Author: landaasco

  • Mortgage debt in retirement: Worth a talk

    By Joel Dresang In our 30 years as homeowners, my wife and I have had occasional conversations about the urgency of retiring our mortgage. Math always settles it: At a fixed rate below 4%, our home loan is costing us less than the average 6%-7% a year that balanced investments have returned historically. […]

  • For What It’s Worth: Mortgage

    By Joel Dresang We associate the clause “till death do us part” with a marriage vow. Etymologically, though, it should be part of a mortgage. […]

  • Staying ready for uncertainty

    By Joel Dresang Like news editors, investors can plan and prepare with the best information available at the time, but they cannot foresee every possible cataclysm. […]

  • Checklist for circumstances beyond control

    By Joel Dresang It’s only human to want to do something, so here are actions I have taken, specifically on investments. […]

  • Challenging the rules on rules of thumb

    By Kyle Tetting One area where rules of thumb miss the nuance of the individual investor is in ballparking how much retirement income investments can produce. […]

  • Economy keeps counting on consumers

    Much of the optimism for the U.S. economy is the health of consumers. […]

  • For What It’s Worth: Volatility

    The word “volatility” describes stock prices taking off then plummeting, soaring like an eagle, then diving like a loon. For What It’s Worth is an occasional look at the meanings and origins of words and expressions investors encounter. […]

  • When should I …check my accounts?

    You should keep track of the progress of your investments and also watch for unexpected changes. (As our financial lives evolve, we often wonder at what point or how frequently to take certain actions toward our long-term goals. In an ongoing feature, investment professionals from Landaas & Company provide answers.) […]

  • For What It’s Worth: Black Friday

    The common name for the day after Thanksgiving has more than one story behind it. One story dates back almost to the first national Thanksgiving holiday and has nothing to do with the occasion. Another uses “Black Friday” as a term of disparagement. A third story appears to be just made up. […]

  • Holiday shoppers raise economic trend line

    By Kyle Tetting Despite broad portfolio successes, 2019 hasn’t all been good news. […]