If you have ever filed a homeowners insurance claim, you know it can feel more like an endurance test than a straightforward process. The savvy financial advisor Rick Kahler, president of Kahler Financial Group in Rapid City, S. D., tells us how to navigate this treacherous path. Larry Light: Trying to get paid for damage to your dwelling sounds like torture. Rick Kahler: While insurers are legally required to honor valid claims, they have strong financial incentives to delay, underpay or deny them whenever possible. Over the years, I’ve learned this the hard way. The most recent lesson started when…

One of the most common questions I get is, “Is now a good time for me to sell?” While the question is simple, the answer depends on several factors, including your liquidity needs, your risk tolerance, and your current portfolio’s allocation. The answer does not, however, depend on the current market price of the investment. This is when you should be selling your investment. When People Think They Should Sell When I am asked the question of when to sell, I often ask them what they think. Many times, they’ll come back with one of the following answers. When It…

$SPX Nears 6,000, but Trump’s Tariff Chaos Is Hitting Small Businesses Hard It must be Tuesday because President Trump has changed his mind about tariffs, again. Seriously, this tariff whipsawing is getting old. It is a lesson to investors, though: Timing the stock market based on a mercurial leader is conducive to making many bad choices. The president announced on Sunday that his 50% tariffs on European goods have been delayed until early July. Many rationalize that President Trump is using impeccably elastic timing to string partners off their game. They say it’s all part of his “Art of the…

Q1 Earnings Reports Meituan Meituan (3690 HK) reported Q1 earnings after the Hong Kong close on Monday that beat analyst expectations. Management addressed the recent RMB 10B food delivery subsidies from JD.com and Alibaba’s Ele.me, stating that after ten years of competition, Meituan is “going to take whatever measure it takes to win the game.” The company has highlighted the recent success of Meituan’s “Insta-shopping” in “3C home appliance, beauty and personal care, mom and child, pet care, daily necessity, and apparel.” The company will invest RMB 100B in food subsidy promotion plan over the next three years. Revenue increased…

Plenty of investors miss out on the huge yields (often north of 8%) that closed-end funds (CEFs) offer. There’s one simple reason why: They get way too hung up on management fees. We’re going to look at a few reasons why that is today—and one easy way you can make those fees disappear entirely. But first, just how high are the fees we’re talking about? Well, the average fee for all CEFs tracked by my CEF Insider service is 2.95% of assets. In contrast, the largest ETF on the planet, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), has a fee…

Edward Fishman’s timing is perfect. His book, Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, was released one month into a new administration that views every economic relationship as a potential negotiating lever. Fishman’s book tells the story of a gradual, and then sudden, awakening of government officials to the power associated with squeezing or cutting off key arteries of economic connection to achieve political goals. Fishman is friends with Chris Miller, who introduced us to the idea of chokepoints in his book Chip War. Miller explained that every chip that goes into the world’s most advanced computers are…

Wall Street analysts have “Buy” ratings on 388 stocks in the S&P 500. That’s over 76% of the index! Thank you, suits, for the curation. No, seriously. We contrarians are going to comb through the Holds and, even, the lone Sell. Analyst optimism is the norm. Analysts need access, companies provide them with access. One hand washes the other, thus it is rare to see unfavorable ratings on stocks. The problem with a Buy rating is that there is nobody left to upgrade the stock. Every delta is a downgrade. Contrast this with the Holds and Sells—it can only get…

President Trump signed two executive orders on May 23 intended to speed up the development of nuclear power in the United States. With the demand for alternate sources of electrical power rising to fuel the exponential growth in artificial intelligence applications, the government is using its fiscal and regulatory muscle to accelerate nuclear energy as a major contributor to domestic power supply. Executive Orders Relating To Nuclear Advancement The Trump administration is taking a two-pronged approach to promote the nuclear energy industry. The first executive order, Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, aims to streamline nuclear development and…

When a company buys back its own shares, shareholders often benefit. With fewer shares outstanding, each share is likely to be worth more. In the past 20 years, buybacks have become increasingly popular. Many companies prefer them to dividends because they have a softer tax impact. Dividends stick shareholders with taxes on their next tax return, while buybacks don’t. Of course, companies can also do both – dividends plus buybacks. Buybacks can be a sign that a company’s board of directors considers the company’s stock undervalued. To be sure, buybacks are a bad idea if a company takes on excessive…

The gold rush, which has pushed the price above $3300 an ounce, is starting to distort the global economy with spending on the metal rising to an estimated 0.5% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), a 400% increase on 20 years ago. That calculation from Citi, an investment bank, is one of the startling findings in a report which said that the gold price should remain elevated through the September quarter but possibly start ease towards the end of the year. “Gold demand is firing on all cylinders at present, with 0.5% of world GDP currently being spent on…