Nevin's Data "Points"

 While it’s the celebration following a successful harvest held by the Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe in 1621 that provides most of the imagery around the holiday, Thanksgiving didn’t become a national observance until much later. Incredibly, it wasn’t marked as a national observance until 1863—right in the middle of this nation’s Civil War, and at a time when, arguably, there was little for which to be thankful. Indeed, President Abraham Lincoln, in his proclamation regarding the observance, called on all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”  We could surely stand to have some of that these days.    Thanksgiving has been called a “uniquely American” holiday—and so, even in a year in which there has been what seems to be an unprecedented amount of disruption, frustration, st...

In the course of my day, I talk to (and email with) people, read a lot, and every so often jot down a random thought or insight that gives me pause and makes me think. See what you think. It’s not what you’re doing wrong; it’s what you’re not doing that’s wrong. The best way to stay out of court is to avoid situations where participants lose money. The key to successful retirement savings is not how you invest, but how much you save. Does anybody still expect their taxes to be lower in retirement? If you don’t know how much you’re paying, you can’t know if it’s reasonable. Everybody wants a pension, but nobody seems to want an annuity. Everybody’s “committed to the business”…until they aren’t. Retirement income is a challenge to solve, not a product to build. “Stay the course” is only good advice if you were on a good course to begin with. Does anybody but lawyers actually read those legal “disclosures?” (that’s a rhetorical question.) When selecting plan investm...

If you have turned on a TV, walked by a radio, driven down a residential street, gotten an unsolicited text or answered a phone (or more likely let it go unanswered) in the past month, you will, of course, be aware that our nation will officially go to the polls today. I say “officially,” but of course, our nation has been “going” to the polls—or at least casting votes—for several weeks now. And while some states (and voters) have done so in elections past, a combination of factors means that the process of voting, like so much of our lives the past couple of years, is going to be “unprecedented,” both in terms of the breadth and volume of votes cast prior to election “day”—and perhaps on that day itself. And yes, it’s been a particularly nasty—one feels compelled to say “unprecedented”—election cycle. Now, we all carry on as though the nation has never, ever seen anything like this—but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it hasn’t …in our lifetimes. Students ...

 The academics are at it again. In a paper provocatively titled “The Life-Cycle Model Implies that Most Young People Should Not Save for Retirement” no fewer than four of them take 48 pages to make that case. The “trade press” breathlessly intoned “ Most Young People Should Not Save For Retirement in Their 401k ,” “ Many young people shouldn’t save for retirement, says research based on a Nobel Prize–winning theory ,” “ Under 35? Don’t Save For Retirement Yet, These Experts Say ,” “ Economists Say Enjoy Your Youth and Save Later .” At least one had the temerity to offer a contrasting viewpoint (see “ A New Paper Says Young People Shouldn't Save for Retirement. Advisors Disagree ”), while The Street at least called it out as “ This May Be the Worst Financial Advice Ever Shared .” Like most research, the conclusion is a premise based on assumptions. Here the most basic is that this thing called a “life-cycle model” is worth considering in the first place. Now, granted, it’s t...