Online Marketing Tools

As a young child, did you ever dream of having $1 million in the bank? I used to think that way, but my perspective changed over the years. $1 million is no longer a guarantee of financial freedom. For someone spending $200,000 a year in good health, $1 million won’t go very far during retirement. For someone else who spends $40,000 annually and has Social Security income, saving less than $1 million may be appropriate. Numbers can change. The stock market moves up and down. You may be in a high-paying career now but could end up in a lower-paying profession (or vice versa). Dr. Thomas J. Stanley thoroughly researched wealth-building behaviors and revealed the results in The Millionaire Next Door.

The yield curve predicts U.S. recessions remarkably well. In March, the yield curve hinted at a U.S. recession. Today, the inversion is broadening as the Fed hikes rates. A U.S. recession may coming. Here’s how the yield curve works and why it matters to financial markets. Economists aren’t prized for their forecasting skills. The yield curve, on the other hand, has a strong track record in calling recessions. The term structure of interest rates, which is the difference between short and long-bond yields, forecasts recessions relatively accurately. The yield curve has got a recession forecast wrong just once in the past 40 years according to Nicholas Burgess of Oxford University. That’s impressive.