Financial News Friday – June 14, 2013
Superinvestor Jeremy Grantham, one of the partners of investment firm GMO, offers individual investors 10 lessons for investing success. (GuruFocus)
80% of American millionaires are self-made. One in three millionaires were either born outside of the USA or are first generation Americans. 54% possess a graduate or professional degree. (Financial Planning Magazine)
The FTC has recently conducted a study that concluded one out of twenty consumers could have large errors on the credit report. The article reminds individuals to utilize AnnualCreditReport.com the government’s free credit report site, to determine if there are errors in their credit report. (Money Magazine)
High insurance deductibles are an excellent way to make consumers more aware of the costs of healthcare and eschew wasteful services. This article debates the deductibles set forth in the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) and whether they are affordable for many Americans. (Money Magazine)
John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, highlights that target-date funds are not the best choice for investors. While target-date funds help investors limit their behavioral investing errors, the option does not take into account income streams from pensions and Social Security. These types of income streams may reduce the need for a fixed income portion of a retirement account. (Financial Planning Magazine)
The Swiss legislature is embroiled in a debate about whether to facilitate the United States’s access Swiss bank account owners’ information. (Yahoo Finance)
Currently 36% of Vanguard retirement plan participants place their funds in a professionally managed investment vehicle. This figure is up two-fold from 2007. Vanguard expects an increase in the number of participants that use professionally managed investment options to increase to 55% by 2017. (Financial Planning Magazine)
The “Happy Birthday“ song is owned by Warner, which collects $2 million per year in royalties. These individuals are pursuing a class action lawsuit to bring “Happy Birthday” to the public domain. (Money Magazine)
Young consumers are using less credit cards. 16% of consumers age 18 to 29 did not have a credit card in 2012, up from 8% in 2007. The average credit card debt of consumers in this age group has also fallen from $3,073 to $2,087. (Yahoo Finance)
The average rate for 30 year mortgages rose from 3.59% to 4.15% over the past month causing mortgage refinance applications to fall by 36% compared to early May. (Yahoo Finance)