I spoke at the Trust Advisors Forum conference in Pinehurst earlier this year on the topic of Millennials and investing, and one of the things I discussed was some of the emerging technology and apps in the world of personal finance. This included Robinhood, the trading app that targets millennials...
I was up in Houghton, MI a couple weekends ago to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Applied Portfolio Management Program (APMP), a program I was a part of when I was a student at Michigan Tech and now serve on the board of. The program allows students to manage...
There are two basic types or retirement accounts. The first is the tax-deferred type. This is your traditional 401(k) or traditional IRA. Money that goes in is pre-tax or tax-deductible, the funds grow tax-deferred, and then you pay income taxes on the distributions in retirement (after age 591/2). The second...
I recently received an email from Marcus—Goldman Sachs’ relatively new entrant into the online banking business—saying they increased the yield on my savings account to 1.80%. Synchrony Bank, the online bank formerly part of GE Capital, had upped the yield on their high-yield savings accounts to 1.75%, and Marcus simply...
Now I am Become GE, the Destroyer of Wealth There was an article in the Wall Street Journal last month about a gentleman by the name of Gary Zabroski. Mr. Zabroski was a lifer at GE, putting in 40 years at the company and retiring as a punch press operator in...
“Can I ask you a question?” “Sure!” “Are you happy?” “Well, I got a boat, good friends, and a trampoline. You tell me.” That was a revelational series of dialogue from the 30 Rock episode where fictional GE executive Jack Donaghy went to Liz Lemon’s high school reunion and realized...
To say Amazon — a stock I like, by the way — has disrupted the retail industry would be an understatement. They are gutting brick and mortar down to the studs, and they haven’t stopped there. The Whole Foods acquisition was a major shot across the bow for the grocery...
One summer, maybe ten years ago, I was sitting out on the deck of the Downtowner Lounge in Houghton, MI sharing a few laughs with good friends. We were enjoying the summer day with 2-for-1 beers and double cocktails, with the lift bridge that spans the Portage Canal serving as...
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld somewhat famously — at least in financial nerd circles — sends a letter to the IRS every year on Tax Day railing against the complexities of the U.S. tax code. Last year’s letter included this: Despite having performed this civic duty for over half a...
© 2025 · EmeraldSpark Investments, LLC.
Notifications