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The article focuses on the significance of consulting the best adviser before giving out investment advice in the U.S. It is noted that some investment brokers are compelled to follow fiduciary standard at a higher level. Investors are recommended to consider the confusing different credentials of the brokers.

The article reports on the decade-long bull market that keeps rolling which became the longest such run in U.S. history on August 22, 2018. Topics discussed include the question faced by investors of whether they should be taking some money off the table and ideas for investors such as considering whether their tolerance has changed in terms of what sort of drop they could tolerate and considering how much risk their plans require.

The article reports on the recent introduction by Fidelity of two new index mutual funds that have no fees whatsoever. Topics discussed include a claim by analysts that the promise of no fees puts the company in a position to sell other products and services, the pressure it puts on other index-fund providers to lower fees, and an emerging industry trend toward lower-cost investing.

The article focuses on products that can provide retirees with pension like stream of income with valuable benefit that can bring level of financial security and mentions annuity brokers often collect commissions of money invested.

The article discusses the difficulties encountered by investors in understanding annuities. Topics discussed include the investment returns and the history of the introduction of annuities in the U.S., the details of elementary school teacher Melanie Panush Lindert's experience with annuities and her move to mutual funds to generate retirement income and the pros and cons of annuities, according to mathematicians.

The author discusses money app PiggyBot which is recommended for children, tools for people to increase investments and savings and listening to music through wireless speaker Sonos.

The author discusses for older people invested in stocks, the performance of market in retirement can have effect on one's portfolio and mentions that one needs to sell shares to get the cash that one needs.

The article discusses the psychological reasons why people play lottery games such as the Powerball jackpot lottery. Topics include the probability of winning, comments on the psychology of gamblers according to psychologist Daniel Kahneman, as well as investment strategies for lottery winnings. Also discussed is the role that the number of lottery ticket purchases plays in calculating the probability of winning.

Most investors don't realize that when they walk into a bank or brokerage firm branch, the representatives there are essentially free to emblazon their business cards with whatever titles they please -- financial consultants, advisers, wealth managers, to name a few. But if you're looking for someone who is qualified to give smart advice about all aspects of your financial life while keeping costs down, you may not be in the right place. The issue came up again earlier this week in an article by my colleagues at The New York Times, who quoted former JPMorgan Chase brokers as saying they were encouraged to promote the firm's own funds to customers even when more competitive investments were available. Not only were the funds expensive, but the bank also exaggerated at least one investment portfolio's returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JPMorgan Chase's giant trading loss began as an effort to manage the bank's risks -- a move that turned into something that now looks more like a speculative bet. But don't think this is solely a big-bank problem. Even small investors can run into trouble discerning the fine line between hedging and risk taking. Investors can try to limit their risks by holding down their stock exposure through diversified investments. But many people are still depending on the market's engine -- perhaps more than they might think -- to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, say, or pay for their children's college educations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the law partners at Dewey & LeBoeuf, losing their jobs may be the least of their worries. They are likely to lose the money they were required to invest in the firm. They could lose their pensions. They may have to give back money they have already been paid. And even if creditors eventually agree to accept a small portion of what they are owed, the partners may owe taxes on the forgiven debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So much of our financial lives requires regular maintenance -- whether it's updating who's going to inherit what, checking that you're not paying too much for car insurance or making sure your investments, particularly your retirements savings, are still working for you. As the markets ebb and flow, the mix of investments that you originally put into place will probably change shape over time. And if you let your portfolio roam free for too long, your long-term plan can be thrown off kilter. Your retirement savings could become too heavily invested in stocks, potentially magnifying your losses when the market takes its next dive. Or your savings could become too conservative, and that's a problem, too. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Achieving financial security in retirement is hard enough for most working Americans. But for those who lost their jobs just as the finish line was within sight, the whole notion may now seem out of reach. Older unemployed people face the double whammy of declining home values and an investment portfolio that has been treading water, at best. But they have also lost the one stabilizing factor that was supposed to see them through: a paycheck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some big retirement plans offer investors the chance to hire an independent adviser that can help them choose their investments. But your plan provider will soon be able to offer the advice itself, as long as it meets rules issued recently by the Department of Labor. Before the new regulations, which are effective Dec. 27, 401(k), individual retirement plan providers were required to hire an independent adviser to provide advice. That's because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the law known as Erisa that governs retirement plans, prohibited advisers from recommending investments if they were paid for other services like administering the plans in the first place. This was to avoid conflicts of interest where the administrator would put its own mutual funds on the menu and push them on participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What would you do if your financial planner prescribed the following advice? Save and invest diligently for 30 years, then cross your fingers and pray your investments will double over the last decade before you retire. You might as well go to Las Vegas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Investors have flocked to the ''set it and forget it'' style of mutual funds known as target-date funds, where the mix of investments automatically becomes more conservative as the retirement date approaches. But when the markets plunged, it became readily apparent that some funds did a better job of protecting investors than others. What was most surprising, however, was the wide variation in performance among funds with the same target date. And most alarmingly, some 2010 funds lost more than the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Want to build an inexpensive investment portfolio? Now you have access to supercheap building blocks, as well as easy instructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

You can add Vanguard to the list of brokerage companies that have lowered their trading commissions and waived trading fees on exchange-traded funds, a move that will apply to all 46 of its funds. Exchange-traded funds are basically mutual funds that trade like stocks. They are pegged to indexes that track different parts of the market. E.T.F.'s also tend to be less expensive and more tax-efficient than their mutual fund counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most everyone needs financial advice. The big question is how much. There are tens of thousands of advisers out there, with varying levels of expertise, who charge varying fees for their services. And professional advice doesn't guarantee good returns. You need look no further for evidence than the market collapse of 2008-9, when most people lost money, even those with the supposedly ideal mix of investments, hand-picked by their financial planners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Target-date funds have come under fire in recent months for failing to shelter investors, especially those near retirement, from the market maelstrom. Many of the funds -- which are supposed to have an increasingly conservative investment mix as an investor reaches a retirement date -- failed investors last year. But so did a lot of broadly diversified portfolios carefully customized by financial planners. The market collapse spared no one (except for those heavily invested in Treasuries, of course). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It's the time of year when personal finance writers offer suggestions on end-of-the-year tax planning. The problem this year is that there are so many unknowns. Are tax increases in the works? Will you keep your job next year? Will your income drop? And what about all those terrible investment losses? Even some tax experts are scratching their heads. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]