions to your eligible qualified accounts by April 15, 2025. And to maximize your tax savings for this year, it’s good to familiarize yourself with any changes in contribution limits for 2025.

Benjamin Franklin was so varied in his accomplishments, he almost seems like a mythical character. One of the leading scientists of his time, he discovered key principles of electricity and first documented the Gulf Stream. He invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and bifocal glasses—all of which are still

Saving for retirement is a big challenge. In order to be able to live without a job, a person needs to accumulate a significant nest egg of assets that can be turned into cash flow. To do this requires them to keep control of their personal finances while aggressively funding