News From the Control Tower:

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week: a number of articles about getting your house in order. –Amanda Vaught The always insightful Mohamed El-Erian leads us off, highlighting the different approaches that global central banks are taking. The US approach is beginning to diverge from the rest of the world. The Wall Street Journal had a pair of articles this week on individual investors – one on how great Americans were who kept contributing to their 401(k)s during 2022, and another on the amateur investors who got burned during the market downturn. The takeaway? An automated system, like deposits to a 401(k) plan, combined with hurdles to withdrawals, can make a huge difference in investment outcomes.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. Reading the tea leaves --Amanda Vaught As I recently wrote in our firm’s monthly newsletter, stocks and bonds became correlated over the course of 2022. Part of the reason for this was the Fed’s significant rate hikes in the face of a slowing economy. Will 2023 be the same? So far it looks like 2023 will be different, and The Wall Street Journal this week highlights how stocks and bonds are starting to decouple.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. Now’s the time of year when the excitement of the New Year fades, and many lose track of their resolutions. (Unless you’re celebrating Asian New Year, then we wish you a happy new year!) I’m already seeing fewer people at the gym. This week’s stories reflect some of that feeling of having to “muddle through." I loved the success stories of the dog walkers who had to physically muddle through – day after day they walked those dogs and are now through to the other side with successful businesses to show for it. Finally, a piece on an apple hunter inspired to preserve the apple varieties of historic orchards. If you’re looking for some inspiration – nature is always a great place to start.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s focus is on the quantity of things and how they impact our financial lives. Most of us are familiar with the concept of supply and demand, but scarcity or excess can have a wide impact. We’ve seen fewer eggs, drought out west, and births in China dropping. One thing we’d all like to see less of is inflation, and we welcome the news of wholesale prices dropping in the latest inflation report.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. Sometimes it feels like we’re living in a culture of impunity. Bad actor after bad actor seems to get away with bad behaviors, but that’s not always the case. This week we see several articles where the chicken has come home to roost. Maybe the tides are turning? We wrap up with an article on literal roosting, highlighting a new trend of real estate developers converting empty office buildings into apartments.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week we see a recurring theme that is summed up well by The New York Times: “The gap in the market is access to affordable and trustworthy advice.” The WSJ highlights savers leaving funds in low-yielding accounts from major banks (people losing money by putting too much trust in major banks), investors frustrated by roboadvisors (people not understanding the true cost of roboadvisors), crypto shills preying on Black investors (many of whom experience systemic racism in the financial system), and Latinas making gains in the retirement system – all because they received personal advice from trusted individuals and social programs. Finally, there’s an interesting essay from a person who bought an ancient Roman sculpture at a Texas Goodwill for $35.

This week, The Atlantic's Jerusalem Demsas gives an excellent critique of American society's fixation on housing. She asserts that "real estate should be treated as consumption, not investment." Also this week, personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary expresses similar skepticism on using housing as a retirement plan. She warns that people shouldn't go into debt in an attempt to get rich. We couldn't agree more!

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: 1. Americans are draining the money they saved during the pandemic, 2. India Chases Clean Energy, but Economic Goals Put Coal First, 3. Why Is Howard Schultz Taking This So Personally?, 4. Let’s Stop Treating Crypto Trading as If It Were Finance, and a Bonus. The Mystery of the Blue Whale Songs.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: 1. Want a Free Yeti Cooler? Hundreds Are Washing Up on Alaska’s Coast, 2. How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campus Life, 3. Eight Questions to Ask Your Aging Parents (and Yourself) to Keep Their Phones Safe From Hackers, 4. Here’s what to do if a payment app reports your cash gifts to the IRS, 5. I-Bonds Aren’t the Only Way to Fight Inflation.

News from the Control Tower: Our weekly curated list of news stories affecting you and your finances. This week’s reads include: 1. Jerome Powell Signals Fed Prepared to Slow Rate-Rise Pace in December 2. Meet the Man on a Mission to Expose Sneaky Price Increases 3. Lean in? Maybe not. Women leaders fare the worst when it comes to retirement savings 4. How stores ended up with too many (wrong) clothes 5. Better late than never! Take it from these late bloomers who followed their dreams Bonus: For those needing a dose of wanderlust, try the next chapter of McKenzie Barney and partner’s cycling journey from Cairo to Cape Town.