Financial Planning Blog Posts

December 21, 2022 by Matt McCracken
I'm flipping through our Horseshoe Bay paper and I come across a fluff piece written by the local Edward Jones broker titled, "COLA is sweet for Social Security recipients." later in the day, I'm on Linkedin and one of my financial advisor peers...Read more
Money growing from coin jars
April 29, 2022 by Matt McCracken
As interest rates are going up, the question many investors are asking is, "How much will my bond holdings, or my bond-oriented mutual fund, depreciate?" As a general rule, for every 1% increase in interest rates, a bond will depreciate its duration...Read more
Morningstar logo
April 26, 2022 by Matt McCracken
I haven't gone to Morningstar (MS) in quite some time as I rarely use mutual funds or ETFs, but the other day, I wanted to look up a fund and for whatever reason, I punched in SPY. SPY is the largest ETF tracking the S&P 500 Index. And to my...Read more
Grandpa carrying his grandson on his shoulders
October 29, 2020 by Matt McCracken
If Biden wins on Tuesday, it could have a big impact on the Estate Tax issue. Making headlines is his promise to roll back the lifetime gift exemption from its current $11.58M to $5M per individual. Granted, while this may impact the Treasury’s...Read more
Edward Jones Logo
August 19, 2020 by Matt McCracken
In the most recent issue of our local newspaper, The Horseshoe Bay Beacon, an article was printed from Edward Jones titled, " How Can You Help Lower Your Longevity Risk? ". I thought I may weigh in on the topic since "making your nest egg last a...Read more
July 8, 2020 by Matt McCracken
Many years ago, I had a meeting with a rep from Altegris Investments. ( Altegris Investments is one of the foremost authorities on Managed Futures strategies and other kinds of alternative investments.) In the meeting, he proposed a thought...Read more
Pay phone
February 14, 2017 by Matt McCracken
I stopped to fill up my car at an HEB in San Antonio and, while I was paying $1.99 for gas, I saw the following and thought I must have just traveled back to 1998. A pay telephone. At a gas station. I hadn’t seen one of those in years. And it...Read more
April 17, 2015 by Matt McCracken
For quite some time, I have argued that the stock market is relatively expensive by historical standards and will therefore experience below average returns for the next decade. Recently, I developed a new and very simplistic means of calculating...Read more
December 23, 2014 by Matt McCracken
I am just listening to some music on Youtube and between every song, there now seems to be a commerical. I have now listened to a couple different messages from the folks at Charles Schwab. And the second one I was like, WOW!!! Are you kidding me?...Read more
April 8, 2011 by Matt McCracken
PART I: INTRODUCTION There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics! - Mark Twain - Have you noticed that what you pay at the pump or the check-out counter seems to have little correlation with government inflation figures? Does it seem...Read more