•Where’s the beef?
Whether you want to admit it or not, the vast majority of Americans don’t have enough money to fully finance life during their retirement years or cover any out-of-the-blue expenses today.
For anyone who has believed soon to be President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, when it comes to making money and it having a positive difference in one’s life, that privilege will continue to go to the top 1%ers and not the majority of working Americans.
And, until the huge spread between the incomes of those at the top of the income heap vs those in the middle and the bottom is significantly reduced, that’s how things will remain going forward. Period.
So, for the nearly 60% of Americans who, according to a report from Bankrate on CNNMoney.com, don’t have $500 to $1000 to cover an unexpected expenses, ‘great again’ ain’t gonna happen.
Bottom line: Expect life going forward to be more expensive than it is today.
- Market Quick Glance
We’ve lived through a second week of market action and low and behold, things have changed: While the major indices all had YTD returns on the plus side of the scale, not all were higher.
Below are the weekly and 1-year performance results for four popular stock indices based on the close of business prices at the close of business on Friday, Jan.13, according to Bloomberg.
-Indices:
-Dow Jones +0.68%YTD down from last week’s 1.07%
- 1yr Rtn +23.63% down from last week’s 25.44%
P/E Ratio 18.80 down from last week’s 18.96
-S&P 500 +1.67%YTD down from last wee’s 1.76%
- 1yr Rtn +23.63% up from last week’s 21.08%
P/E Ratio up from last week’s 20.36
-NASDAQ +3.57%YTD up from last week’s 2.58%
- 1yr Rtn +25.87% up from last week’s 20.51%
P/E Ratio 34.47 up from last week’s 34.39
-Russell 2000 +1.13%YTS up from last week’s 0.76%
- 1yr Rtn +38.0% up from last week’s 32.67%
P/E Ratio 49.19 down from last week’s 49.42
-Mutual funds
Not much changed in Mutualfundland by the close of business on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017 as the average U.S. Diversified Equity Fund ended the week up 1.38%, a hair lower than it had the previous week (1.39%), according to Lipper.
Equity Leverage Funds were a bit weaker but still the strongest of the lot, up on average 4.62% (last week 4.73%). Large-Cap Growth Funds showed their muscle, up on average 3.13%.
Looking only at the performance of the 25 largest mutual funds, the Fidelity Contrafund was up 3.21%, the Vanguard Total Stock Index (institutional), up 3.02% and the Vanguard Total Stock Index (investors), up 2.99%.
Visit www.allaboutfunds.com for more information about how various equity and fixed-income funds have rewarded investors over the short-and long-term, based upon Lipper data. Short-term meaning weekly and monthly performance returns; longer-term includes quarterly, year-to-date, 1-yr, 2-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr returns.
- Martin Luther King
Acknowledging the two sides of celebrating the MLK holiday begins with honoring the extraordinary works and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King. And, accepting the reality that racism in America is still very much alive and exists.
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