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Here's (Almost) Everything Wall Street Expects in 2026 Bloomberg.comWhat to expect from stocks in 2026 CNNHistory Says a Turning Point Is Likely Coming for the S&P 500 in 2026 Nasdaq3 Market Predictions For January Seeking AlphaStampede or stumble: how will 2026 test stock bulls? Reuters
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Gold and silver are on pace for their biggest yearly percentage gains since 1979.
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Your life insurance monthly premium can start looking less and less appealing once you've retired. It's a scenario Dan Simon, a retirement planning adviser with Daniel A. White & Associates in Middletown, Del., has seen quite often, even with his own parents. "The cost of the insurance had risen to the point where it was getting unaffordable. They were wondering do we really need to keep this coverage now that the kids are all grown up?"
If you stop paying your premiums, you lose your life insurance coverage, and your heirs wouldn't get anything back for what you've paid in. If you cancel a policy that has cash value, a reserve of money built up in some types of life insurance, the insurer sends you a check for that amount, though it will be far less than the listed death benefit.
Over the past 20 years, a third option went mainstream: selling your policy to a company, a practice known as a life settlement, with the buyer getting the death benefit when you die.
SEE MORE Don't Fall for That Life Insurance Ad on TV
"It's kind of morbid when you think about it. A group buys boatloads of policies from people that have fallen on hard times and can no longer afford their insurance," profiting from the seller's death, says Simon. "In theory, they want you to die tomorrow. If you live another 20 years, it's a bad investment for them."
Selling a life insurance policy generally isn't a great deal for you either, and there are better alternatives worth exploring. Simon finds that people typically turn to selling a policy when they're desperate. Usually, it's because they've spent down their other retirement assets, or they might be dealing with high medical bills. "It's a measure of last resort, like taking a reverse mortgage. I rarely see them working out well for people, and they could en
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Nobody likes a down stock market - or do they?
Almost every conversation I have had with clients this year included some amount of fear over where the markets are and where they are headed. The concerns range from losing a few more percentage points (possible) to losing 100% of their money (absurd). If an investor in a moderate portfolio lost all their money because the stock market went to zero, you would have much bigger things to worry about than your money. There wouldn't be anything to buy with it anyway. You'd need to learn farming skills ASAP, because there would be no more stores to buy anything from. The world would have, for all intents and purposes, ended. So clearly this is not a rational fear.
SEE MORE The Good News About Recessions for Investors
On the other hand, could the markets drop to a level we saw before the July/August rally? Sure, it could. It could even go a bit lower.
The issue isn't that the market could go lower at any given point, the issue is what will it ultimately do? The answer to that question in the past has always been that it moved higher - eventually. As we know, markets go both up and down, but they have always trended higher. This time and the next 10 after it will ultimately be no different, regardless of the reason it goes down.
Bear Market Statistics Offer Reassurance
Since 1950, we have seen 11 bear markets (defined as a drop of at least 20% from its most recent high). The average duration of those bear markets was 13 months, and the average drop in the markets was -33%. By comparison, during that same time period, bull markets have lasted 67 months on average and experienced a total return of 265%. *
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