MI Perspective Articles
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Annuity Buyers Beware, Part 2: S&P 500 Capped Strategy
My clients know I’m no fan of annuities. In our first article on the monthly point-to-point strategy Annuity Buyers Beware, Part 1, I showed how that strategy favors the house like a casino game. Let’s turn to the equally troubling S&P 500 Capped Strategy used in fixed indexed annuities (FIAs) and related index-linked approaches. The […]
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Annuity Buyers Beware, Part 1: S&P Monthly Point-to-Point Strategy, and Why It’s a Bad Bet
If you’ve discussed financial products with me at any length, you know I’m not a fan of annuities. They’re overly complicated and an opaque investment product that I don’t feel comfortable recommending for long-term investment, especially not for retirement planning. Some financial products are complicated due to their nature, while others are artificially complex. A […]
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Three Charts That Sum It All Up
What we have seen in the markets over the past week is historic. We will be talking about this for years to come. Trump’s tariff policy rollout will be discussed alongside other major stock market shocks, such as the COVID-19 crisis and 9/11. Regardless of one’s opinion on the policy itself, shocks like this from […]
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How to begin Your Investment Journey
My sister-in-law recently celebrated her 50th birthday with a party in Florida, and it was such a blast! Around 100 people showed up, including her college friends, childhood buddies, and family members. We had an amazing time, and I haven’t laughed that much in a long time! One of the highlights of the event was […]
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2025 Market Themes
2025 Themes – 2024 marks second banner year in a row. Stock market is high, but economy shows little signs of weakness. Enthusiasm over new administration. Rolling back regulation and extending tax cuts should benefit both Wall Street and Main Street.
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2025 Interest Rates
2025: Let’s Talk Interest Rates Interest rates continue to be a major investment theme leading into 2025. We are several months into a Federal Reserve easing cycle which began in September of 2024. Over this time the Federal Reserve has lowered the Fed Funds rate by 1 percentage point. One of the tools we use […]
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Data Center Mania: Investing in Data Centers
Digital transformation continues at an unprecedented pace, this time driven by huge strides in artificial intelligence. Data centers are an often overlooked yet critical part of this transformation, which comes with challenges and opportunities for investing in data centers as we move toward a world powered by AI. Since AI requires significantly more computing power […]
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4 Reasons We Like Gold
Usually, when someone starts beating on gold’s drum, it’s to talk about how gold is a safe-haven asset that could protect your assets even in the event of societal collapse. But I’m not here to preach doom and gloom or predict some unforeseeable catastrophe. Instead, I’m looking at the current economic landscape and seeing that […]
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August Market Volatility
Is This A Correction Or Recession? In the last three trading days, we have experienced significant volatility. This has, rightfully so, gotten investors very nervous about the future of the US economy. Investors are asking, “Is this a correction or recession”. Well, at the moment, it looks like this is simply a pullback/correction in the […]