When you think of someone making an investment in the stock market, what do you envision? Perhaps you picture a coworker standing at the water-cooler, mentioning his or her recent stock pick that they're confident will prove to be a winner, or a stockbroker in a suit, waiving and yelling on the crowded and boisterous floor of a stock exchange, trying to lock in a purchase of shares in a specific company the investor thinks is poised for growth. In the modern era of investing however, there are many options for Americans looking to invest in the stock market that take on a much different form than buying individual company stock, such as investments into a fund that contains a basket of underlying stocks or bonds. Employer-sponsored retirement accounts often limit investment options exclusively to these kind of funds. The two most common kinds of funds that investors have access to and can utilize are Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Mutual Funds.

The U.S Department of Education has been allowing student loan borrowers to pause their payments interest-free since March of 2020. Currently, payments on your federal student loans are set to resume starting October 1st of 2021. While there is a chance that this deferral opportunity may be extended, my advice would be not to count on it.  You might consider the following steps to prepare for this resumption:

There has been a lot of news lately about the Biden administration’s economic plans,  particularly the proposed tax increases that will be needed to offset at least a portion of the additional spending. Even without the additional spending programs working their way through Congress, it’s likely that some level of tax increases would have been necessary to address the rapidly growing national debt. The sheer size of the spending proposals, however, has opened discussions on some sizable tax increases, with potentially huge consequences for individual investors.  

Many Health Savings Account (HSA) plans promote themselves as an account that can be used for investments, often comparing them to a 401k or an IRA.  However, is investing your HSA funds a good idea?  Like so many investment questions: maybe but, then again,  maybe not.  Let's look at when it makes sense (and when it doesn't). 

Investing in the modern era can seem like a daunting task in the era of technology in which we are living. Investors (especially young investors) are oftentimes inundated with adverts, news articles, and social media posts trying to convince them that the means to strike it rich is right around the corner. They play on the emotions by trying to convince you that you could miss out on the next big thing by not putting your money into this hot new investment, oftentimes called FOMO or Fear of Missing Out. We have seen this behavior lead to wild fluctuations in market values for some companies. One recent example is the mania surrounding the rapid fluctuation of GameStop's share price resulting from a coordinated effort in online communities to drive this stock price up.