Dennis Miller
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Current Columns and Articles |
2015-02-19 Feature Article
Safety in Numbers, Protection in Options
How option collars can provide additional downside protection
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2015-01-21 Feature Article
Can a Doublewide Save Your Retirement?
The secret to saving your retirement is hiding in plain sight.
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2015-01-15 Feature Article
The Most Overlooked Threat to Your Buying Power
Find the best alternatives to low-yield cash accounts eating away at the buying powers of savers.
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2015-01-14 Feature Article
Five Financial Keys to Fatherhood, Not Friendship
Raise adult children who can pay their own way and save your own retirement.
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2014-12-22 Feature Article
The Ideal Year-End Portfolio Fix
Rebalance your retirement portfolio at least annually for optimal protection against the next downturn.
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2014-12-12 Feature Article
Mastering the Art of Financial Backtalk
How income investors can prepare for a dangerous and inevitable market event.
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2014-11-18 Feature Article
Will You Light $180,000 on Fire by Taking Social Security at Age 62?
Optimizing your Social Security payments hinges on more than the age you at which you start receiving benefits.
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2014-11-11 Feature Article
Why Janet Yellen Needs Her Own Magic Show
Yellen's ever-changing justifications for the Fed's zero-interest-rate policy are nothing but smoke and mirrors.
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2014-10-21 Feature Article
Is Gold as Dead as Florida Hurricanes?
Gold is still the ultimate insurance against widespread economic mayhem.
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2014-09-23 Feature Article
Home Healthcare Cuts Threaten 500,000 Jobs and Put Female-Owned Businesses at Risk
The Affordable Health Care Act's cuts to home healthcare are poised to destroy 5,000 businesses and 500,000 jobs.
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2014-09-11 Feature Article
Floating-Rate Funds Poised to Profit as Interest Rates Rise
Floating-rate funds are positioned to profit as unsustainably low interest rates start to rise.
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2014-09-09 Feature Article
What Chimpanzees Can Teach Us about Convertible Bonds
In a renewed commitment to finally learn Spanish, one of my colleagues spent quite a bit of time this week awkwardly saying, "Qué es eso?" into the headset Rosetta Stone provides with its language learning programs. Translation: "What's that
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2014-09-02 Feature Article
I Didn't Believe the IRS Anyway
The Internal Revenue Service's turnabout regarding Lois Lerner's missing emails offers insight into how we know when to trust or not.
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2014-08-28 Feature Article
How You Can Play to Win When Market Makers Are Calling the Shots
The American Legion sponsored a carnival every summer when I was a young lad. My dad was a legionnaire, so each year I had a job. Beginning at age 12, I hauled soft drinks and food to the various concession booths well into the night, which probably
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2014-08-26 Feature Article
65,000 Marines Hold up a Mirror to the Economy
Questionable data send mixed signals about the health of the economy.
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2014-08-21 Feature Article
Getting the Most Value from Your "Geriatric Cruiser"
Learn the real toll car depreciation takes on your net worth.
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2014-08-14 Feature Article
If Mr. Rogers Ruled Wall Street
Learn how retail investors can access the best investment information.
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2014-08-12 Feature Article
A Bridge Party and a Trip through TSA - When Stock Diversification Gets out of Hand
There are only a handful of ways to protect your investment portfolio, and proper diversification is chief among them. No matter how well you do your due diligence on a single investment or how disciplined you are at executing trades, if your portfol
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2014-07-25 Feature Article
Tap in to Your Inner Feminist-Real Estate Mogul Without Holding Real Property
The new book titled #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso"reformed petty thief and CEO of a $100 million online clothing store"is the latest "live and work as I do if you want to succeed" book from a string of brand-building female executives. Facebook COO She
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2014-07-15 Feature Article
Kill Peter Pan: How to Make "Home" Unwelcoming In a World Where 26 Equals 18
My youngest son, who is now in his 50s, asked me what it felt like when all the children left the nest. I thought for a moment and said:
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2014-06-26 Feature Article
A Guy Leans on a Lamppost… and You Make a Buck
To paraphrase Scottish novelist Andrew Lang, some people use statistics like a drunk uses lampposts"for support rather than illumination. Numbers can be twisted and abused to support false claims, and even correct data is sometimes misinterpreted.
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2014-06-24 Feature Article
5 Women Who Made Me Rich and What They Can Teach You
My grandmother refused to share the heart-wrenching details until I was in the Marine Corps. I'd heard bits and pieces about my ne'er-do-well father but didn't fully grasp the devastation he'd left behind until Grandmother spilled the story with tear
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2014-06-19 Feature Article
The US Economy Is Still in the High-Danger Zone
Our economy is still in the high-danger zone.
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2014-06-05 Feature Article
How to Die in Dignity Without Leaving Your Spouse to Starve
We'd all been waiting for the big day, but the chapel the ceremony took place in was very small"just a room with Christian symbols and a few chairs. My wife Jo's father was waiting for us in his hospital bed, grinning from ear to ear. Despite the fee
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2014-06-03 Feature Article
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The "Nuclear Solution" to Underfunded Public Pensions
With few exceptions, state and local pension funds are woefully underfunded. Five heavily populated states"California, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas"collectively lack $431.5 billion; money that won't be paid out to hopeful pensioners.
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2014-05-27 Feature Article
Is It Time to Hide Your Money Under the Mattress?
“I don’t know what to do,” said my good friend Rob after inviting my wife Jo and me to dinner for the third time in two weeks. “I know I should do something. Every time I think about it, it scares the hell out of me! Maybe I should just hide everythi
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2014-05-15 Feature Article
How to Manage a Crisis… Before It Happens
My wife Jo and I live in Central Florida, and having ridden out a few hurricanes in our lives, we’re as well prepared as we can be for emergencies. We have, among other things, a generator, food, batteries, candles, and a water purification kit.
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2014-05-09 Feature Article
Collateral Damage: What You and Monica Lewinsky Have in Common
Collateral damage can assume many forms"and though some may be more newsworthy than others, the latter are no less real, nor any less frightening.
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2014-05-01 Feature Article
Retirement Guard Duty 101
Constant vigilance is imperative for seniors, savers and income investors. It allows for flexibility in response to market conditions when a coming storm threatens the security of investments. It’s possible to maneuver into a safer position when you
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2014-04-29 Feature Article
Kitchen-Table Economics
All too many people allow fear to immobilize them when it comes to investing for their own retirement. Many of these people are capable, successful and intelligent and have often made millions for their businesses in their respective fields. There’s
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2014-04-24 Feature Article
Not All Debt Is Created Equal
Optimal diversification: We all want it. Diversification is, after all, the holy grail of portfolio management. Our senior research analyst Andrey Dashkov has said that many times before, and he echoes that refrain in his editorial guest spot below.
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2014-04-22 Feature Article
Do Not Let The Next Downturn Leave You Penniless
Having a good, balanced portfolio means having an investing strategy that brings healthy returns while protecting your nest egg from risk. The best possible way to protect any portfolio is by diversifying. It seems like a mantra to many, but many hav
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2014-04-10 Feature Article
Escape the Toy Trap
The toy trap: we all have friends who’ve fallen in. I received a wave of emails after publishing Debt: The Last Social Taboo?, all sharing similar sad stories.
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2014-04-09 Feature Article
Learn to Trust Your Own Financial Judgment
Keep this goal in mind as you read on: solid income and growth with minimal risk and no catastrophic losses. Just tuck it in the back of your head.
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2014-04-03 Feature Article
What Is Worse Than Being at Risk?
You may have heard the old adage: “What is worse than being lost? Not knowing you are lost.” In that same vein: What is worse than being at risk? You guessed it! Not knowing you’re at risk.
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2014-04-01 Feature Article
Thin Your Waist to Fatten Your Wallet
Dieting is a four-letter word to many, but a necessary evil for an equal number of people. Losing weight is not only good for your health, it can also be good for your wallet. On average, people aged 65+ spend more than $5,000 per year on health-rela
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2014-03-25 Feature Article
The Three Stooges Debunk myRA
The mention of a government-backed IRA in Obama’s state of the union address earlier this year may look like a good deal. After all, who wouldn’t want a retirement account with the full backing of the US government? But, despite its fanfare, myRA may
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2014-03-20 Feature Article
Juniors for Seniors: An Interview with Louis James
The junior resource market has been a bear for the last couple of years, but no matter what happens with this market there can be a place for it even in the most conservative of portfolios. Dennis interviews Louis James, editor of Casey International
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2014-03-18 Feature Article
Reverse Mortgages 101
Just because you can apply for a reverse mortgage doesn’t mean you should. First, you need to get a basic understanding of what it is, who can take advantage of it, and how it works. Get a general idea of how these work, as well as who is poised to b
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2014-03-13 Feature Article
Why Unemployment Rates Matter to Your Retirement
Undoubtedly, unemployment is important for retirees and soon-to-be retirees. Also important is understanding the inflation rate as it’s reporting by the US. Both numbers seem to have been improving over the past few reporting periods, but those measu
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2014-03-11 Feature Article
5 Red Flags to Notice When Working with an Advisor
There are some key ways to find out if your financial advisor is working with your best interest in mind " and if they have the skill required to handle your nest egg. We’ve identified the top 5 red flags that will help you quickly determine whether
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2014-03-06 Feature Article
Maximizing Your IRA: An Interview with Terry Coxon
Smart savers have a retirement account, but few understand the difference between the different types of retirement accounts available. It’s hard to know whether to keep money in a traditional 401(k) or move it into an IRA or Roth IRA or if there are
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2014-03-04 Feature Article
And the Band Plays On
Quantitative Easing (QE) is no longer a surprise, but the fact that it's continued for so long is. Like many Miller’s Money readers, I believe the government cannot continue to pay its bills by having the Federal Reserve buy debt with newly created m
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2014-02-27 Feature Article
The Ty Cobb Approach to Retirement Investing
Swinging for the fences isn’t always the best tact when you’re talking about investing. Income investors and savers prefer a little more steadiness, and a whole lot less risk. There are ways to allocate your portfolio to bring in the gains you need t
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2014-02-25 Feature Article
Bernanke’s Legacy
Ben Bernanke’s reign as Fed chairman has come to an end, and he’s leaving behind quite the legacy. Among his accolades, he’s bailed out “too big to fail” banks, continued to buy Treasure bonds in order to keep interest rates down, forced seniors to p
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2014-02-20 Feature Article
Master Limited Partnerships Generate Safe Income for Seniors and Savers
In his quest for new vehicles to combat risk while still gaining yield, Dennis and his team have turned their eye to Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) to see identify the potential for seniors and savers. MLPs and how they work can be somewhat compl
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2014-02-18 Feature Article
The Lay of the Land
It’s murky times for income investors, or retirees struggling to live off of their nest eggs. The inability to place money in CDs has left many feeling lost. When “father always said…” advice no longer applies, and the old ways to grow robust portfol
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2014-02-13 Feature Article
A Second Look at Bonds
Traditionally, bonds have been looked at as one of the safest investments around. To see whether this is really true, we first define safety and its counterpart risk. Then we look at the top 3 risks investments have to see if bonds pass all three cat
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2014-02-11 Feature Article
65 Is Not a Magic Number
Just because you've reached 65 doesn't mean you have to retire - that is, if you don't want to. There are many people out there who stick with a job well past "retirement age" simply because they enjoy it. Unfortunately, there are also people out the
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2014-02-06 Feature Article
Debt: The Last Social Taboo?
Social taboos have dropped left and right since I was a young man raising a family, but one is unlikely to disappear any time soon: holding too much personal debt. But debt need not be a personal tragedy nor a badge of shame. For some, it is simply a
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2014-02-04 Feature Article
Pension Promises Go Unfulfilled
In years past, if a person spent years working for a company, and was promised a pension plan, they could ease into retirement, knowing they would be secure and no longer have to worry about money. Nowadays, folks who trust to their pensions can end
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2014-01-28 Feature Article
Defend Your Life
Obamacare still seems like a vague thing to most folks, particularly to those who may be most affected by it. Dr. Vliet, an independent physician herself, dives into the areas of the law that impact seniors the most and offers some tips on how to bet
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2014-01-23 Feature Article
Laddering Adds Another Layer of Protection
Laddering reminds most people of a strategy often used when owning multiple CDs. Back when interest rates made them worthwhile, if you were trying to arrange cash flow, you could stagger the maturity dates of your CDs so you always had one maturing i
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2014-01-21 Feature Article
Ten Pillars of Financial Independence
Too often, when folks receive an increase in pay they will run out and buy more toys with the extra money instead of putting it to work for them. In extreme cases - where people receive a huge windfall - it's not uncommon to hear that they blew all o
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2014-01-16 Feature Article
Having No Exposure to Energy Risk is Risky
Seniors and savers may not think that investing in energy stocks is a safe enough investment for their portfolios, but there are ways to get exposure to this market without taking undue risk. Dennis sits down with Marin Katusa, senior editor of Casey
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2014-01-14 Feature Article
How to Profit During High Inflation
Some companies are better than others at pivoting their strategies to overcome inflation or other cost-increasing concerns. The best companies can push cost increases out to the market quickly (think gas companies), allowing them to stay profitable e
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2014-01-09 Feature Article
Some Lessons Cannot Be Learned from an iPad
In this modern world, 3-year-olds can typically navigate iPads and/or other techie gadgets. Instead of lugging backpacks full of books to school, they simply take their tablets with them and read their books on them.
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2014-01-07 Feature Article
How to Find the Best One-of-a-Kind Investments for You
In order to help their patients, doctors must first understand the underlying causes of any symptoms being exhibited. Similarly, investors who are seeking to understand lackluster performance also need to understand the underlying causes of their sym
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2014-01-02 Feature Article
The Ultimate Layer of Financial Protection
Seniors and savers may not think that moving assets abroad is within their scope, but it most definitely should be. Dennis sits down with Nick Giambruno, editor of International Man and expert on all things international, to discuss why seniors and s
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2013-12-31 Feature Article
Death and Taxes: How Inevitable Are They Really?
With the advent of more and more anti-aging and life-extension R&D in the biotech field"a subject my colleague Alex Daley knows all about"death may not be as inevitable as we think. While I don't believe that I will be among the lucky ones to reach a
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2013-12-26 Feature Article
Advancing to Level II: A Bulletproof Retirement
A truly balanced portfolio doesn't just ensure protection against any one investment going south - it also considers the day-to-day financial needs of the investor and their risk profile. The old adages we used to know about retirement no longer appl
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2013-12-24 Feature Article
Five Moves to Make Before 2014
The end-of-the-year marks Thanksgiving, holiday parties and the anticipation of a new year. It's easy to forget to reflect on the past year - and to make sure your annual priorities have been met. With Obamacare coming in just a matter of days, there
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2013-12-19 Feature Article
Turn off the Tube, Tune out the Media, and Drop out of December Madness
We are often giving retirees information on the risks facing their portfolios from all sorts of angles. At this time of year, we take a moment to reflect on the things that retirees have to be thankful for - and there are many! Read about some of the
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2013-12-17 Feature Article
Stop Running Scared: Overcome Your Money-Management Phobia
Most folks think an inheritance or other windfall would be very exciting, but on the rare occasions that it happens many are terrified they'll lose it. The best armor anyone has when it comes to investing, whether for income or for growth, is informa
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2013-12-12 Feature Article
Six Traits of Successful Retirees
When I coached baseball many years ago, a young ballplayer came to me asking for advice. I offered my opinion: he needed to get his act together.
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2013-12-10 Feature Article
How to Judge Your Financial Advisor
Contrary to what many people think, your return on investment isn't the right way to judge your financial advisor. There are other key areas you need to consider before giving him or her a pat on the back or firing him or her on the spot. Find out wh
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2013-12-05 Feature Article
Taxes Don’t Matter… Until They Do
Since the latter part of 2008, the yield on cash has been so low that sheltering it from taxes didn't seem to matter. But if"as we expect"high rates of price inflation are waiting in the not-too-distant future, then sheltering interest income will be
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2013-12-03 Feature Article
Gasoline: $1/Gallon
Inflation is one of the guiltiest parties in the erosion of our wealth. It's relatively common to hear folks complain about how everything is getting more expensive, but it's not the items themselves causing the price hikes - it's the diminishing pur
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2013-11-29 Feature Article
How to Find Safe Yields in an Interest-Rate-Sensitive World
While Mr. Bernanke's policies have taken a toll on seniors and savers, his mere mention of the word "taper" last spring did us all a favor. It sent interest rates rising, bond and stock prices tumbling, and in the days that followed, the Fed went int
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2013-11-26 Feature Article
Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing?
As the writer of a prominent monthly newsletter, Dennis receives numerous questions from subscribers. Some questions come in more often than others and many revolve around individual stocks and how much should be bought.
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2013-11-21 Feature Article
Street Smarts"Staying in the Game
Fifty-eight percent of workers have not even tried to calculate how much they need for retirement, let alone put a plan in place. To stay in the game, you have to get in the game. As a reader of articles like this, you are already past that hurdle.
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2013-11-19 Feature Article
Getting the Most from Your 401(k)
Most people aren't active enough in their own retirement planning. Those who invest heavily in their 401(k)s often find themselves coming up short when it comes to retirement.
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2013-11-14 Feature Article
Living on Two Paychecks or on Too Many Expectations?
People often question why it's necessary to have two paychecks to make ends meet nowadays. Back in the 1950s one paycheck was more than enough to support a household. If you fast forward to today and take a critical look at our lifestyles, you'll see
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2013-11-12 Feature Article
Picking Winners in a Field of Losers
The junior mining industry is hotter than it has been in years. Stocks are trading at HUGE discounts for companies that are otherwise going strong. In this interview with Louis James, senior editor at Casey International Speculator, Dennis dives into
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2013-10-31 Feature Article
Kiss Your Pension Goodbye!
Our country is suffering from a disease that's slowly eating away the pensions and government programs that we rely on for our retirement savings. While politicians and business leaders agree there is a problem, very few are willing to even admit tha
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2013-10-29 Feature Article
The Postal Worker Assumed the Gun Wasn’t Loaded
Many people rely on government-funded programs like Social Security and Medicare to partially fund their retirements. Others have pensions that make up the majority of their portfolios.
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2013-10-24 Feature Article
How to Be a David to Wall Street Goliaths
Does the little guy ever really stand a chance in the market? Well… did David take down Goliath?
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2013-10-22 Feature Article
A Million Dollars Isn’t What It Used to Be
We all share a common goal: to grow our nest eggs and make sure they last over the long haul. Our generation was taught to live off the interest and never touch the principal, but interest rates for CDs and Treasuries no longer allow for that. Frankl
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2013-10-15 Feature Article
Magic Retirement Numbers: As Real as Every Elvis on the Las Vegas Strip
Many folks find their "magic retirement number" when they are young and fully believe that if they hit that number, they will live the retirement of their dreams. What they don't realize is the number of assumptions that have gone into calculating th
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2013-10-11 Feature Article
My Antidote to the Dirty Obamacare Pill
I wish I never had to write this article, but I cannot put it off any longer. There are life-threatening secrets you need to know today.
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2013-10-10 Feature Article
How to Avoid a Devastating Retirement Planning Mistake
It is no longer safe to assume that a retirement goal is reached if it is done largely through pensions, Social Security and savings. Former Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker, recently spoke with us on what he perceives to be the
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2013-10-08 Feature Article
When the Offense Changes, the Defense Needs to Adapt
When it comes to just about any sport, you don’t blindly use a strategy without considering your opponent’s next move, his strengths, and his weaknesses. To win, you have to adapt.
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2013-10-04 Feature Article
The Ultimate Layer of Financial Protection
Nick Giambruno speaks with the always-insightful Dennis Miller about the critical importance of internationalizing your retirement savings.
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2013-10-03 Feature Article
Stock Physics: How Newton’s Third Law of Motion Applies to the Market
From a ball bouncing up off the floor to an earthquake triggering a tsunami, Newton's third law of motion tells us a lot about how the world works. Most of us can recite the abridged version of the law by heart: Every action has an equal and opposite
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2013-10-01 Feature Article
Getting Your Hands on Real Research
When my father-in-law died, my wife and I took over the responsibility of looking after her mother, who I affectionately called "grandma." We quickly connected with a very nice lady who was a broker at one of the top brokerage firms in the country.
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2013-09-26 Feature Article
Just Say No to the Fed Head
Recent praise of Obama's new choice for Federal Reserve Chairman, Janet Yellen, may be misplaced.
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2013-09-24 Feature Article
Where to Find Yield Without Dividend Stocks, Bonds, or CDs
Since the 2008 market crash and real estate bust American households have been deleveraging to clear off burdensome household debts. But many still have a hard time saving for retirement or even just making their income meet their day to day expenses
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2013-09-19 Feature Article
Tortoises Win the Retirement Race
People are having children later in life, which leaves them with less time to accumulate savings for retirement.
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2013-09-17 Feature Article
Getting Shocked by Utility Stocks
Utility stocks are traditionally thought of as safe investments, no matter what happens at Wall Street.
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2013-09-12 Feature Article
Are You Really Retired Just Because You Stopped Working?
Those in retirement age often find it difficult to actually stop working. They’ve been holding down one job or another for anywhere from 40 " 50 years, depending on when they started and when they retire.
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2013-09-11 Feature Article
How to Cut Your Mutual Fund Fees By Up to 90%
Most mutual funds don’t come close to beating the indexes they’re compared against. And yet they carry steep fees for active management. In the example of one of Dennis’ friends he paid 1.38% and made 6% on his mutual fund. In reality the fund made 7
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2013-09-04 Feature Article
How Fed Policy Has Devastated Three Generations of Retirees
Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials are all suffering from the effects of the ZIRP virus
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2013-09-03 Feature Article
How to Marry a Millionaire… And Not Die a Pauper
A recent article penned by Jeff Sommer for The New York Times noted that in 1953, when How to Marry a A million dollars used to mean something not too long ago. When I was growing up it meant basically what $8.7 million means today.
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2013-08-29 Feature Article
5 Ways To Protect and Grow Your Retirement: Whether You’re 45 or 75 or Somewhere In Between
Your retirement dreams have never been in a more perilous situation, at least not in the memory of anyone alive today. Rising taxes and health care costs, diminishing benefits and next to nothing yields have forced seniors and those saving for retire
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2013-08-27 Feature Article
Custom-Made Retirement
Whether we work during retirement or not should be our own choice, not the result of circumstances beyond our control. Unfortunately as many seniors approach retirement age they find they just don’t have that option, and must keep slogging at their d
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2013-08-22 Feature Article
What’s the Point of Owning All This Stuff?
Most of us accumulate way too much during our lifetime and at some point must make the difficult decision about what to keep and what to purge.
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2013-08-20 Feature Article
Four Benchmarks to Keep Your Retirement Finances on Track
In the not too distant past it was easy to figure out how much you needed to save for retirement, what your investment allocation should be, and how much risk to take on.
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2013-08-15 Feature Article
You Don’t Plan on Being Retired Very Long, Do You?
Most people thinking of retirement think back to the “old” days with generous pensions, defined benefits, and employers and government looking out for our interest. It’s different now, pensions are gone and employers and government alike are looking
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2013-08-13 Feature Article
The Illusion of Safe Investing
When many of us were younger we learned that the safest place to put your money was in a bank issued certificate of deposit. It’s insured by the government and the bank will pay you interest until maturity.
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2013-08-08 Feature Article
A Lousy Investment that May Be a Good Source of Income
Many seniors are turning to the equity in their homes to help cover the bills during retirement. For many, this is simply because their income has dried up but the bills keep coming.
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2013-08-06 Feature Article
When Does It Make Sense to Pay High Mutual Fund Fees?
Most mutual funds don’t come close to beating the indexes they’re compared against. And yet they carry steep fees for active management. In this article Dennis turns to senior analyst Vedran Vuk to explain how to find comparable low-fee ETFs to repla
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2013-08-01 Feature Article
5 Point Test for Every Investment
The issue is no longer one of waiting to see what the government is going to do; the real issue is what are we as investors going to do?
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2013-07-30 Feature Article
Should You Trust Your Instincts on Gold?
With a rising stock market based on cheap credit it’s really no wonder that gold and other precious metals have taken a hit. Investors move money to where they think they can get the best return in good times or the best protection in bad times, at l
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2013-07-25 Feature Article
Investing When You Think We’re in a Bubble
Older investors are starved for income investments that don’t require them to take on undue risk. The days of 7% CDs are gone and not coming back any time soon. There are however, investments were we can still get decent yield if we’re willing to tak
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2013-07-23 Feature Article
Should You Borrow Money to Make Investments?
It’s high time investors heed the yellow caution flags waving in front of their margin accounts. Much like the NASCAR driver who pumps his brakes to avoid disaster when he sees the caution flag, it's time for us to slow down.
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2013-07-18 Feature Article
Enough Money to Live Until We Die
A majority of seniors are more worried about running out of money until they die than actually death itself. It makes sense, while death is a singular event, being broke in old age can drag on for years coupled with fear and misery.
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2013-07-15 Feature Article
How Long Will You Work When You Should Be Retired?
Many retirees work during retirement, some by choice following a passion and others by necessity to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Increasingly it’s the latter group that is growing faster.
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2013-07-05 Feature Article
Reducing the Risky Part of Risk
While investing in the market is a little like gambling in a casino, when we invest part of our hard-earned nest egg, we want to tilt the odds in our favor before placing any bets.
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2013-07-03 Feature Article
Turning a Subsistence Retirement into a Luxurious Retirement
It seems many investors these days, particularly seniors, either go it alone with no outside guidance or they completely abdicate responsibility to a financial advisor who may or may not have their best interests in mind. In this article we’ve tapped
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2013-06-27 Feature Article
How to Survive When Prices Double Every Day and a Half
Hyperinflation can destroy your life savings in a matter of months or less. We’ve seen again and again throughout history…Germany in the 1920s, Hungary in the 1940s, Yugoslavia in the 1990s and Zimbabwe just a few short years ago.
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2013-06-25 Feature Article
Will You Vote at the Next Annual Meeting?
Voting with your shares at company annual meetings is generally a boring affair. But sometimes things can really heat up…a shareholder activist is rallying the troops, management is making poor decisions, or there’s a potential acquisition…the list g
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2013-06-20 Feature Article
How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Variable Annuities
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2013-06-18 Feature Article
Real Estate Investing: Is Now the Time to Take Advantage of the Current Buyer’s Market?
While I spent well over three decades writing books and teaching the subject of negotiations, some of the best lessons I learned on the subject came from luck.
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2013-06-11 Feature Article
Wedding a Part of Your Portfolio to an Annuity… with Little Hope of a Quickie Divorce
Dennis turns to Stan the Annuity Man, a leading expert in the annuities industry, for his insights on how much of money to allocate to an annuity product. Stan is a firm believer that it’s better to have no annuity product than the wrong one and we r
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2013-06-07 Feature Article
How to Protect Your Cash in Times of Crisis
Do we really want the bulk of our life savings sitting with one company? What if they go belly-up?
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2013-06-03 Feature Article
Should You Buy an Annuity?
For many cash strapped seniors an annuity sounds like the perfect solution. And it can be if you think you’ll outlive your mortality date.
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2013-05-29 Feature Article
Is Real Estate Ever a Wise Investment for Retirees?
Being a landlord sounds like the path to riches: you buy some property, rent it out and watch the checks come in every month. The reality is that it’s a young man’s game.
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2013-05-21 Feature Article
The Cold, Hard Facts Behind Funding Your Retirement
Most people, depending on which side of retirement they’re on, feel they either won’t ever be able to retire or stay retired once they are. Many of us watched our parent’s generation put their retirement savings into CDs paying 6%+ and just living of
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2013-05-17 Feature Article
How to Choose a Financial Advisor
Many investors still rely on their stockbroker to play the role of financial advisor, even when that stockbroker is often little more than a salesperson for stocks.
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2013-05-14 Feature Article
Benefits Cuts and Higher Taxes for Seniors in Obama Budget: Are We Really Surprised?
There’s no money left in the Social Security fund, just a bunch of IOU’s from the Feds in the form of Treasuries.
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2013-05-09 Feature Article
Why Are So Many Seniors Still Working?
Dennis explains how the assumptions in the retirement calculations that many seniors used when they were younger no longer apply and why we’re seeing more seniors still in the workforce.
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2013-05-07 Feature Article
How to Buy Annuities (and When Not To)
Annuities are complicated products that require some basic homework to be done before requesting quotes.
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2013-05-04 Feature Article
Reaching for Yield
Investors who were used to collecting checks from 6%+ CDs just a few years ago are scrambling to find alternatives for investment income without taking on unnecessary risk. With the Fed keeping rates down for the foreseeable future, inflation coming
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2013-04-30 Feature Article
How to Profit from Risk
Live off the interest, and never touch the principal.
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2013-04-23 Feature Article
Investing in REITs Instead of Property: Our Pick
Most investors cannot afford to tie up hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate while waiting for it to appreciate, nor do they want to be bothered with the headaches of being a landlord.
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2013-04-16 Feature Article
Will Obama’s Chained CPI Help Keep Inflation from Eating into Your Savings?
This week we examine ways in which inflation nibbles away at your retirement income, especially in light of the President’s proposal for Chained CPI adjustments to Social Security.
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2013-04-09 Feature Article
Does the Fed Think Old People Are Really that Stupid?
Retirees are being attacked on three fronts: higher inflation, higher taxes, and lower yields, and the policies of the Federal Reserve have much to do with this.
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2013-04-01 Feature Article
When Should You Take Social Security? 62 or Full Retirement Age?
Dennis makes the case that for many retirees it makes sense to start receiving Social Security payments at age 62 rather than waiting until full retirement age or even longer. But it depends on how long you think you might live and how much you trust
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2013-03-28 Opinions
03-28-2013
The Real Inflation Rate and What to Do About It
Dennis polled his readers some weeks ago to find out what they think the real inflation rate is. They also shared their real life examples demonstrating that it’s much higher than the rate reported by the government.
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2013-03-26 Feature Article
What Does 8% Inflation Really Mean?
Following up on Dennis’ earlier article on the real inflation rate as described by his readers, Dennis provides actionable ideas for investors to manage their money in a high inflation environment.
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2013-03-21 Feature Article
Enough Money to Not Worry
When the way in which we produce income during retirement changes from what we’d envisioned it’s time to step back and truthfully consider three things: how to take on greater management of our retirement investments, what changes we should make in t
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2013-03-19 Feature Article
When Is Insurance a Good Investment?
Some people see insurance as an investment, especially insurance-like products like annuities. Dennis recommends readers stick with buying insurance for covering what it’s supposed to cover, like catastrophic events or even untimely death, and carefu
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2013-03-12 Feature Article
Captaining Your Own Retirement Ship
Dennis explains what can happen if you don’t take responsibility for your retirement finances and the simple steps anyone can take to get started. He offers a free copy of his Money Every Month income plan that explains how to build steady monthly in
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2013-03-05 Feature Article
5 Easy Tips for Picking Mutual Funds
In one our recent issues subscriber Jory G. sent us the following question: “I have a 401(k) with my present employer that has a number of investment options, virtually all of which are mutual funds. Is it possible for Mr. Miller to address in a futu
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2013-02-27 Feature Article
Cash Alternatives: Making Money Work for You
Just what are "cash" and "cash options?"
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2013-02-20 Feature Article
Who’s Living Large in Retirement?
Who fares better in retirement, pensioners or folks who saved up their own respective nest eggs?
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2013-02-12 Feature Article
High Yield Dividend Stocks: What Every Investor Should Look For
It can be mighty hard to earn any interest at all in today’s banking environment. Many investors are looking to riskier investments to find the kind of returns they once got from an FDIC-insured CD or even a savings account.
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2013-02-05 Feature Article
“We Buy Gold”
Florida Avenue is the main drag in our little town in central Florida. In less than a mile, you're likely to see three or four folks standing on the sidewalk wearing headphones, bopping to music, and waving big glittery signs or arrows with "We Buy G
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2013-01-28 Feature Article
Are You A Good Candidate for a Reverse Mortgage?
Two of the top subjects that my Money Forever readers have asked us to cover are annuities, specifically how to pick the right one and covered in the November issue with a companion “how-to” special report, and reverse mortgages.
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2013-01-22 Feature Article
The 12 Rules to Follow for Buying Dividend Stocks
Many of you have probably filled out one of the "retirement planner" forms available online. Plenty of tax and accounting programs also have "Lifetime Planner" sections for folks to determine if they can afford to retire.
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