See our recap of May's key statistics and market commentary below. Noteworthy Numbers 13.2% The Case-Shiller Index, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, gained 13.2% in March, according to data released in May. This is the largest increase sinc...
RMDs for Beneficiaries in Qualified Retirement Plans
When an employee in a qualified retirement plan dies, the employee’s account balance has to be distributed to the beneficiary at a certain rate over a certain timeframe. The money cannot stay in the plan forever. What is that timeframe? When do distr...
See our recap of February's key statistics and market commentary below. Noteworthy Numbers 45.8% As of April 30, FactSet reports the first quarter year over year earnings growth for companies in the S&P 500 was on track to be 45.8%. This is near...
Catch-Up Contributions: A Good Thing for Both Men and Women
Back in 2001, a law called the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) was passed. Some referred to it as the Bush Tax Cuts, Round One. The law had a number of provisions related to qualified retirement plans. Among these, in a sec...
See our recap of February's key statistics and market commentary below. Noteworthy Numbers An estimated $9.6 billion in goods moves through the Suez Canal each day. Traffic ground to halt for nearly a week in late March as a containership, the Ever ...
In 2020, as part of the CARES Act COVID-19 relief bill, Congress waived the requirement to take a minimum distribution from certain retirement accounts. The waiver wasn’t enacted until March, though, and by then many investors had already taken some ...
See our recap of February's key statistics and market commentary below. Noteworthy Numbers The outperformance of the S&P 500 Value index against the S&P 500 Growth index during the month of February. Value stocks, which drastically underperf...
See our recap of January's key statistics and market commentary below. Noteworthy Numbers According to JP Morgan, with 49.9% of companies in the S&P 500 having reported Q4 earnings so far, 84% have beaten their estimated earnings and 70% have be...
See our recap of December's key statistics and market commentary below. Noteworthy Numbers The S&P 500 locked in an 18.40% return in 2020, an excellent feat in any year, and even more so in year during which the global economy shut down due to a...
Mega Backdoor Roth IRA: A Neat Idea that Rarely Works
Lately, several people have asked me about a “mega backdoor Roth IRA.” I didn’t really know what this was, but anything with “backdoor” in the name is something I want to explore. It sounds a little devious. Maybe I could finally be a bad boy – more ...